While Paul was being led into the castle bound, he asked if he might speak to the chief captian.  He did not demand to be released or to be heard.  If we are falsely accused, our best hope is that someone will listen to us reasonably.  The chief captain asked Paul if he could speak Greek, and then asked if he were not the Egyptian who had days before caused an uproar and led four thousand murders into the desert.  The religious leaders had falsely accused Paul of being guilty of religious heresy, but by now he was being accused of political crimes.  In a mob, the truth often gets pushed aside.  The political leaders had bound Paul and brought him into the castle without really knowing who he was.  If we are going to make charges against a person, we must insure that what we are accusing them of is true.  If we are joining a group in action against a person, we need to at least know who they are and what they are supposed to have done.  Paul told the chief captain that he was a Jew, a citizen of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia.  He simply told them who he was.  Sometimes, the simplest thing we can do is tell people who we are.  Often, we go through a list of things and somewhere in the list add Christian, but we really should start with that and then add anything else.  Paul had not ceased to be a Jew, but was instead a Jew who accepted the Messiah.  When Paul raised his hand the mob that had been trying to kill him grew silent.  There must have been something commanding about the presence of Paul.  I think it was God's power shining through him.  When we allow God to have complete control over our lives, even in the worst of times, He can silence the mobs around us.