Acts 23:1

Earnestly beholding See on Luke 4:20. Some, who hold that Paul's eyesight was defective, explain this steadfast look in connection with his imperfect vision. Men and brethren He addresses the Sanhedrim as an equal. I have lived (πεπολίτευμαι) Lit., have lived as a citizen, with special reference to the charge against him that he taught men against the law and the temple. He means that he has lived as a true and loyal Jew. Conscience (συνειδήσει) See on 1 Peter 3:16.

Acts 23:1-5 . And Paul, earnestly beholding the council — At whose bar he was placed; manifesting a clear conscience by his very countenance; and likewise waiting to see whether any of them was minded to ask him any question; said, Men and brethren — Though I am brought before you as a malefactor, to be examined and judged by you, I have the comfort of being conscious to myself that I have lived in all good conscience before God — The Searcher of hearts; until this day — Whatever men may think or say of me. He speaks chiefly of the time since he became a Christian. For none questioned him concerning what he had been before. And yet, even in his unconverted state, although he was in error, yet he had acted from conscience before God. And the high-priest Ananias — Conscious of his inveterate enmity to Paul, and of the steps he had openly taken for his destruction, thinking himself insulted by such a solemn declaration of his innocence; commanded them that stood by him — At the bar; to smite him on the mouth — For what he represented as a most insolent assertion; which was accordingly done. Then said Paul — Being carried away by a sudden and prophetic impulse; God, τυπτειν σε μελλει , is about to smite thee, thou whited wall — Fair without; full of dirt and rubbish within.

And he might well be so termed, not only as he committed this outrage while gravely sitting on the tribunal of justice, but also as, at the same time that he stood high in the esteem of the citizens, he cruelly defrauded the priests of their legal subsistence, so that some of them even perished for want. And God did remarkably smite him; for about five years after this, his house being reduced to ashes, in a tumult begun by his own son, he was besieged in the royal palace; where, having hid himself in an old aqueduct, he was dragged out and miserably slain. And they that stood by — Being greatly offended; said, Revilest thou God’s high-priest — Dost thou, who pretendest to so much religion, presume impiously to revile the most sacred person in our nation, and consequently in the whole world? Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren — Ουκ ηδει οτι εστιν αρχιερευς , I knew not, or, had not known; that he is the high-priest — That is, (as many understand him,) he did not advert to it, in the prophetic transport of his mind, that Ananias was the high-priest. But he does not say that his not adverting to it proceeded from the power of the Spirit coming upon him, as knowing that they were not able to bear it. But is it not more probable that his positive assertion here was the exact truth; and that, in fact, he did not know Ananias to be the high-priest? For, as Dr.

Acts 23:1 . Ἀτενίσας , having earnestly fixed, his eyes upon ) with a countenance indicative of a good conscience; waiting also to see whether anyone of the chief priests was about to ask any question.— ἐγὼ , I ) By this protestation he gained his point, that no former act of his could be alleged as a charge against him, but that that truth which he was about to assert in the end of Acts 23:6 , might be brought forward as the one and only cause of his imprisonment: ch. Acts 24:21 .— συνειδήσει , conscience ) ch. Acts 24:16 ; 2 Corinthians 1:12 . Paul speaks especially of his state after conversion: for concerning his former state no one moved any controversy with him. And yet even in his former state, although he was labouring under error, he had obeyed conscience, and had not committed aught which could constitute him guilty before the bar of external justice. Now, since he has not cast away whatever of good he formerly had, but has received better goods, the light was pouring itself out of his present state into his former state.— τῷ Θεῷ , before God ) although all men did not approve of it.

CHAPTER 23 Ac 23:1-10. Paul's Defense before the Samhedrim Divides the Rival Factions, from Whose Violence the Commandant Has the Apostle Removed into the Fortress. 1. Paul, earnestly beholding the council—with a look of conscious integrity and unfaltering courage, perhaps also recognizing some of his early fellow pupils. I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day—The word has an indirect reference to the "polity" or "commonwealth of Israel," of which he would signify that he had been, and was to that hour, an honest and God-fearing member.Acts 23:1-5 Paul, pleading his integrity, is smitten at thecommand of the high priest, whom he reproveth of injustice.Acts 23:6-9 By declaring himself a Pharisee, and questioned for the hopeof the resurrection, he causeth a division in the council.Acts 23:10,11 He is carried back to the castle, and encouraged by theLord in a vision.Acts 23:12-22 A conspiracy against him is discovered to the chief captain,Acts 23:23-35 who sendeth him under a guard with a letter to Felixthe governor at Caesarea.Said, Men and brethren; acknowledging himself to have descended from the patriarchs as well as they; and bespeaks, as much as he could, their favour and attention.

I have lived in all good conscience; not that he thought himself to have been without sin or fault, for he acknowledges and bewails his captivity to the law of sin, Romans 7:23,24; but that he was not conscious to himself of any notorious impiety (as sacrilege, which they accused him of); nay, he had not suffered willingly any sin to be, much less to reign, in him. And as for his persecuting of the Christians, he did it not to flatter any with it, or upon any sinister design whatsoever, but thinking to serve God by it, 1 Timothy 1:13. Before God; in the sense of God’s seeing of him, and whom St. Paul acknowledges to be the searcher and knower of the heart and conscience.

Verse 1. - Looking steadfastly on for earnestly beholding , A.V.; brethren for men and brethren , A.V.; I have lived before God , etc., for I have lived , etc., before God , A.V. Looking steadfastly ; ἀτενίσας , as in Acts 1:10 ; Acts 3:4, 12 ; Acts 6:15 ; Acts 7:55 ; Acts 10:4 ; Acts 11:6 ; Acts 13:9 ; Acts 14:9 . It governs a dative here, as in Acts 3:12 ; Acts 10:1 ; Acts 14:9 ; Luke 4:20 ; Luke 22:56 ; elsewhere it is followed by εἰς . Brethren . He emits here the "fathers" which he added in Acts 22:1 . If there is any special significance in the omission, it may be that he meant now to assume a less apologetic tone, and to speak as an equal to equals. Howson and Lewin think that he spoke as being, or having been, himself a member of the Sanhedrim. But he may have meant merely a friendly address to his countrymen. I have lived , etc. πεπολέτευμαι τῷ Θεῷ ); comp. Philippians 3:20 ; I have had my conversation ( vitam degi ) unto God, or, for God, i.e. according to the will of God, with a view to God as the end of all my actions. So Josephus ('De Maccabeis,' sect. 4) says that Antiochus Epiphanes made a law that all Jews should be put to death οἵτινες φάνριεν τῷ πατοίω νόμω πολιτευόμενοι "who were seen to live according to the Law of their fathers." And so in 2 Macc. 6:1 it is said that he sent to compel the Jews to forsake the Law of their fathers - καὶ τοῖ τοῦ Θεοῦ νόμοις μὴ πολιτεύεσθαι ( ανδ not live agreeably to the laws of God.

And once more, in 3Macc. 3:3, 4 the Jews are said to fear God and to be τῷ τούτου νόμῳ πολιτευόμενοι , living according to his Law. Here, then, πολιτεύεσθι τῷ Θεῷ means to live in obedience to God. St. Paul boldly asserts his undeviating compliance with the Law of God, as a good and consistent Jew ( Philippians 3:6 ). Acts 23:1

Acts 23:1-10 . St Paul before the Sanhedrin. Disagreement between the Pharisees and Sadducees 1 . And Paul, earnestly beholding the council ] The verb is one which St Luke very frequently employs to note a speaker’s expression at the commencement of a speech, and it is one of those features in the Acts which shew us where the compiler has acted as editor to the narratives which he used. He very generally gives some word to indicate the gesture or look of the person who speaks. This verb is often rendered in A.V. “looking stedfastly” and that rendering the Rev. Ver. gives here. Men and brethren ] Better, “Brethren.” See note on Acts 1:16 . I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day ] The pronoun “I” is emphatically inserted in the Original. It is as though the Apostle would say, ‘You see me before you as though I were an offender, but personally I feel myself innocent.’ The verb is one which in profane authors signifies ‘to discharge the duties of a citizen.’ St Paul implies by its use that he has been obedient to God’s laws, as a good citizen would be to the laws of his country. So far as being devoted to God’s service, his whole life up to the present moment had been of one piece, it was only that his conscience had been enlightened, and so his behaviour had changed. He had at first lived as a conscientious and observant Jew, his conscience now approved his conduct as a Christian.

Acts 23:1-2 . Paul, with the free and firm look ( ἀτενίσας τῷ συνεδρ .) in which his good conscience is reflected, commences an address in his own defence to the Sanhedrim, and that in such a way as—without any special testimony of respect (comp. Acts 4:8 , Acts 12:2 ) for the sacred court, and with perfect freedom of apostolic self-reliance (which is recognisable in the simple ἅνδρες ἀδελφοί )—to appeal first of all to the pure self-consciousness of his working as consecrated to God. The proud and brutal (Joseph. Antt . xx. 8 f.) high priest sees in this nothing but insolent presumption, and makes him be stopped by a blow on the mouth from the continuance of such discourse. πάσῃ συνειδ . ἀγ .] with every good conscience , so that in every case I had a good conscience, i.e . agreeing with the divine will ( 1 Timothy 1:5 ; 1 Timothy 1:19 ; 1 Peter 3:16 ). Comp. on Acts 20:19 . In the ἐγώ at the commencement is implied a moral self-consciousness of rectitude. πεπολίτευμαι τῷ Θεῷ ] I have administered (and still administer, perfect) mine office for God , in the service of God ( Romans 1:9 ); dative of destination. He thus designates his apostolic office in its relation to the divine polity of the church; see on Php 1:27 . ὁ δὲ ἀρχιερεὺς Ἀνανίας ] Acts 23:4 proves that this (see Krebs, Obss. Flav . p. 244 ff.) was the high priest actually discharging the duties of the office at the time. He was the son of Nebedaeus (Joseph.