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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapter 22:30 and 23 Previous Section - Chapters 21 to 22:30 ch. 22:30-23:11 ch. 23:12-22 ch. 23:23-35 Before The Sanhedrin (ch. 22:30 – 23:11) After
taking the chains off Paul, the captain of the guards wanted to get to the
bottom of this matter. He
wanted to know why the Jews wanted Paul dead, so he called the chief
priest and the whole Sanhedrin together.
Paul
now gets a chance to defend himself before the Jewish Sanhedrin, the
rulers of Israel. Luke says that Paul looked
“straight at the Sanhedrin”. Possibly
Paul was studying the faces of those he was talking to.
He might have known some of them from his pre-conversion days.
He
calls them brothers because they are fellow Jews, not because they are
brothers in the Lord. The
first thing that Paul says is that he has “a good conscience” before
God. As far as Paul was
concerned, he lived his life in a way that was pleasing to God, although
those listening would question that point. It
is clear that the high priest did not agree with what Paul was saying.
One who did not obey the Mosaic Law as they understood it, and said
that his conscience was clean was saying blasphemous words.
So the high priest ordered those standing by Paul to strike him on
the mouth. Paul’s mouth
being the source of the blasphemy. Did
Paul actually get struck in the face?
I don’t think so. The
high priest ordered the strike, an order that had no lawful authority.
A matter of fact, if Paul had of been hit by someone, they could
have been arrested for striking a Roman citizen, especially with the
captain of the guards present. This
was most likely an emotional outburst of religious rage on the part of the
high priest. Before
anyone had a chance to strike Paul, he replied quite quickly and with
anger. Most likely looking
right at Annanias the high priest he says, “God will strike you, you
white-washed wall”. The
actual Greek structure of this sentence
reads, “strike you will God do, you white-washed wall”.
The word “strike” coming first in the sentence.
Paul’s dramatic response is saying that the high priest will be
the one to get struck, not him, and it will be by God Himself.
Furthermore by calling this man a “white-washed wall”, he is
calling him a hypocrite, looking nice and clean on the outside but full of
sin on the inside. We see Paul
here in a somewhat new light. He
is one that could stand up for himself when he thought it was necessary.
He could be very pointed in what he said, and even angry at times.
One might call this righteous anger, whether this was the case or
not, Paul was upset and made it known by his response. Yet
Paul does not end with these words alone.
He continues, “you sit there to judge me according to the law,
yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck”.
Even in Paul’s anger he had the composure of mind to be logical
in his defense as he always was. Once again the hypocrisy of these men is
exposed by Paul. In
verse 4 Luke records that the same men who were close to Paul, ready to
strike him, told him that he had just spoken words of anger to God’s
high priest. This in fact was
a sin. Exod. 22:28 says that
no one was allowed to curse, or say wrong against the ruler of your people
even if he was in the wrong. Some
people feel that Paul apologized, not knowing that he was the high priest.
He quotes the verse from Exod. 22:28 by saying, “do not speak
evil about the ruler of your people”. Others
feel that Paul was being sarcastic, because he really doesn’t say that
he is sorry, thus he doesn’t really apologize.
You think Paul would have known that he
was talking to the high priest by the way he would have been
dressed and where he was sitting. Thus
Paul might have actually been speaking sarcastically.
Changing
the subject, Paul knew that the Sanhedrin consisted of both Pharisees and
Sadducess. One of the big
differences between these 2 groups was over the idea of the resurrection
of the dead. The Sadducees did
not believe that there was life after death, while the Pharisees did.
Paul therefore makes the point that he was once a Pharisee, and the
son of a Pharisee. Then he
tells his audience that the only reason he is on trial, although this was
not an official trial, was because of his beliefs concerning the
resurrection of the dead. I
am sure that Paul knew what the result of these words would be.
The Sanhedrin was thus divided and they started to argue among
themselves. Some of the
Pharisees got up in Paul’s defense and told the rest that they found no
fault with Paul, even though they did not clearly understand Paul’s view
of the resurrection, because their view and Paul’s view were not the
same. They both believed in
life after death, but how you entered into that life was a different
story, and Paul did not yet get to that point. This
dispute got so violent between the Pharisees and the Sadducees that the
captain of the guard had to send his soldiers to get Paul.
He was afraid that Paul would be torn apart by the violence that he
saw taking place. So the
soldiers took Paul back to the barracks. Still
in the barracks, the next night the Lord spoke to Paul.
He said, “Take courage! As
you have testified about me in The Plot To Kill Paul (ch. 23:12 - 22) The
Jews were so furious with Paul that 40 men got together and vowed that
they would not eat or drink until they killed Paul.
They petitioned the Sanhedrin to ask the captain of the guards to
bring Paul back to them for further questioning, and on the way they would
attack Paul and kill him on the spot. We
do not know very much about Paul’s family but in verse 16 we learn that
he has a sister and that sister has a son.
It was this son that somehow found out about this plot to kill
Paul. How he found out, we
don’t know. Upon hearing of
the plan he went right to Paul and told him. Once
Paul heard this he asks one of the guards to take his sister’s son to
the captain of the guards to inform him. So
the young man told the captain all that he knew concerning the plot to
ambush Paul if the captain agreed to bring him back to the Sanhedrin.
The captain dismissed the young man and told him not to tell anyone
that he had mentioned this plan to him. Paul
Transferred To After
hearing of the plot to kill Paul the captain of the guards decided to send
Paul to Felix
was the governor of the whole territory around Jerusalem. Caesarea, where he resided was 70 miles from
Jerusalem. He was a man that was very
cruel at times, not caring what anyone thought of him.
Claudius
sent a letter along with these men to Felix filling him in on the reason
why Paul was being sent to him. In
the letter he stated that the Jews tried to kill Paul and so he arrested
him. After calling the
Sanhedrin together to get to the bottom of things he still could not learn
why the Jews wanted Paul dead. It
appeared to be a matter of Jewish Law.
Therefore, when he found out that Paul’s life was once again in
danger because of a plot against him, he felt he should send him to Felix.
The
multitude of soldiers left at 9 PM and went 42 miles to Antipatris. (ch.
23:31) At this point everyone
returned to Paul
was delivered to Felix with the letter.
After reading the letter he learned that Paul was from the province
of Felix
needed to know what province Paul was from.
He was arrested in
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