Acts 22:30-23:11--Paul Before the Council

Acts 22:30-23:11
English Standard Version

Paul Before the Council
30 But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.

23 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” 2 And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” 4 Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God's high priest?” 5 And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

6 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” 7 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. 9 Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” 10 And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks.

​11 The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

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The tribune was now suspicious of what was going on for after examination and interrogation he found out not only that Paul was not the terrorist he had assumed him to be, but he is a naturally-born Roman citizen that to the best of his knowledge had committed no crime.  Now the Roman tribune wants to find out exactly what's going on, what crime Paul is being accused of and why he was involved with the situation (why couldn't the Jews take care of it themselves?).  So the tribune commanded the chief priest and Sanhedrin to hold court in front of him where they would act as the prosecution.  It is interesting though that the tribune has Paul stand before them unbound as if to say, "I've already determined that he's not dangerous."

Paul then speaks in his own defense, saying that he has lived his life before God with integrity and has a clean conscience as he stands before them.  The Jews are used to their ways and their laws when they were in their chambers (which they so often ignored) and the high priest Ananias, assuming he was in charge of the interrogation, ordered Paul, the prisoner, to be struck in the mouth.  Now Paul did not see who struck him exactly or who gave the command to do so, because Paul responded by challenging those who did so since it was contrary to Jewish law and he cursed the one who did this thing saying that God should strike them in the same manner and called the one who did such a thing a whitewashed wall (it looks clean on the outside but it's just to cover up all the filth that you don't want people to see that's underneath the surface).  Jesus said much the same thing when he called the Pharisees "whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones.

Someone spoke up and asked Paul why he was speaking to the high priest in such a manner for the high priest was one of God's representatives here on earth and all Jews were supposed to submit to the authority of the high priest because that authority flowed directly from God--it was God's responsibility to deal with the high priest if he got out of line, and they even quoted Exodus 22:28 as their reason for why Paul should not have said these things.

Paul does not apologize, but instead he uses his intimate knowledge of the Sanhedrin from his time as a Pharisee to drive a wedge between the members of the Sanhedrin, for it was made up of Pharisees like Paul and Sadducees, who were secular Jews that were allied with the Roman government for the purposes of money and power, and the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead (nor do they believe in the supernatural at all, other than God).  So, Paul plays this against them by saying, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

The Council soon forgot that they were there to examine Paul as they began examining one another and the Pharisees that felt the need to defend their own position started defending Paul because they felt like he was one of them.  As we have seen in the other arguments and disagreements that the Jews had, they get very heated and quickly turn to violence, even among the high priest and the members of the ruling Council (the Sanhedrin).

Once again the tribune has to call on his soldiers to take Paul away for his own safety, and they once again took Paul to the barracks.  It is then that Jesus Himself appears to Paul to encourage him and let Paul know that it is His plan for Paul to testify in Rome in much the same way that he had just done here (meaning Paul would be on trial when he got there).  This ties some of the things together that Paul has been feeling--that he was definitely going to Rome, that he was not ever going to come back by way of the province of Asia to see the Ephesians again, and that this trip to Jerusalem would result in imprisonment and even death, but, yet, somehow, it was the will of the Lord for Him to go.  Paul knows that he is running the race that is set before him and that his course is nearly completed.  It will be time for him to hand the baton off to the next generation of leaders like Timothy, Titus, and even John Mark.  That is what we see in Paul's final epistles that he is going to write during this time.  He encourages those that are his sons in the faith to be bold and be faithful to the Lord, even when he, Paul, is no longer around.  This is to be their faith that they contend earnestly for, and not just Paul's faith.  We too need to entrust these truths to faithful men who will teach them diligently to others, for we do not know the day or the hour when the Lord will tell us that our race is complete and we need to be ready to pass the baton to someone else.