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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Acts 23:1-5

Perhaps when Paul was brought, as he often was (corpus cum causa?the person and the cause together), before heathen magistrates and councils, where he and his cause were slighted, because not at all understood, he thought, if he were brought before the sanhedrim at Jerusalem, he should be able to deal with them to some good purpose, and yet we do not find that he works at all upon them. Here we have, I. Paul's protestation of his own integrity. Whether the chief priest put any question to him,... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Acts 23:6-11

Many are the troubles of the righteous, but some way or other the Lord delivereth them out of them all. Paul owned he had experienced the truth of this in the persecutions he had undergone among the Gentiles (see 2 Tim. 3:11): Out of them all the Lord delivered me. And now he finds that he who has delivered does and will deliver. He that delivered him in the foregoing chapter from the tumult of the people here delivers him from that of the elders. I. His own prudence and ingenuity stand him in... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Acts 23:1-10

23:1-10 Paul fixed his gaze on the Sanhedrin and said, "Brethren, I have lived before God with a completely pure conscience up to this day." The high priest Ananias ordered those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Paul said to him, "God is going to strike you, you white-washed wall! Do you sit judging me according to the Law and do you order me to be struck and so break the Law?" Those who were standing beside him said, "Are you insulting God's high priest?" Paul said, "I did not... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - Acts 23:11-24

23:11-24 On the next night the Lord stood by Paul and said, "Courage! As you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness in Rome also." When it was day the Jews formed a plot and laid themselves selves under a vow neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who formed this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, "We have laid ourselves under a vow to taste nothing until we have killed Paul. Now, therefore, do you... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Acts 23:5

Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest ,.... Or I did not know that he was the high priest; and the sense is, that he did not really know him, either because he had been long absent from Jerusalem; and besides there were new high priests made, sometimes every year, and sometimes oftener, that it is no wonder he should not know him; or because he might not sit in his usual place; or chiefly because he was not, in his habit, an high priest; for the priests, both the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Acts 23:6

But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees ,.... That is, that one part of the sanhedrim consisted of Sadducees, which was often the case; sometimes the high priest was of this sect, as Ananias probably was, and sometimes the greater part of the sanhedrim were Sadducees, and even sometimes the whole; See Gill on Acts 5:17 , but this sanhedrim were only part of them Sadducees: and the other Pharisees ; of both these sects; see Gill on Matthew 3:7 . he cried out in the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Acts 23:7

And when he had so said ,.... He stopped and made a pause: and there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees ; about the things which he had spoken of, particularly the resurrection of the dead; and this was what the apostle intended, so that his end was answered by the speech he made: and the multitude was divided ; that is, the members of the sanhedrim were divided, some being on one side of the question, and some on the other; for this multitude cannot design... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Acts 23:8

For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection ,.... Of the dead, being ignorant of the Scriptures, and the power of God; see Matthew 22:23 . neither angel nor spirit ; the Ethiopic version reads, "nor Holy Spirit": but the sense seems to be, that they did not believe any such species of beings as angels, nor indeed any spirits whatever, which were immaterial or immortal; for as for the spirit or soul of man, they took that to be only the temperament of the body, and that it died... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Acts 23:9

And there arose a great cry ,.... Or noise, a loud clamour; they began to be very noisy, and to talk loud, and in high spirits, one against another: and the Scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose ; there were Scribes in the sanhedrim, and these were some of them on the side of the Sadducees, and some on the side of the Pharisees; though, generally speaking, they agreed with the latter, and are often in Scripture mentioned with them, and for them: however, that part in this... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Acts 23:10

And when there arose a great dissension ,.... When that was come to a very great height, hot words were spoken, and they were ready to come to blows, and there was like to be a riot and tumult among them: the chief captain fearing lest Paul should be pulled in pieces of them ; either of the Sadducees, whom he had greatly offended and provoked, or of both Sadducees and Pharisees, the one laying hold on him to preserve him from the fury of the other, and the other endeavouring to pluck him... read more

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