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5. Paul before the High Council of the Jews (Acts 22:30 - 23:10)
ACTS 22:30-23:5
22:30 But on the next day, desiring to know the truth about why he was accused by the Jews, he freed him from the bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to come together, and brought Paul down and set him before them. 23:1 Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, “Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day.” 2 The high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit to judge me according to the law, and command me to be struck contrary to the law?” 4 Those who stood by said, “Do you malign God’s high priest?” 5 Paul said, “I didn’t know, brothers, that he was high priest. For it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”
Jesus guided Paul to testify to the truth before the high council (Sanhedrin) of the Jews, as the Lord himself, Peter, John, and all the apostles and Stephen had done. On this occasion, when Paul would declare the Christian faith before the meeting of the Sanhedrin, Ananias, the high priest, presided. Paul did not know this new, cunning leader, for Caiaphas, Hanan, and other Jewish elders at the time of Jesus and Gamaliel had all died. Few members of the council had known Paul in person when he cooperated with them years earlier, when they had commissioned him to persecute the Christians at Damascus.
The new generation in the Jewish council, however, knew the name of Paul well, and they disliked it intensely. Although normally unwilling to submit to an order from the Roman commander, in this case the council raced to interrogate the destroyer of Judaism in the whole world. If possible, they were intending to kill him. They did not come in their full dress, but as if accidentally, without yielding to the orders of the Romans. Paul could not distinguish the high priest from the others, for he was not wearing his official robes.
The apostle to the Gentiles did not appear before the highest court of his nation as a broken penitent, but stood as the bold ambassador of Christ, according to the will of God. He made his own conscience, and not the law, to be the standard for his words, and the foundation for the truth. Christ had purified his heart by His blood, and the Holy Spirit had comforted him from the pain of his anti-Christian zeal before his conversion.
At that time Paul had supposed he was serving God in all good conscience, according to the law, killing Christians with peace of mind. But after his meeting with the Living One he had been turned around, and was used to revive the consciences of millions, who then received eternal life from his gospel. Even today we find comfort from Paul’s testimony. The mystery of his life from the beginning on was that he did not live for himself, but for God alone. This was his true honor. He did not exalt his own name, but glorified the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit at all times, and lived in harmony with the Eternal One.
His decisive statement, made at the beginning of his defense before the highest council, signified that he was right in principle, and that they, the chief priest, persons of rank, and representatives of the people, were very wrong if they did not immediately submit to Jesus. Paul spoke to them in the power of God, standing firm in his Lord, as if the Holy One Himself were speaking directly to the Jewish leaders, engraving His words on their consciences, so that they might repent.
Immediately the cunning Ananias ordered his servants to strike Paul on the mouth, as a gesture of his indignation at what he had said, supposing that no man could have a good conscience, and that all human creatures were in themselves wrong. He wanted to break the pride of the deceiver from the first moment, and to disgrace him before the notable people and the Roman officers.
Paul boiled over, for he was not standing there for personal purposes, but for the name of Christ. By the insight of the Holy Spirit he foretold of God’s curse upon the hypocritical high priest, who had insulted him without interrogation, merely for the sake of the false religious dignity of the high council. Paul knew the details of the law. He responded to the chief priest with his own weapon, calling him a tottering wall, whose precarious position had been plastered over and disguised by a generous coat of whitewash. Paul was sorry for having spoken in haste when he learned that the one who ordered him to be struck was Ananias, the high priest. Paul’s prediction concerning him, however, soon came to pass, for Ananias died an ignominious death, being assassinated by popular zealots on charges of being a Roman collaborator.
ACTS 23:6-10
6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men and brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. Concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged!” 7 When he had said this, an argument arose between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess all of these. 9 A great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees part stood up, and contended, saying, “We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or angel has spoken to him, let’s not fight against God!” 10 When a great argument arose, the commanding officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them, and bring him into the barracks.
The apostle recognized that the gathered Jewish leaders did not intend to examine his gospel, but had met to condemn him. The Sadducees had already born a grudge against the Christians, for this new faith was built on the resurrection of Christ alone. The philosophizing sceptics, however, considered all so-called appearances, visions, angels, dreams, and resurrection of the dead to be false. They were, in fact, men without hope, living according to their own logic and idols, superficially and theoretically. Paul did not find anything in common between him and them. They were worse than idolaters. The Pharisees, for their part, still believed, aside from the keeping of the law, in the existence of angels, and hoped for the resurrection of the dead. Paul had tried, in his first hearing before the highest council, to find a connector and common denominator between himself and them. He wanted to address them in the strict sense of their beliefs. He, the apostle, testified that he was a genuine Pharisee, of a Pharisee family and origin. He called his enemies brothers, for he found in them a likeness in their common expectation of the coming of Messiah, and the resurrection of the dead at his coming. Paul emphasized that this essential truth was a foundation of his own faith, and the goal of the whole universe. He did not speak to the audience about the cross, or the resurrection of Christ, or the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The elders would not have been able to digest all these things. He related his message, however, to the knowledge and expectation they already had regarding the expected coming of Christ.
This testimony soon stuck in their heads, even though the Christ Paul expected was other than the one the Pharisees awaited. They all knew that Paul had spoken the day before in the courtyard of the temple about Jesus’ appearing to him. The Pharisees believed in the possibility of such appearance, and dared not, even as Gamaliel before them, oppose such divine revelations. They became hesitant among themselves, therefore, about believing or denying Paul’s claim. They refused to condemn him, even though they did not believe in Jesus. They could not deny the possibility of his presence after death. The audience flared up, and tumult broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. In his defense Paul had spoken of the foundations of religions: revelation, inspiration, and visions. These were the very present reasons for the corruption and division in the highest council of the Jews itself.
The Roman commander was compelled to interfere, and ordered the soldiers to take Paul by force out of the angry crowd. He did not understand the reason for the complaint against Paul, nor why the shouting had become louder among the prominent leaders. He did his duty as an officer, and saved Paul from the hands of the council members. The Jewish council had not understood this last call of Christ to the leaders of the nation. Paul himself had not come to emphasize his innermost faith, nor did he mention the name of Jesus at this hearing. Everything involved preliminary questions about conscience and revelation, and did not reach to the heart of faith itself. Thus the leaders of the Jews lost a last opportunity to repent, and their end soon came.
PRAYER: O Lord Jesus, open our ears to the voice of Your Holy Spirit, that we may understand Your words, and close our hearts to strange inspirations. Purify our consciences with Your precious blood, and guide us to faithful obedience, that we may serve You and Your heavenly Father at all times.
QUESTION:
- Why did Paul rely on his conscience and not on the law? Why did the Pharisees absolve him as a result of his faith in the Christ to come and in the resurrection from the dead?