Acts 23:1–15

¹Paul stared at the Jewish council and said, “Brothers, my relationship with God has always given me a perfectly clear conscience.” 

²The chief priest Ananias ordered the men standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. ³Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you hypocrite! You sit there and judge me by Moses’ Teachings and yet you break those teachings by ordering these men to strike me!” 

⁴The men standing near Paul said to him, “You’re insulting God’s chief priest!” 

⁵Paul answered, “Brothers, I didn’t know that he is the chief priest. After all, Scripture says, ‘Don’t speak evil about a ruler of your people.’ ” 

⁶When Paul saw that some of them were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he shouted in the council, “Brothers, I’m a Pharisee and a descendant of Pharisees. I’m on trial because I expect that the dead will come back to life.” 

⁷After Paul said that, the Pharisees and Sadducees began to quarrel, and the men in the meeting were divided. ⁸(The Sadducees say that the dead won’t come back to life and that angels and spirits don’t exist. The Pharisees believe in all these things.) ⁹The shouting became very loud. Some of the experts in Moses’ Teachings were Pharisees who argued their position forcefully. They said, “We don’t find anything wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an angel actually spoke to him!” 

¹⁰The quarrel was becoming violent, and the officer was afraid that they would tear Paul to pieces. So the officer ordered his soldiers to drag Paul back to the barracks. 

¹¹The Lord stood near Paul the next night and said to him, “Don’t lose your courage! You’ve told the truth about me in Jerusalem. Now you must tell the truth about me in Rome.” 

Some Jews Plot to Kill Paul

¹²In the morning the Jews formed a conspiracy. They asked God to curse them if they ate or drank anything before they had killed Paul. ¹³More than forty men took part in this plot. 

¹⁴They went to the chief priests and leaders ⸤of the people⸥ and said, “We’ve asked God to curse us if we taste any food before we’ve killed Paul. ¹⁵Here’s our plan: You and the council must go to the Roman officer on the pretext that you need more information from Paul. You have to make it look as though you want to get more accurate information about him. We’ll be ready to kill him before he gets to you.”