Acts 22:22–23:10

²²They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “^aAway with such a fellow from the earth, for ^bhe should not be allowed to live!”

²³And as they were crying out and ^athrowing off their cloaks and ^btossing dust into the air,

²⁴the ¹commander ordered him to be brought into ^athe barracks, stating that he should be ^bexamined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way.

²⁵But when they stretched him out ¹with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it ²lawful for you to scourge ^aa man who is a Roman and uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went to the ¹commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.”

²⁷The ¹commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.”

²⁸The ¹commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.”

²⁹Therefore those who were about to ^aexamine him immediately ¹let go of him; and the ²commander also ^bwas afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had ^3cput him in chains.

³⁰But on the next day, ^awishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he ^breleased him and ordered the chief priests and all ^cthe ¹Council to assemble, and brought Paul down and set him before them.

Chapter 23

Paul before the Council

¹Paul, looking intently at ^athe ¹Council, said, “^bBrethren, ^cI have ²lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.”

²The high priest ^aAnanias commanded those standing beside him ^bto strike him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, ^ayou whitewashed wall! Do you ^bsit to try me according to the Law, and in violation of the Law order me to be struck?”

⁴But the bystanders said, “Do you revile God’s high priest?”

⁵And Paul said, “I was not aware, brethren, that he was high priest; for it is written, ‘^aYou shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’ ”

⁶But perceiving that one group were ^aSadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in ^bthe ¹Council, “^cBrethren, ^dI am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for ^ethe hope and resurrection of the dead!”

⁷As he said this, there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

⁸For ^athe Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

⁹And there occurred a great uproar; and some of ^athe scribes of the Pharisaic party stood up and began to argue heatedly, saying, “^bWe find nothing wrong with this man; ^csuppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

¹⁰And as a great dissension was developing, the ¹commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them and ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force, and bring him into ^athe barracks.