²³They shouted and threw off their coats. They threw dust into the air. ²⁴So the commanding officer ordered Paul to be taken into the fort. He gave orders for Paul to be whipped and questioned. He wanted to find out why the people were shouting at him like this.

²⁵A commander was standing there as they stretched Paul out to be whipped. Paul said to him, “Does the law allow you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

²⁶When the commander heard this, he went to the commanding officer and reported it. “What are you going to do?” the commander asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷So the commanding officer went to Paul. “Tell me,” he asked. “Are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes, I am,” Paul answered.

²⁸Then the officer said, “I had to pay a lot of money to become a citizen.”

“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

²⁹Right away those who were about to question him left. Even the officer was alarmed. He realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.

Paul Is Taken to the Sanhedrin

³⁰The commanding officer wanted to find out exactly what the Jews had against Paul. So the next day he let Paul out of prison. He ordered a meeting of the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin. Then he brought Paul and had him stand in front of them.

23Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin. “My brothers,” he said, “I have always done my duty to God. To this very day I feel that I have done nothing wrong.”

²Ananias the high priest heard this. So he ordered the men standing near Paul to hit him on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, “You pretender! God will hit you! You sit there and judge me by the law. But you yourself broke the law when you commanded them to hit me!”

⁴Those who were standing near Paul said, “How dare you talk like that to God’s high priest!”

⁵Paul replied, “Brothers, I didn’t realize he was the high priest. It is written, ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’ ”

⁶Paul knew that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees. So he called out in the Sanhedrin. “My brothers,” he said, “I am a Pharisee. I am the son of a Pharisee. I believe that people will rise from the dead. That’s why I am on trial.”

⁷When he said this, the Pharisees and the Sadducees started to argue. They began to take sides. ⁸The Sadducees say that people will not rise from the dead. They don’t believe there are angels or spirits either. But the Pharisees believe all these things.

⁹People were causing trouble and making a lot of noise. Some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up. They argued strongly. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” ¹⁰The arguing got out of hand. The commanding officer was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by those who were arguing. So he ordered the soldiers to go down and take him away from them by force. They were supposed to bring him into the fort.

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