Paul 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.

¹¹The next night the Lord stood near Paul. He said, “Be brave! You have given witness about me in Jerusalem. You must do the same in Rome.”

The Plan to Kill Paul

¹²The next morning the Jews gathered secretly to make plans against Paul. They took an oath that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed him. ¹³More than 40 men took part in this plan. ¹⁴They went to the chief priests and the elders. They said, “We have taken a strong oath. We have made a special promise to God. We will not eat anything until we have killed Paul. ¹⁵Now then, you and the Sanhedrin must make an appeal to the commanding officer. Ask him to bring Paul to you. Pretend you want more facts about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”

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