Acts 23

Acts 23:2

And Ananias, the chief person among the Jews, (see note [c] Luke iii.) commanded—

b God will punish thee by way of retaliation, deal with thee as thou hast done with me, thou hypocrite. Dost thou sit like a magistrate or distributor of legal justice, and dost thou break the law thyself, and command me to be punished before thou hast heard the cause? (see ch. xxii. 25.)

c Dost thou speak such contumelious words to him who is the high priest of God’s appointment, a sacred person, and under God the chief magistrate among the Jews?

d I did not know that to be true which thou tellest me, that Ananias was a high priest of God’s appointment, (that he was not so, nor yet the high priest put

Acts 23:6

And Paul discerning the sanhedrim to consist partly of Pharisees, who believe another life after this, partly of Sadducees, that do not, said aloud, I am (as my father was) of the sect of the Pharisees, and the main thing that I am questioned for is my believing that there is another life after this, which is a pure pharisaical doctrine, which all of that sect hold as well as I. • no life after this, no immortal spirit, nor soul of man subsisting without a body: but the— f doctors of the law, which were generally of the Pharisees’ opinion, took his part, and professed to think he had done nothing amiss, and that it was possible that he had received some infusion or incitation from God’s Spirit, or else some voice from heaven or vision by an angel; and if he had, it would not become them to resist his doctrine, lest, if that were truly revealed to him by God, they should fight against God himself. g to go to him at the bar, where he was as a prisoner answering for himself, and to take him— h Paul saw a vision again; and God appeared to stand by him and encourage him, telling him that he

Acts 23:9

[a] a spirit or an angel] Of the four several ways of revelations which were among the Jews, these are confessedly two, רוה הקודש, the Holy Spirit, and בת קול, the daughter of voice, or a voice from heaven, brought by an angel, by which any thing was made known to them. The other two were אורים ותומים, Urim and Thummim, under the first temple, the twelve stones in the pectoral of the high priest,

d Ad leg. 12. Tab. c. 19. e P. 785. y f 2

Acts 23:12

And he had soon a notable testimony of the virtue of God’s protection over him, promised him in that vision; for early in the very next morning certain of the Jews—

thus bound themselves by oath and execration on themselves.

Acts 23:14

And they came to the sanhedrim, and told some of them what they had resolved on.

Acts 23:15

And therefore desired that the whole sanhedrim would signify their desire to the colonel, that he would on the morrow bring Paul down to them, to examine him upon some interrogatories; and, said they, by the way, before he come near the council-house, we will lie in ambush, and be sure to kill him.

captains of the guard, and desired him to conduct that young man to the colonel, to deliver a message to him.

Acts 23:23

[b] spearmen] What δεξιολάβοι signifies may be best learned from Phavorinus, who interprets it παραφύλακες, “warders or guard,” and so H. Stephanus, satellites, stipatores, to the same sense; thus called, saith Meursius, quod maleficis manum injicerent, eosque apprehenderent, et carceri mancipatos ad supplicium producendos custodirent, “because they apprehended or laid hands on malefactors,” (which yet would rather be the importance of δεξιοβόλοι, from βάλλειν δεξιὰς, laying hands, and indeed so the king’s MS. reads here, not δεξιολάβους, but δεξιοβολους,) “and putting them in custody, kept them and brought them out to execution;” adding that these are the same in the camp, that the lictors or sergeants are in the city; from all which it appears to be most fitly rendered a guard, to which in the militia the prisoners are committed.

Acts 23:28

[f] freedom] Most of the Jews, saith Philo in e Leg. ad Caium, were ‘Ρωμαίοι ἀπελευθερωθέντες, “Romans made free,” αἰχμάλωτοι γὰρ ἀχθέντες εἰς Ἰταλίαν ὑπὸ τῶν κτησαμένων ἠλευθερώθησαν, “for being brought captive into Italy, they were set at liberty by their masters that possessed them,” but payed a price for that favour. So 2 Macc. iv. 9, Jason promiseth a great sum of money to Antiochus, among other things to have power to make some of Jerusalem citizens of Antioch, meaning to make his money soon up again by selling it to those that desired that privilege, (see note [l] on Phil. iii.) So saith Photius, Epist. ρβ. p. 145. Τιμῆς γὰρ ἀπήλανον κατ’ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ οὐχ ὅσοι μόνον ἰθαγενεῖς τῆς Ῥώμης ἐτύγχανον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅσοις αὐτῆς ἡ κλῆσις νόμῳ χαρίτων ἢ χρημάτων ἐπολιτεύετο, “About that time that privilege was enjoyed not only by those which were natives of Rome, but by as many as either by favour or money were made partakers of that appellation.” So also Epist. σμς. p. 378, and σμς. p. 379, ἴθονυς καὶ πατρίδος ὄντες ἀλλόφυλοι, εἰς τὴν Ῥωμαϊκὴν ἐτέλεσαν πολιτογραφίαν, “being aliens of another nation and country, they were received into the Roman album, made citizens of Rome.” Such an one it seems was the chief commander here, who had himself personally bought this freedom or privilege of a citizen of Rome. But Paul was born to this liberty, by being born in a city that had obtained of the emperors that privilege for all the inhabitants thereof, (see note [c]). Thus in Eusebius Eccl. Hist., l. 5. c. 1, in the examining of Christians by the persecutors, ὅσοι ἰδάκουν πολιτείαν Ῥωμαίων ἰσχηκέναι, “they that proved to be municipes, free denizens of Rome,” τούτων ἀπίτεμνε τὰς κεφαλὰς, “their heads were cut off:” a privilege which belongs to such, instead of more ignominious punishments. So Josephus the historian, born at Jerusalem, of the sacerdotal family, ἐξ ἱερίων τε καὶ ἱερεύς, “of priests, and himself a priest,” saith Photius, Ep. σμς., had the privilege of a Roman, and was called by a Roman name, Flavius, the prænomē of the emperor Vespasian.

Acts 23:29

Then they ceased from their design of scourging him (ver. 24.), to make him confess his crime; and the consideration that he was a free man of Rome made the colonel fear he had already done more than he could well answer, in binding or putting chains upon him, ch. xxi. 33.

Acts 23:30

And therefore he soon loosed him from his bands; but yet, being desirous to know the bottom of the business, he converted the Jews’ sanhedrim, and brought out Paul, to see what they would object against him.

CHAP. XXIII.

a I have all my life long, both when I was a pro-pugner of the Mosaical law against Christ’s reformation, and since I have been a preacher of the gospel, acted sincerely and uprightly, according to my conscience, and consecrated my life to God’s service.