Acts 23: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul defends himself before the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem, is struck on the mouth at the high priest's order, and then splits the council by naming the resurrection as the reason he is on trial. That night the Lord tells him he will testify in Rome as he has in Jerusalem. More than forty men swear an oath to kill Paul, but his nephew learns of the ambush and warns the Roman commander, who sends Paul to Caesarea overnight under heavy guard with a letter to Governor Felix. Felix reads the letter, learns Paul is from Cilicia, and orders him held until his accusers arrive.

Claim by Claim

1. 23:1
   • Paul looked intently at the council.
   • Paul addressed the council as brothers.
   • Paul said he had lived before God in all good conscience up to that day.
2. 23:2
   • The high priest was named Ananias.
   • Ananias ordered those standing beside Paul to strike him on the mouth.
3. 23:3
   • Paul said to him that God was going to strike him.
   • Paul called him a whitewashed wall.
   • Paul said the man sat to judge him according to the law.
   • Paul said the man broke the law by ordering him to be struck.
4. 23:4
   • Those standing by asked Paul whether he was reviling God's high priest.
5. 23:5
   • Paul said he had not known that the man was the high priest.
   • Paul addressed them as brothers.
   • Paul said it is written that you shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people.
6. 23:6
   • Paul perceived that one part of the council were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees.
   • Paul cried out in the council.
   • Paul addressed them as brothers.
   • Paul said he was a Pharisee.
   • Paul said he was the son of a Pharisee.
   • Paul said he was being put on trial concerning the hope and the resurrection of the dead.
7. 23:7
   • When Paul said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
   • The assembly was divided.
8. 23:8
   • The Sadducees say there is no resurrection.
   • The Sadducees say there is no angel.
   • The Sadducees say there is no spirit.
   • The Pharisees acknowledge both.
9. 23:9
   • A great outcry arose.
   • Some of the scribes of the party of the Pharisees stood up.
   • They contended sharply.
   • They said they found no evil in this man.
   • They asked what if a spirit or an angel had spoken to him.
   • They said let us not fight against God.
10. 23:10
    • A great dissension arose.
    • The commander feared that Paul would be torn to pieces by them.
    • The commander ordered the soldiers to go down.
    • The commander ordered the soldiers to take Paul by force from among them.
    • The commander ordered the soldiers to bring Paul into the barracks.
11. 23:11
    • On the following night the Lord stood by Paul.
    • The Lord told Paul to be of good cheer.
    • The Lord said Paul had testified about him in Jerusalem.
    • The Lord said Paul must also bear witness at Rome.
12. 23:12
    • When day came, certain of the Jews banded together.
    • They bound themselves under a curse.
    • They said they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.
13. 23:13
    • More than forty men had made this conspiracy.
14. 23:14
    • They came to the chief priests and the elders.
    • They said they had bound themselves under a great curse.
    • They said they would eat nothing until they had killed Paul.
15. 23:15
    • They told the chief priests and elders that they, with the council, should signify to the commander to bring Paul down to them tomorrow.
    • They said this should be done as though they would examine his case more accurately.
    • They said they were ready to kill Paul before he came near.
16. 23:16
    • The son of Paul's sister heard of the ambush.
    • He went and entered the barracks.
    • He told Paul.
17. 23:17
    • Paul called one of the centurions to him.
    • Paul told him to take this young man to the commander.
    • Paul said the young man had something to tell the commander.
18. 23:18
    • The centurion took the young man and brought him to the commander.
    • The centurion said that Paul the prisoner had called him.
    • The centurion said Paul had asked him to bring this young man to the commander.
    • The centurion said the young man had something to say to the commander.
19. 23:19
    • The commander took the young man by the hand.
    • The commander withdrew with him privately.
    • The commander asked what he had to tell him.
20. 23:20
    • The young man said the Jews had agreed to ask the commander to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow.
    • He said this would be done as though they would inquire something more accurately about Paul.
21. 23:21
    • He told the commander not to be persuaded by them.
    • He said more than forty men of them were lying in wait for Paul.
    • He said those men had bound themselves under a curse.
    • He said they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed him.
    • He said they were ready now, waiting for the commander's promise.
22. 23:22
    • The commander sent the young man away.
    • The commander charged him to tell no one that he had reported these things to him.
23. 23:23
    • The commander called two of the centurions to him.
    • He ordered them to make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea.
    • He ordered seventy horsemen.
    • He ordered two hundred spearmen.
    • He set the departure at the third hour of the night.
24. 23:24
    • He ordered animals to be provided.
    • He ordered that Paul be mounted on them.
    • He ordered that Paul be brought safely to Felix the governor.
25. 23:25
    • He wrote a letter in this form.
26. 23:26
    • The letter was from Claudius Lysias.
    • The letter was addressed to the most excellent governor Felix.
    • The letter sent greeting.
27. 23:27
    • Lysias wrote that this man was seized by the Jews.
    • Lysias wrote that the Jews were about to kill him.
    • Lysias wrote that he came with the troops and rescued him.
    • Lysias wrote that he had learned the man was a Roman.
28. 23:28
    • Lysias wrote that he wanted to know the charge for which they accused him.
    • Lysias wrote that he brought him down to their council.
29. 23:29
    • Lysias wrote that he found the man accused concerning questions of their law.
    • Lysias wrote that the man had no charge against him deserving death or imprisonment.
30. 23:30
    • Lysias wrote that it was disclosed to him that the Jews lay in wait for the man.
    • Lysias wrote that he sent him to Felix at once.
    • Lysias wrote that he also commanded the accusers to state their case against him before Felix.
    • The letter closed with a farewell.
31. 23:31
    • The soldiers acted according to what was commanded them.
    • The soldiers took Paul.
    • The soldiers brought him by night to Antipatris.
32. 23:32
    • The next day they left the horsemen to go on with Paul.
    • They returned to the barracks.
33. 23:33
    • They entered Caesarea.
    • They delivered the letter to the governor.
    • They also presented Paul to him.
34. 23:34
    • The governor read the letter.
    • The governor asked what province Paul was from.
    • The governor learned that Paul was from Cilicia.
35. 23:35
    • He said he would hear Paul when his accusers also arrived.
    • He ordered Paul to be kept under guard in Herod's judgment hall.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

23:1

The "council" is the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court in Jerusalem: roughly seventy chief priests, elders and teachers of the law, presided over by the high priest. Under Roman rule it kept wide authority over questions of Jewish law and religion.

23:2

Ananias son of Nedebaeus was high priest from about AD 47 to 59. Other ancient sources describe him as wealthy and ready to use violence. The high priest headed the temple and presided over the council, so ordering a blow before any evidence had been heard is what Paul protests against in the next verse.

23:3

A "whited wall" is a wall coated with whitewash so that it looks clean and solid while the crumbling mud or rubble behind it is hidden. As an insult it means a man whose legal appearance covers the opposite.

23:5

KJV "I wist not" simply means "I did not know." The quotation is from Exodus 22:28. Why Paul did not know is disputed: he had been away from Jerusalem for years and may not have recognized the man, the hearing may not have been a formal session with the high priest in his robes, his eyesight may have been poor, or the words may be pointed, meaning he would not recognize a man acting like that as a high priest. The Greek allows any of these.

23:6

The Pharisees and Sadducees were the two main parties among the Jewish leadership. The Sadducees came largely from wealthy priestly families and were centered on the temple; they treated only the five books of Moses as binding and rejected later developments such as belief in resurrection. The Pharisees were teachers and interpreters of the law who accepted the whole of scripture along with a large body of oral tradition, including the rising of the dead. "The son of a Pharisee" claims a family loyalty, not just a personal one.

23:8

The Sadducees' position followed from limiting authority to the books of Moses, where they found no clear teaching about a resurrection, about angels as an order of beings, or about the spirit surviving death. By saying he is on trial over the resurrection, Paul puts himself on the side of one half of the court against the other.

23:9

"Scribes" were professional experts in the written law, trained to copy, interpret and teach it; many of them belonged to the Pharisee party. In the Greek their sentence breaks off unfinished after "if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him", leaving the thought hanging; the words "let us not fight against God" appear only in later manuscripts, borrowed from Acts 5:39, and most modern translations leave them out.

23:10

The "chief captain" is a Roman tribune, named in verse 26 as Claudius Lysias, commanding a cohort of about a thousand men. The "castle" is the Antonia fortress, the garrison barracks built against the north side of the temple courts, which is why the soldiers have to "go down" to reach the council and then bring Paul up again.

23:11

Rome was the capital of the empire, about 1,400 miles from Jerusalem. Going there meant a long sea voyage.

23:12

The oath was a formal self-curse: the men called down disaster on themselves if they failed to do what they had sworn. Jewish legal authorities could release a person from such a vow when keeping it became impossible, so in practice the oath bound them less absolutely than the words sound.

23:14

The "chief priests" were the senior temple officials, including men from the leading priestly families and former high priests; the "elders" were lay heads of prominent families. Both groups sat on the council, which is why the plotters approach them.

23:16

This is the only place in Acts where a member of Paul's family appears. It implies that his sister's household lived in or near Jerusalem, the city where Paul had been brought up and educated.

23:17

A centurion commanded a century, in practice about eighty men. He was the backbone of the Roman army's command structure, roughly equivalent to a senior sergeant or a junior officer.

23:23

"Threescore and ten" is the King James way of saying seventy; a score is twenty. The "third hour of the night" is counted from sunset, so about nine in the evening. The Greek word behind "spearmen" is found almost nowhere else and its sense is uncertain: it has been taken to mean spearmen, light-armed auxiliaries, or men leading spare mounts. The escort of 470 men is close to half the Jerusalem garrison, a very heavy guard for one prisoner. Caesarea, on the Mediterranean coast about sixty miles northwest of Jerusalem, was the seat of Roman government in Judea.

23:24

"Beasts" means riding animals, probably mules or horses; the plural leaves room for remounts or baggage as well as a mount for Paul. Felix is Antonius Felix, Roman governor of Judea from about AD 52 to 59. He was a former slave who had been freed and owed his post to influence at the imperial court; the Roman historian Tacitus wrote of him harshly. He governed from Caesarea rather than Jerusalem.

23:26

"Most excellent" was the standard formal address for a Roman official of rank. The letter follows the ordinary Greek pattern of the time: sender, then addressee, then the single word "greeting". The commander's name is Roman, and he most likely took "Claudius" when he bought his citizenship during the reign of the emperor Claudius, which fits his remark in Acts 22:28 that it had cost him a large sum.

23:27

Lysias arranges the facts to his own advantage. By the account given in Acts 21 and 22 he rescued Paul without knowing he was a Roman citizen, and learned it only afterward, when Paul had already been bound and was about to be flogged. A Roman official could face serious consequences for treating a citizen that way, which is what his version quietly covers.

23:29

"Bonds" in the King James means chains or imprisonment. The finding carries legal weight: the commander is reporting that the dispute belongs to Jewish law and that Paul has committed no offense punishable under Roman law.

23:30

"Straightway" means at once. "Farewell" translates the standard closing of a Greek letter, roughly "be well" or "keep strong"; it is ordinary correspondence etiquette rather than a personal goodbye.

23:31

Antipatris was a town rebuilt by Herod the Great and named after his father Antipater, about forty miles northwest of Jerusalem on the road to Caesarea. That first stretch, through hill country with a largely Jewish population, was where an ambush was most likely, so it was covered in one night march.

23:32

Beyond Antipatris the road ran across open coastal plain through mostly Gentile territory, where the Jerusalem plotters were unlikely to follow. The foot soldiers could therefore turn back and leave the cavalry to cover the remaining twenty five miles or so.

23:34

A Roman governor had to decide whether a prisoner fell under his own jurisdiction or should be sent to the governor of the man's home province, so the question about province is a legal one. Cilicia lay in the southeast of Asia Minor, in what is now southern Turkey; its chief city was Tarsus, where Paul was born.

23:35

"Herod's judgment hall" translates the word praetorium: the palace built at Caesarea by Herod the Great, which had since become the Roman governor's official residence and administrative headquarters. Paul is held there under guard rather than in a common prison.