Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 22:30-23:11, Paul before the council
The tribune brings Paul before the chief priests and the council. Struck on the high priest's order, Paul calls him a whitewashed wall, then declares himself a Pharisee on trial for the hope of the resurrection, and the council splits.
Acts 22:30-23:11, in every translation this tool compares.
To learn the real accusation, the Roman commander has the Jewish council convene and brings Paul before it. When the high priest orders him struck, Paul calls him a whitewashed wall, then apologizes on learning who he is, citing the law against cursing a ruler. Seeing Pharisees and Sadducees in the room, he declares himself a Pharisee on trial for the hope of resurrection, and the council splits so violently that soldiers have to pull him out. That night the Lord tells Paul he will bear witness in Rome as he has in Jerusalem.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/pharisees\/","n":"The Pharisees","s":"A mostly lay movement devoted to careful keeping of the law and of oral tradition, respected by the people and watchful of new teachers.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/resurrection-of-the-dead\/","n":"The resurrection of the dead","s":"Most Jews, with the Pharisees, expected God to raise the dead to bodily life at the end of the age. The Sadducees denied it. Nobody expected one man to rise ahead of everyone else.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
Ananias was high priest from AD 47 to about 58 or 59, a Roman vassal known for greed (Keener and his notes); he had been sent to Rome in 52 on charges of cruelty and acquitted through Agrippa II (the Zondervan Bible dictionary). Josephus says that his servants "took away the tithes that belonged to the priests by violence," and when the revolt broke out in 66 he was hunted down and killed (Keener and his notes; the dictionary, citing Josephus, War 2.17.9). Whether Paul truly did not recognize the high priest or spoke with irony is debated (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener); Wright takes the apology as genuine, since Ananias wore nothing marking his office. The Pharisees held to the future resurrection and the Sadducees denied it; Keener and the ESV Study Bible say the Sadducees also rejected the developed teaching on angels and spirits, while Wright reads angel and spirit here as Pharisaic ways of speaking of the dead awaiting resurrection (compare Acts 12:15), so the Pharisees grant that Paul may have met Jesus' spirit without granting that he was raised.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 22:30, 23:2, 23:3, 23:5, 23:6 and 23:8
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 22:30-23:10, 23:2-3, 23:4-5, 23:6, 23:7 and 23:8
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 23:3 and 23:8
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 23:1-3
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20.9.2, trans. William Whiston
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Ananias (3)
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part Two, comment on Acts 23:1-11
