Paul Before the Sanhedrin

Not being an expert in the Jewish religion, the tribune who had Paul arrested after the disturbance in the temple was clearly perplexed about what exactly had angered the crowd. At first, he thought Paul was the Egyptian who had stirred up a revolt against Rome a few years earlier. Although the tribune granted Paul permission to try to calm the Jewish crowd, he remained confused regarding the precise issue causing all the commotion and ordered Paul flogged in hopes of getting to the heart of the matter. Only the Apostle’s appeal to his rights as a Roman citizen prevented the Roman soldiers from beating him (Acts 21:27–22:29).

Still, the tribune wanted to understand what was going on, so he had Paul brought before “the chief priests and all the council” (22:30). This was the ruling council of the Jews known as the Sanhedrin, whose members were experts in the Jewish law. If anyone could help the tribune understand why the crowds of Jews in Jerusalem were angry with Paul, it was the Sanhedrin.

As Acts 23:1–5 reveals, the Sanhedrin displayed hostility toward Paul from the start. After the Apostle said he had lived his life before God in good conscience up to that day, the high priest, Ananias, ordered Paul to be struck on the mouth (vv. 1–2). This Ananias was one of the most corrupt men ever to hold the office of high priest. He stole for himself the tithes that were supposed to be used to pay the other Jewish priests, and he employed violence and even assassination to advance his own interests. Ananias was unashamedly pro-Rome, and that finally led to his downfall after the Jews revolted against the empire in AD 66. Four years later, the Romans put down the revolt, and in the meantime, Ananias was put to death by some of the insurgents.

Paul objected to being struck, warning the high priest that God would strike him, a whitewashed wall, down (Acts 23:3). The image here is of a wall barely standing but whose fresh paint masks its true state. Paul’s protest was understandable, since the Sanhedrin was not respecting his rights as an accused person, rights that the Jewish legal tradition was supposed to grant to all defendants. But the Apostle apologized when he learned that Ananias was the high priest, since Exodus 22:28 says that citizens must not curse their rulers. This shows further that Paul was an observant Jew and not at all guilty of breaking the Jewish law as had been claimed.