성경 주석서

Acts 23:1-5 Paul, pleading his integrity, is smitten at the

command of the high priest, whom he reproveth of injustice.

Acts 23:6-9 By declaring himself a Pharisee, and questioned for the hope

of the resurrection, he causeth a division in the council.

Acts 23:10,11 He is carried back to the castle, and encouraged by the

Lord in a vision.

Acts 23:12-22 A conspiracy against him is discovered to the chief captain,

Acts 23:23-35 who sendeth him under a guard with a letter to Felix

the governor at Caesarea.

Said, Men and brethren; acknowledging himself to have descended from the patriarchs as well as they; and bespeaks, as much as he could, their favour and attention.

I have lived in all good conscience; not that he thought himself to have been without sin or fault, for he acknowledges and bewails his captivity to the law of sin, Romans 7:23,24; but that he was not conscious to himself of any notorious impiety (as sacrilege, which they accused him of); nay, he had not suffered willingly any sin to be, much less to reign, in him. And as for his persecuting of the Christians, he did it not to flatter any with it, or upon any sinister design whatsoever, but thinking to serve God by it, 1 Timothy 1:13.

Before God; in the sense of God’s seeing of him, and whom St. Paul acknowledges to be the searcher and knower of the heart and conscience.

Verse 1. - Looking steadfastly on for earnestly beholding, A.V.; brethren for men and brethren, A.V.; I have lived before God, etc., for I have lived, etc., before God, A.V. Looking steadfastly; ἀτενίσας, as in Acts 1:10; Acts 3:4, 12; Acts 6:15; Acts 7:55; Acts 10:4; Acts 11:6; Acts 13:9; Acts 14:9. It governs a dative here, as in Acts 3:12; Acts 10:1; Acts 14:9; Luke 4:20; Luke 22:56; elsewhere it is followed by εἰς. Brethren. He emits here the "fathers" which he added in Acts 22:1. If there is any special significance in the omission, it may be that he meant now to assume a less apologetic tone, and to speak as an equal to equals. Howson and Lewin think that he spoke as being, or having been, himself a member of the Sanhedrim. But he may have meant merely a friendly address to his countrymen. I have lived, etc. πεπολέτευμαι τῷ Θεῷ); comp. Philippians 3:20; I have had my conversation (vitam degi) unto God, or, for God, i.e. according to the will of God, with a view to God as the end of all my actions. So Josephus ('De Maccabeis,' sect. 4) says that Antiochus Epiphanes made a law that all Jews should be put to death οἵτινες φάνριεν τῷ πατοίω νόμω πολιτευόμενοι "who were seen to live according to the Law of their fathers." And so in 2 Macc. 6:1 it is said that he sent to compel the Jews to forsake the Law of their fathers - καὶ τοῖ τοῦ Θεοῦ νόμοις μὴ πολιτεύεσθαι ( ανδ not live agreeably to the laws of God. And once more, in 3Macc. 3:3, 4 the Jews are said to fear God and to be τῷ τούτου νόμῳ πολιτευόμενοι, living according to his Law. Here, then, πολιτεύεσθι τῷ Θεῷ means to live in obedience to God. St. Paul boldly asserts his undeviating compliance with the Law of God, as a good and consistent Jew (Philippians 3:6).

XXIII.

(1) And Paul, earnestly beholding the council.—We note once more the characteristic word for the eager anxious gaze with which St. Paul scanned the assembly. He had not seen it since he had stood there among Stephen’s accusers, a quarter of a century ago. Many changes, of course, had come about in that interval, but some of the faces were probably the same; and at all events the general aspect of the Gazith, or Hall of Meeting, on the south side of the Temple, with its circular benches must have remained the same.

I have lived in all good conscience . . .—The verb for “I have lived” means literally, I have used my citizenship. It had ceased, however, to have this sharply defined meaning (see Note on the kindred substantive in Philippians 3:20), and had come to be used of the whole course of a man’s social conduct. Perhaps My mode of life has been in all good conscience, would be the nearest English equivalent. The reference to “conscience” may be noted as eminently characteristic of St. Paul. So we find him saying of himself that he had all his life served God with “a pure conscience” (2Timothy 1:3); that a “good conscience” is the end of the commandment (1Timothy 1:5); or, again, recognising the power of conscience even among the heathen (Romans 2:15). In the phrase “I know nothing by myself,” i.e., “I am conscious of no fault” (see Note on 1Corinthians 4:4), we have a like reference to its authority. Comp. also Acts 24:16; Romans 13:5; 1Corinthians 10:25. And in all these passages he assigns to conscience its true functions with an exact precision. It is not an infallible guide and requires illumination, and therefore each man needs to pray for light, but it is never right to act against its dictates, and that which is objectively the better course is subjectively the worse, unless the man in his heart believes it to be the better.

Acts 23:1-10. St Paul before the Sanhedrin. Disagreement between the Pharisees and Sadducees

1. And Paul, earnestly beholding the council] The verb is one which St Luke very frequently employs to note a speaker’s expression at the commencement of a speech, and it is one of those features in the Acts which shew us where the compiler has acted as editor to the narratives which he used. He very generally gives some word to indicate the gesture or look of the person who speaks. This verb is often rendered in A.V. “looking stedfastly” and that rendering the Rev. Ver. gives here.

Men and brethren] Better, “Brethren.” See note on Acts 1:16.

I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day] The pronoun “I” is emphatically inserted in the Original. It is as though the Apostle would say, ‘You see me before you as though I were an offender, but personally I feel myself innocent.’ The verb is one which in profane authors signifies ‘to discharge the duties of a citizen.’ St Paul implies by its use that he has been obedient to God’s laws, as a good citizen would be to the laws of his country. So far as being devoted to God’s service, his whole life up to the present moment had been of one piece, it was only that his conscience had been enlightened, and so his behaviour had changed. He had at first lived as a conscientious and observant Jew, his conscience now approved his conduct as a Christian.

Earnestly beholding

See on Luke 4:20. Some, who hold that Paul's eyesight was defective, explain this steadfast look in connection with his imperfect vision.

Men and brethren

He addresses the Sanhedrim as an equal.

I have lived (πεπολίτευμαι)

Lit., have lived as a citizen, with special reference to the charge against him that he taught men against the law and the temple. He means that he has lived as a true and loyal Jew.

Conscience (συνειδήσει)

See on 1 Peter 3:16.

Looking steadfastly (ατενισας). See on this word Acts 1:10; Acts 3:12; Acts 6:15; Acts 7:55; Acts 13:9. Paul may have had weak eyes, but probably the earnest gaze was to see if he recognized any faces that were in the body that tried Stephen and to which he apparently once belonged. I have lived before God (πεπολιτευμα τω θεω). Perfect middle indicative of πολιτευω, old verb to manage affairs of city (πολις) or state, to be a citizen, behave as a citizen. In the N.T. only here and Philippians 1:27. The idea of citizenship was Greek and Roman, not Jewish. "He had lived as God's citizen, as a member of God's commonwealth" (Rackham). God (θεω) is the dative of personal interest. As God looked at it and in his relation to God. In all good conscience unto this day (παση συνειδησε αγαθη αχρ ταυτης της ημερας). This claim seems to lack tact, but for brevity's sake Paul sums up a whole speech in it. He may have said much more than Luke here reports along the line of his speech the day before, but Paul did not make this claim without consideration. It appears to contradict his confession as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:13-16). But that depends on one's interpretation of "good conscience." The word συνειδησις is literally "joint-knowledge" in Greek, Latin (conscientia) and English "conscience" from the Latin. It is a late word from συνοιδα, to know together, common in O.T., Apocrypha, Philo, Plutarch, New Testament, Stoics, ecclesiastical writers. In itself the word simply means consciousness of one's own thoughts (Hebrews 10:2), or of one's own self, then consciousness of the distinction between right and wrong (Romans 2:15) with approval or disapproval. But the conscience is not an infallible guide and acts according to the light that it has (1 Corinthians 8:7; 1 Corinthians 8:10; 1 Peter 2:19). The conscience can be contaminated (Hebrews 10:22, evil πονηρας). All this and more must be borne in mind in trying to understand Paul's description of his motives as a persecutor. Alleviation of his guilt comes thereby, but not removal of guilt as he himself felt (1 Timothy 1:13-16). He means to say to the Sanhedrin that he persecuted Christians as a conscientious (though mistaken) Jew (Pharisee) just as he followed his conscience in turning from Judaism to Christianity. It is a pointed disclaimer against the charge that he is a renegade Jew, an opposer of the law, the people, the temple. Paul addresses the Sanhedrin as an equal and has no "apologies" (in our sense) to make for his career as a whole. The golden thread of consistency runs through, as a good citizen in God's commonwealth. He had the consolation of a good conscience (1 Peter 3:16). The word does not occur in the Gospels and chiefly in Paul's Epistles, but we see it at work in John 8:9 (the interpolation Acts 7:53-8).

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Acts 23:1. ἀτενίσας, see on chap. Acts 1:10, “looking stedfastly,” R.V. The word denotes the fixed stedfast gaze which may be fairly called a characteristic of St. Paul. On this occasion the Apostle may well have gazed stedfastly on the Council which condemned Stephen, and although many new faces met his gaze, some of his audience were probably familiar to him. There is no need to suppose that the word implied weakness of sight (Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 38).—ἄνδ. ἀδελ.: the omission of πατέρες suggests that he addressed the assembly not as judges but as fellow-countrymen. On ἀδελ. see on Acts 1:15. It is of course possible, as Chrysostom observes, that he did not wish to appear εὐκαταφρόνητος before the chiliarch.—συνειδήσει: the word occurs no less than thirty times in N.T., R.V., so also in John 8:9, but 1 Corinthians 8:7, συνηθείᾳ, R.V., and of these no less than twenty times in St. Paul’s Epistles, twice in Acts, on both occasions by St. Paul, three times in 1 Peter, and five times in Hebrews. It may therefore be almost reckoned as a Pauline word. It does not occur at all in the Gospels (but cf. John 8:9), but it need hardly be said that our Lord distinctly appeals to its sanction, although the word is never uttered by Him. The N.T. writers found the word ready to their use. In Wis 17:10 (11) we have the nearest anticipation of the Christian use of the word, whilst it must not be forgotten that it first appears at least in philosophical importance amongst the Stoics. (In Ecclesiastes 10:20 it is used but in a different sense, and in Sir 42:18, but in the latter case the reading is doubtful, and if the word is retained, it is only used in the same sense as in Ecclesiastes 10:20.) It is used by Chrysippus of Soli, or Tarsus, in Cilicia, Diog. Laert., vii., 8, but not perhaps with any higher meaning than self-consciousness. For the alleged earlier use of the word by Bias and Periander, and the remarkable parallel expression ἀγαθὴ συνείδησις attributed to the latter, see W. Schmidt, Das Gewissen, p. 6 (1889), and for two quotations of its use by Menander, Grimm-Thayer, sub v.; cf. also Davison, The Christian Conscience (Fernley Lectures), 1888, sec. ii. and vi.; Cremer, Wörterbuch, sub v.; Sanday and Headlam, Romans 2:15, and for literature “Conscience,” Hastings’ B.D. For the scriptural idea of the word cf. also Westcott, additional note, on Hebrews 9:9.—πεπολ.: however loosely the word may have been used at a later date, it seems that when St. Paul spoke, and when he wrote to the Philippians, it embraced the public duties incumbent on men as members of a body, Hort, Ecclesia, p. 137, Lightfoot on Php 1:27 (Acts 3:20), cf. Jos., Vita, ii. St. Paul was a covenant member of a divine πολιτεία, the commonwealth of God, the laws of which he claims to have respected and observed. The word is also found in LXX, Esther 8:13 (H. and R.), 2Ma 6:1; 2Ma 11:25, and four times in 4 Macc. Lightfoot, u. s., parallels the use of the verb in Phil. by St. Paul from Clem. Rom., Cor[371], xxi. 1, and Polycarp, Phil., v., 5. But Clem. Rom., u. s., vi., 1, has the phrase ποῖς ἀνδράσιν ὁσίως πολιτευσαμένοις, referring to the O.T. Saints, and so St. Peter and St. Paul. To this latter expression Deissmann, Bibelstudien, i., p. 211, finds a parallel in the fragment of a letter dating about 164 B.C. (Pap., Par., 63, coll. 8 and 9), τοῖς θεοῖς πρὸς οὓς ὁσίως καὶ … δικαίως (πολι)τευσάμενος.—τῷ Θεῷ: in another moment of danger at the close of his career, 2 Timothy 1:3, the Apostle again appeals to a higher tribunal than that of the Sanhedrim or of Caesar. For the dative of the object cf. Romans 14:18, Galatians 2:19.—ἄχρι ταύτης τῆς ἡμ., emphatic, because the Apostle wished to affirm that he was still in his present work for Christ a true member of the theocracy, cf. Romans 9:1 ff.

[371] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Acts 23:1-2. Paul, with the free and firm look (ἀτενίσας τῷ συνεδρ.) in which his good conscience is reflected, commences an address in his own defence to the Sanhedrim, and that in such a way as—without any special testimony of respect (comp. Acts 4:8, Acts 12:2) for the sacred court, and with perfect freedom of apostolic self-reliance (which is recognisable in the simple ἅνδρες ἀδελφοί)—to appeal first of all to the pure self-consciousness of his working as consecrated to God. The proud and brutal (Joseph. Antt. xx. 8 f.) high priest sees in this nothing but insolent presumption, and makes him be stopped by a blow on the mouth from the continuance of such discourse.

πάσῃ συνειδ. ἀγ.] with every good conscience, so that in every case I had a good conscience, i.e. agreeing with the divine will (1 Timothy 1:5; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Peter 3:16). Comp. on Acts 20:19.

In the ἐγώ at the commencement is implied a moral self-consciousness of rectitude.

πεπολίτευμαι τῷ Θεῷ] I have administered (and still administer, perfect) mine office for God, in the service of God (Romans 1:9); dative of destination. He thus designates his apostolic office in its relation to the divine polity of the church; see on Php 1:27.

ὁ δὲ ἀρχιερεὺς Ἀνανίας] Acts 23:4 proves that this (see Krebs, Obss. Flav. p. 244 ff.) was the high priest actually discharging the duties of the office at the time. He was the son of Nebedaeus (Joseph. Antt. xx. 5. 2), the successor of Joseph the son of Camydus (Antt. xx. 1. 3, 5. 2), and the predecessor of Ishmael the son of Phabi (Antt. xx. 8. 8, 11). He had been sent to Rome by Quadratus, the predecessor of Felix, to answer for himself before the Emperor Claudius (Antt. xx. 6. 2, Bell. ii. 12. 6); he must not, however, have thereby lost his office, but must have continued in it after his return. See Anger, de temp. rat. p. 92 ff. As Acts 23:4 permits for ὁ ἀρχιερ. only the strict signification of the high priest performing the duties, and not that of one of the plurality of ἀρχιερεῖς,[142] and as the deposition of Ananias is a mere supposition, the opinion defended since the time of Lightfoot, p. 119 (comp. ad Joh. p. 1077), by several more recent expositors (particularly Michaelis, Eichhorn, Kuinoel, Hildebrand, Hemsen), is to be rejected,—namely, that Ananias, deposed from the time of his suit at Rome, had at this time only temporarily administered (usurped) the office during an interregnum which took place between his successor Jonathan and the latter’s successor Ishmael. Against this view it is specially to be borne in mind, that the successor of Ananias was Ishmael, and not Jonathan (who had been at an earlier period high priest, Joseph. Antt. xviii. 4. 3, 5. 3); for in the alleged probative passages (Antt. xx. 8. 5, Bell. ii. 13. 3), where the murder of the ἀρχιερεύς Jonathan is recorded, this ἈΡΧΙΕΡ. is to be taken in the well-known wider titular sense. Lastly, Basnage (ad an. 56, § 24) quite arbitrarily holds that at this time Ishmael was already high priest, but was absent from the hastily (?) assembled Sanhedrim, and therefore was represented by the highly respected (Antt. xx. 9. 2) Ananias.

τοῖς παρεστ. αὐτῷ] to those who (as officers in attendance on the court) stood beside him, Luke 19:24.

τύπτ. αὐτοῦ τὸ στ.] to smite him on the mouth. Comp. as to the αὐτοῦ placed first, on John 9:15; John 11:32, al.

[142] In opposition to van Hengel in the Godgel. Bijdrag. 1862, p. 1001 ff., and Trip, p. 251 ff.