Acts 22:5

the high priest doth bear me witness The Apostle refers not to the high priest at the time when he was speaking, but to him who had held that office when (Acts 9:1) in his earnestness against the Christians he had desired a commission from the authorities to carry his persecuting measures as far as Damascus. Josephus (Ant. xviii. 5, 3) tells us that in a.d. 37 Theophilus, son of Ananus, was made high priest in the place of his brother Jonathan. The high priest to whom St Paul here alludes was one of these two brothers, for Theophilus held office till he was removed by Agrippa and his place occupied by Simon, called Kantheras (see Jos. Ant, xix. 6, 2, and cp. Farrar's St Paul, i. 178). Ananias was high priest at the time of St Paul's arrest. See Acts 23:2.

and all the estate of the elders Though it was now more than twenty years since St Paul's conversion, yet it was not improbable that some members of the Sanhedrin which granted him his commission were still alive, and the records of the transaction were doubtless preserved and could be appealed to.

letters unto the brethren i.e. to the Jewish authorities in Damascus. The Jews spake of all their race as brethren from early times (cp. Deuteronomy 18:15).

to bring them which were there, bound unto Jerusalem The English of the A. V. is not free from ambiguity. The Greek is plain, and the Rev. Ver.gives the sense clearly "to bring them also which were there unto Jerusalem in bonds."