Acts 23:1

Acts 23:1. 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.