Acts 23:3

God shall smite thee, thou whited wall Here we may see how very far even the excellence of St Paul comes short of the behaviour of the Divine Master, who when he suffered threatened not, and when reviled, reviled not again. We need not however consider that St Paul's language here was a wish for evil upon the high priest, but only an expression of confidence in God that such conduct as that of Ananias would not be allowed to go unpunished. We know from Josephus (Wars, ii. 17. 9) that Ananias did come to a violent end. St Paul calls him "whited wall" because he bore the semblance of a minister of justice, but was not what he seemed. Cp. "whited sepulchres" (Matthew 23:27).

for sittest thou, &c. The original has merely the copulative conjunction, which the Rev. Ver.consequently represents by " and sittest thou, &c." The translation misses the force of the Greek, which has the pronoun emphatically expressed. The connexion seems to be this. The Apostle had just named the high priest "a whited wall;" he then continues "and dost thou(such an one) sit, &c."

after the law i.e. according to the law (as Rev. Ver.). Cp. Pr. Bk. "Deal not with us afterour sins."

contrary to the law For St Paul had not yet been heard. Cp. John 7:51.