Acts 23:12

συστροφήν, Acts 19:40. ἀνεθεμάτισαν ἑαυτούς : literally “they placed themselves under an anathema,” i.e., declared themselves liable to the direst punishments of God unless, etc. In N.T. the verb is only used in this passage, cf. 14, 21 and once by St.Mark, Mark 14:71, cf. the use of the verb in LXX, Joshua 6:21 1Ma 5:5. In N.T. the noun ἀνάθεμα is only found in Luke and Paul, see Lightfoot on Galatians 1:8, Sanday and Headlam on Romans 9:3. For instances of similar bindings by oath, Jos., Vita, liii, and a similar combination of ten men to murder Herod, Ant., xv., 8, 3, 4. Of whom the band consisted we are not told, although probably Ananias would not have scrupled to employ the Sicarii, Jos., Ant., ix. 2. The conspirators seem to have affected to be Sadducees, Acts 23:14, but Edersheim evidently holds that they were Pharisees, and he points out that the latter as a fraternity or “guild,” or some of their kindred guilds, would have furnished material at hand for such a band of conspirators, Jewish Social Life, p. 227 ff. πεποι. see critical note, ἕως οὗ, cf. Matthew 5:25; Matthew 13:33; John 9:18; Burton, p. 128.