And Paul, looking upon the council, said: Men, brethren, I have conversed with all good conscience before God until this present day.
ατενισας δε ο παυλος τω συνεδριω ειπεν ανδρες αδελφοι εγω παση συνειδησει αγαθη πεπολιτευμαι τω θεω αχρι ταυτης της ημερας
8 Church Fathers comment on this verse
He now speaks not only before the tribune, but before the assembly and all the people. What then does he say? "Paul, looking intently at the Sanhedrin, said, Men and brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day." That is, I am conscious of nothing by which I have offended you, or have done anything worthy of these bonds. "Paul, looking intently at the Sanhedrin, said," he says, "Men and brethren." Here his boldness and fearlessness are expressed.
"Paul, looking intently at the council." He is no longer speaking to the people or to the crowd. "I have lived in all good conscience," that is, I am conscious of no guilt in my actions before you, and of nothing deserving these bonds.
They were already about to scourge Paul, in order to force from him a confession of the guilt that had provoked the riot. Then he declared of himself that he was a Roman citizen, and by this saved himself from torture.
After this, the tribune, in order to clarify his case, resolved to present him to the Sanhedrin. Here Paul showed himself a man who, by Christian meekness, knew how to subdue every agitation of feeling. With Christian prudence he knew how to use circumstances without harming the truth.
Although for a moment he allowed himself to be carried away by a feeling of righteous indignation and began to speak more sharply than he wished, he immediately restrained himself.
In the impulse of agitation, he spoke to the high priest Ananias a few bitter but just words, because of his unjust command to strike Paul on the mouth. He did this not knowing that Ananias was the high priest.
But as soon as he learned this, he softened his speech and said in excuse that he had spoken only in ignorance, knowing himself that the Law requires respect for authority.
Since the Sanhedrin had not brought the apostle to interrogation at trial by its own authority, but Paul had been set before it by the Roman commander, he felt and understood himself at this trial to be, in some measure, equal in relation to his judges, the members of the Sanhedrin.
He regarded them more as his opponents than as judges. This explains, first of all, why the apostle does not wait for questioning by the judges. Once brought into the assembly, he looks over it with a firm and calm gaze and directly begins his defense.
This also explains why, when addressing the members of the Sanhedrin, he does not call them by the honorable title “fathers,” but only “men and brethren.”
“Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” The word is pepoliteumai. That is, I have fulfilled my duties before God and carried out the service to which God called me with a pure conscience, as my good conscience inspired me.
This is only the beginning of the speech. It was interrupted, and even completely stopped, by the order of the high priest to strike the speaker on the mouth.
The Sanhedrin assembled, and the prisoner, the Apostle Paul, was brought in by Lysias. The presiding officer of the Sanhedrin was the high priest Ananias.
He was the same kind of arrogant, worldly, unbelieving Sadducee as the others from the viper’s house of Annas. Yet he surpassed them in cruelty and insatiable greed.
With greedy heartlessness and rapacity, he reduced the lower priests almost to starvation by depriving them of the tithes that belonged to them. In general he was such a plunderer that he sent his servants with clubs to the threshing floors to seize the tithes by force.
He held the office of high priest for a period unusually long in those troubled times, though it was interrupted by his absence. He was then sent as a prisoner to Rome to answer for his criminal actions.
On that occasion, thanks to base intrigues, he apparently won his case. But later he was deposed. Few pitied him when he was dragged from a drainpipe where he had hidden, and was killed by enraged rebels.
Under the leadership of such a high priest, then, sat the Sanhedrin that had assembled to judge the apostle.
From childhood the apostle had been accustomed to regard the supreme tribunal of the people and its head with reverence. He believed in its justice and wished to explain his position in a speech.
Standing in the customary posture of an orator, he began his speech with the words, “Men and brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day.”
But hardly had the apostle uttered the first proposition of his defense when Ananias, with disgraceful lawlessness, ordered the officers of the court to strike him on the mouth.
Having fixed his gaze on the Sanhedrin: this apostle of Christ, like Christ Himself on the night before the Crucifixion, and like the chief apostles before him (Acts 4:7 and following; Acts 5:27 and following), now stood before the supreme tribunal of Jerusalem.
With a calm, firm, and penetrating gaze (Acts 3:4; Acts 14:9), the apostle looked over those present in the Sanhedrin. His good conscience was reflected in that gaze, and he calmly began his speech with apostolic dignity.
He begins speaking first, without being questioned by the members of the Sanhedrin (compare Acts 7:1-2). This is because they had not summoned him for interrogation at trial. He had been set before the Sanhedrin by the Roman commander.
“Men and brethren” (compare Acts 4:8; Acts 7:2): he does not add “fathers,” or “rulers of the people,” or anything similar. In the lofty consciousness of his apostolic dignity, he places himself as though on the same level as these elders of the people.
Of course he was above them, though now, in the position of a defendant, he appeared lower than they. In the consciousness of his own innocence, he denies these lawless judges the honorable title they bore.
“I have lived in all good conscience,” and so forth: the apostle had begun his speech by pointing to the purity of his conscience in the matter of his service to God. With an entirely good conscience I have fulfilled and do fulfill my service to my God, to which I was called.
This is the meaning of the word translated “lived.” In all cases, in all respects, and in every exercise of my service, my conscience testified to me that I acted according to the will of God (1 Tim 1:5; 1 Tim 1:19).
“Until this day”: when I, as a criminal and as one under accusation, have been set before the judgment of the Sanhedrin.
The Apostle Paul attempted to justify himself before the Sanhedrin by appealing to the purity of his good conscience. But the high priest Ananias, who had evidently foreseen Paul’s whole case earlier, ordered Paul to be struck on the mouth, as though that mouth had uttered something blasphemous.
Then Paul reminded him that one cannot punish without establishing guilt. At the same time he called him a whitewashed wall, having in mind his guilt in many things. Ananias, however, knew how to conceal this skillfully from many, though not from all.
Only recently he had been summoned to Rome to justify himself against the accusations brought against him. There, apparently, he was acquitted, because he continued to perform his office. Nevertheless, the punishment of God’s right hand still awaited him.
The apostle foretold this, judging him by his proud appearance and coarse treatment. The apostle was saying: I am not conscious of anything by which I have offended you or done anything worthy of these bonds.
“The high priest ought to have pitied Paul, because to please them he had been unjustly put in chains. Instead he becomes still more hardened and orders him to be beaten. A fine deed, a meek high priest!” So Saint John Chrysostom once said.
“Several years later, at the beginning of the so-called Jewish War, this Ananias was killed by the Sicarii as a traitor.”
From the Apostle's first words it is clear that he intends, as on the previous day, to show how he was converted by God Himself and sent to preach. Therefore he could not preach otherwise than the Lord commanded him. This should have fully justified him.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 20 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS