9 And there was a great clamour, and the scribes of the Pharisees' part rising up contended, saying, We find nothing evil in this man; and if a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel ...
And it came to pass when I had returned to Jerusalem, and as I was praying in the temple, that I became in ecstasy, and saw him saying to me, Make haste and go quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.
And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
and having gone apart, they spoke to one another saying, This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds.
But I, having found that he had done nothing worthy of death, and this [man] himself having appealed to Augustus, I have decided to send him;
And the scribes and the Pharisees, seeing him eating with sinners and tax-gatherers, said to his disciples, Why [is it] that he eats and drinks with tax-gatherers and sinners?
And, when we were all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? [it is] hard for thee to kick against goads. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, *I* am Jesus whom *thou* persecutest: but rise up and stand on thy feet; for, for this purpose have I appeared to thee, to appoint thee to be a servant and a witness both of what thou hast seen, and of what I shall appear to thee in, taking thee out from among the people, and the nations, to whom *I* send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me. Whereupon, king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision;
For an angel of the God, whose I am and whom I serve, stood by me this night,
And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
If then God has given them the same gift as also to us when we had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who indeed was *I* to be able to forbid God?
and falling on the earth he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?
And he said the third time to them, What evil then has this [man] done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will chastise him therefore and release him.
said to them, Ye have brought to me this man as turning away the people [to rebellion], and behold, I, having examined him before you, have found nothing criminal in this man as to the things of which ye accuse him; nor Herod either, for I remitted you to him, and behold, nothing worthy of death is done by him.
And their scribes and the Pharisees murmured at his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with tax-gatherers and sinners?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 23
Commentary on Acts 23 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 23
The close of the foregoing chapter left Paul in the high priest's court, into which the chief captain (whether to his advantage or no I know not) had removed his cause from the mob; and, if his enemies act there against him with less noise, yet it is with more subtlety. Now here we have,
Act 23:1-5
Perhaps when Paul was brought, as he often was (corpus cum causa-the person and the cause together), before heathen magistrates and councils, where he and his cause were slighted, because not at all understood, he thought, if he were brought before the sanhedrim at Jerusalem, he should be able to deal with them to some good purpose, and yet we do not find that he works at all upon them. Here we have,
Act 23:6-11
Many are the troubles of the righteous, but some way or other the Lord delivereth them out of them all. Paul owned he had experienced the truth of this in the persecutions he had undergone among the Gentiles (see 2 Tim. 3:11): Out of them all the Lord delivered me. And now he finds that he who has delivered does and will deliver. He that delivered him in the foregoing chapter from the tumult of the people here delivers him from that of the elders.
Act 23:12-35
We have here the story of a plot against the life of Paul; how it was laid, how it was discovered, and how it was defeated.