Acts 24:21

Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:10-21 Paul gives a just account of himself, which clears him from crime, and likewise shows the true reason of the violence against him. Let us never be driven from any good way by its having an ill name. It is very comfortable, in worshipping God, to look to him as the God of our fathers, and to set up no other rule of faith or practice but the Scriptures. This shows there will be a resurrection to a final judgment. Prophets and their doctrines were to be tried by their fruits. Paul's aim was to have a conscience void of offence. His care and endeavour was to abstain from many things, and to abound in the exercises of religion at all times; both towards God. and towards man. If blamed for being more earnest in the things of God than our neighbours, what is our reply? Do we shrink from the accusation? How many in the world would rather be accused of any weakness, nay, even of wickedness, than of an earnest, fervent feeling of love to the Lord Jesus Christ, and of devotedness to his service! Can such think that He will confess them when he comes in his glory, and before the angels of God? If there is any sight pleasing to the God of our salvation, and a sight at which the angels rejoice, it is, to behold a devoted follower of the Lord, here upon earth, acknowledging that he is guilty, if it be a crime, of loving the Lord who died for him, with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. And that he will not in silence see God's word despised, or hear his name profaned; he will rather risk the ridicule and the hatred of the world, than one frown from that gracious Being whose love is better than life.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Except it be for this one voice - For this one expression or declaration. This was what Paul had said before the council - the main thing on which he had insisted, and he calls on them to testify to this, and to show, if they could, that in this declaration he had been wrong. Chubb and other infidels have supposed that Paul here acknowledges that he was wrong in the declaration which he made when he said that he was called in question for the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead Acts 23:6, and that his conscience reproached him for appearing to be time-serving, for concealing the true cause of offence against him, and for attempting to take advantage of their divisions of sentiment, thus endeavoring to produce discord in the council. But against this supposition we may urge the following considerations:

(1) Paul wished to fix their attention on the main thing which he had said before the council.

(2) it was true, as has been shown on the passage (Acts 23:1-10), that this was the principal doctrine which Paul had been defending.

(3) if they were prepared to witness against him for holding and teaching the resurrection of the dead as a false or evil doctrine, he called on them to do it. As this had been the only thing which they had witnessed before the council, he calls on them to testify to what they knew only, and to show, if they could, that this was wrong.

Touching the resurrection ... - Respecting the resurrection, Acts 23:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. Except … this one voice … Touching the resurrection, &c.—This would recall to the Pharisees present their own inconsistency, in befriending him then and now accusing him.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

As if he had said, Let them object, if they can, any other fault: but if this be a fault, to hold the resurrection of the dead, I do acknowledge it, and there need no other proof concerning it: not that he held any evil to be in this opinion; but he speaks ironically, knowing that they durst not renew their quarrel about it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Except it be for this one voice,.... Sentence or expression following, which declares his faith about the resurrection; not that he thought or owned that this was an evil in him, but that it was the only one, that any of them, the Jews, a part among them, namely, the Sadducees, could condemn, or judge to be evil in him:

that I cried, standing among them; whereby they were thrown into confusion and division among themselves: and it was this,

touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day; see Acts 23:6.

Geneva Study Bible

Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 24:21. ἤ = ἄλλο ἤ after ἀδίκημα (Rendall); St. Paul, of course, uses the word (ἀδίκημα) of his accusers. St. Paul is taken by some to speak ironically … strange ἀδίκημα, a question of belief with regard to which the Jews themselves were at variance, and which the procurator would regard as an idle contention! Weiss renders “or let them say, if in other respects they have found nothing wrong, concerning this one utterance,” etc.—“in what respect they regard it as an ἀδίκημα,” supplying εἰπάτωσαν from the previous verse. On the whole verse see further Blass, Gram., p. 168, Winer-Schmiedel, p. 187; and also p. 225 on ἧς ἔκραξα—ἧ probably not for ἧ (cf. Matthew 27:50), but here φωνή is used in the sense of a loud cry, so that the construction resolves itself into φωνὴν κράζειν, cf. Revelation 6:10; Revelation 5:1. (and for the expression in LXX. Isaiah 6:4). Farrar, St. Paul, ii., 328, thinks that he sees in this utterance some compunction on St. Paul’s part for his action in dividing the Sanhedrim, and for the tumult he had caused, but see above, p. 467.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. except it be for this one voice] i.e. this exclamation or cry. From Acts 23:6 we see that St Paul lifted up his voice, when he mentioned the resurrection.

I am called in question by (R. V. with MSS. before) you] “To call in question” means “to put one on his trial.” Cf. Shaks. Henry IV. (pt. 2) i. 2. 68, “He that was in question for the robbery.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 24:21. Περὶ) Never is there an occasion when Paul omits to make mention concerning the resurrection of the dead.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - Before you for by you, A.V. and T.R. (ἐπί for ὑπό). Except (ἤ): ἄλλο, else, is understood after τί, so that ἤ is equivalent to εἴ μή. Touching the resurrection (see Acts 23:6, where the exact words are," Touching the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am called in question "). Acts 24:21