Acts 23:6-10 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brothers… Was Paul disingenuous? No — I. HE WAS A PHARISEE by birth and education; he had a right to throw himself on the only section of the crowd with which he had any sympathy, and it would be a great mistake to suppose that there was not a great deal in the better Pharisees of that day with which Paul and every good man could heartily sympathise, if it were nothing else but their firm belief in a spiritual world, and their sincere attempt to live cleanly. If Paul was to stand his ground for a moment in such an assembly, it must be by an immediate appeal to anything friendly to be found there. II. WAS IT TRUE THAT HE WAS A PRISONER ON ACCOUNT OF HIS BELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION? Was he not rather a prisoner because of his sympathy with the Gentiles? Was he not submitting a false issue at the expense of truth in order to extricate himself from a perilous position? Not at all — he was strictly within the letter and spirit of uprightness. True, the beginning of his troubles had to do with the Gentiles, but the last scene which ended in his being hailed before the Sanhedrin was directly connected with the message he claimed to have had from the Risen One; the mission to the Gentiles held for him its consecrating force directly and solely from "the power of His resurrection," and, like a skilful orator, again Paul takes up, not the central grievance at first, but the controversy just where it had left off in chap. Acts 22:21. That is what Paul stood on — the authority of the risen life. The resurrection happened to be held a verity by the Pharisee and a delusion by the Sadducee — it happened to draw all the Pharisees over to Paul's side — and it was an oratorical feat to pit the two sects against each other, no doubt, but it was justifiable. The plea was perfectly true, consummately opportune, and absolutely successful. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question. |
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