Acts 23:1-12
looked directly <816> [earnestly.]
Brothers <435> [Men.]
I have lived <1473 4176> [I have.]
Ananias <367> [Ananias.]
strike <5180> [to smite.]
God <2316> [God.]
God did smite him in a remarkable manner; for about five years after this, after his house had been reduced to ashes, in a tumult raised by his own son, he was besieged and taken in the royal palace; where having attempted in vain to hide himself, he was dragged out and slain.
whitewashed <2867> [thou whited.]
and <2532> [for.]
to strike ......................... to be struck <5180> [smitten.]
I did ... realize <1492> [I wist.]
Soon after the holding of the first council at Jerusalem, Ananias, son of Nebedenus, was deprived of the high priest's office, for certain acts of violence, and sent to Rome, whence he was afterwards released, and returned to Jerusalem. Between the death of Jonathan, who succeeded him and was murdered by Felix, and the high priesthood of Ismael, who was invested with that office by Agrippa, an interval elapsed in which this dignity was vacant. This was the precise time when Paul was apprehended; and the Sanhedrin being destitute of a president, Ananias undertook to discharge the office. It is probable that Paul was ignorant of this circumstance.
must ... speak <2046> [Thou.]
Paul <3972> [Paul.]
were .............. I am ........ I am on trial <1473 1510 2919> [I am.]
concerning ... hope <4012 1680> [of the hope.]
began <1096> [there.]
We find <2147> [We.]
if <1487> [if.]
<2313> [let.]
<2125> [fearing.]
take ... away .... by force <726> [to take.]
Lord <2962> [the Lord.]
Have courage <2293> [Be.]
for <1063> [for.]
must <1163> [must.]
<5100> [certain.]
bound ... with an oath <332> [bound.]
bound ... with an oath <332> [under a curse. or, with an oath of execration.]
to eat <5315> [that.]
Such execrable vows as these were not unusual among the Jews, who, from their perverted traditions, challenged to themselves a right of punishing without any legal process, those whom they considered transgressors of the law; and in some cases, as in the case of one who had forsaken the law of Moses, they thought they were justified in killing them. They therefore made no scruple of acquainting the chief priests and elders with their conspiracy against the life of Paul, and applying for their connivance and support; who, being chiefly of the sect of the Sadducees, and the apostle's bitterest enemies, were so far from blaming them for it, that they gladly aided and abetted them in this mode of dispatching him, and on its failure they soon afterwards determined upon making a similar attempt. (ch. 25:2, 3.) If these were, in their bad way, conscientious men, they were under no necessity of perishing for hunger, when the providence of God had hindered them from accomplishing their vow; for their vows of abstinence from eating and drinking were as easy to loose as to bind, any of their wise men or Rabbis having power to absolve them, as Dr. Lightfoot has shown from the Talmud.
