Acts 23:6

γνοὺς … τὸ … ἓ τὸ δὲ ἕτερον. On ἕν … ἕτερον : see Simcox Language of the N.T., pp. 71, 72. That Pharisees and Sadducees alike had seats in the Sanhedrim during this period is borne out not only by the N. T., but by Jos., Ant., xx., 9, 1, B.J., ii., 17, 3, Vita, 38, 39. It is possible that the Pharisees might have attracted the attention of the Apostle by their protest against the behaviour of Ananias and their acceptance of the words of apology (so Felten, Zöckler), but it is equally probable that in St. Luke's apparently condensed account the appeal to the Pharisees was not made on a sudden impulse (see below), but was based upon some manifestation of sympathy with his utterances. In Acts 23:9 it is evidently implied that the story of Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus had been narrated, and his acceptance of the Messiahship of the Risen Jesus carried with it his belief in a resurrection. ἔκραξεν : the word may here as sometimes elsewhere, cf. John 7:37; John 12:44, indicate no isolated cry, but a reference to something previously said, and it is probable that St. Luke may have passed over here as elsewhere some portions of the Apostle's speech, which were less intimately connected with the development and issue of events. It must however be noted that the verb may mean that the Apostle cried aloud so that all might hear him amidst the rising confusion. ἐγὼ φαρι. εἰμι κ. τ. λ.: the words have been severely criticised, but in a very real sense they truthfully expressed the Apostle's convictions. Before Felix St. Paul made practically the same assertion, although he did not use the word φαρ. (cf. also Acts 26:5), Hort, Judaistic Christianity, p. 111. Moreover it is difficult to see why the Apostle should not describe himself as a Pharisee in face of the statement, Acts 15:5, that many members of the sect were also members of the Christian Church. They, like St. Paul, must have acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah. But that Messiahship was attested by the avowal of the resurrection of Jesus, and the resurrection was a prominent article of the Pharisees' creed. In the acceptance of this latter doctrine St. Paul was at one not only with the “Pharisees who believed,” but with the whole sect, and that he used the title in this limited way, viz., with relation to the hope of the resurrection, is plain from the context, which fixes the limitation by the Apostle's own words. But because the declaration shows the tact of St. Paul, because it is an instance of his acting upon the maxim Divide et impera, has it no higher side in relation to his character and purpose? May we not even say that to the Pharisees he became as a Pharisee in order to save some, to lead them to see the crown and fulfilment of the hope in which he and they were at one, in the Person of Jesus, the Resurrection and the Life? That the Apostle's action met with Divine approval seems evident, Acts 23:11. See “Paul” (Dr. Llewellyn Davies), B.D. 1, iii., 754, 755, and amongst recent writers, Luckock, but on the other hand Gilbert, Student's Life of Paul, p. 187 ff. Bethge attributes to the Apostle an apologetic aim, viz., to show the chiliarch that Christianity should be protected by the State, since it was no new religion, but really proceeded from Judaism; and in support he refers to the words of Lysias, Acts 23:29; but although the Apostle's appeal may have helped Lysias to form his judgment, it seems somewhat strained to attribute to the Apostle the motive assigned by Bethge. υἱὸς φαρ.: “a son of Pharisees,” R.V. plural, which is the best reading, i.e., his ancestors, 2 Timothy 1:3; Philippians 3:5, possibly including his teachers by a familiar Hebraism. περὶ ἐλπίδος καὶ ἀνασ.: generally taken as a hendiadys (so Page), “hope of a resurrection of the dead” (see, however, Winer-Moulton, lxvi. 7). In Acts 26:6 ἐλπίς is used of the hope of a future Messianic salvation the hope of Israel but in Acts 24:15 St. Paul distinctly makes mention of the hope of a resurrection of the dead, and his own words again in Acts 24:21 seem to exclude anything beyond that question as under discussion on the present occasion.