Acts 26:5

After the most straitest sect— The strictest sect. So Josephus, in a variety of places, calls the sect of the Pharisees, almost in the very words which the apostle uses. They were in many respects stricter than the Essenes. It appears from the gospels, that many rigorous severities were used by them. Compare Luke 18:11. Matthew 23:25. We are told, among other instances of their rigour, that many of them used to sleep on narrow planks, that, falling down from them, they might soon be awakened to prayer; and that others lay on gravel, and placed thorns so near them, that they could not turn without being pricked by them. See Witsius's Meletem. 100: i, sect. 15.