Acts 23:1-9 ▼

1 Paul stared at the Jewish council and said, |Brothers, my relationship with God has always given me a perfectly clear conscience.|

2 The chief priest Ananias ordered the men standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.

3 Then Paul said to him, |God will strike you, you hypocrite! You sit there and judge me by Moses' Teachings and yet you break those teachings by ordering these men to strike me!|

4 The men standing near Paul said to him, |You're insulting God's chief priest!|

5 Paul answered, |Brothers, I didn't know that he is the chief priest. After all, Scripture says, 'Don't speak evil about a ruler of your people.'|

6 When Paul saw that some of them were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he shouted in the council, |Brothers, I'm a Pharisee and a descendant of Pharisees. I'm on trial because I expect that the dead will come back to life.|

7 After Paul said that, the Pharisees and Sadducees began to quarrel, and the men in the meeting were divided.

8 (The Sadducees say that the dead won't come back to life and that angels and spirits don't exist. The Pharisees believe in all these things.)

9 The shouting became very loud. Some of the scribes were Pharisees who argued their position forcefully. They said, |We don't find anything wrong with this man. Maybe a spirit or an angel actually spoke to him!|