Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 23:3 - 23:3
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
3. τύπτειν σε μέλλει ὁ θεός, τοῖχε κεκονιαμένε, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. Here we may see how very far even the excellence of St Paul comes short of the behaviour of the Divine Master, who when He suffered threatened not, and when reviled, reviled not again. We need not however consider that St Paul’s language here was a wish for evil upon the high priest, but only an expression of confidence in God that such conduct as that of Ananias would not be allowed to go unpunished. We know from Josephus (B. J. II. 17. 9) that Ananias did come to a violent end. St Paul calls him ‘whited wall’ because he bore the semblance of a minister of justice, but was not what he seemed. Cf. ‘whited sepulchres’ (τάφοι κεκονιαμένοι, Mat 23:27). κεκονιαμένοι μετὰ ἀδικίας is found in LXX. (Pro 21:9).
καὶ σὺ κάθη κρίνων με, and dost thou sit judging me. The σὺ seems intended to refer to the epithet just applied to Ananias. Dost thou (such an one) sit, &c.
παρανομῶν, contrary to the law. Literally ‘transgressing the Law.’ For St Paul had not yet been heard to the end. Cf. Joh 7:51.