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5. προγινώσκοντές με ἄνωθεν, ἐὰν θώλωσι μαρτυρεῖν, having knowledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify. ἄνωθεν is found Luk 1:3, where the Evangelist is describing his perfect understanding of the Gospel story ‘from the very first.’ When we remember that the early part of his Gospel can hardly have been gathered from anybody but the Virgin Mary, who alone could know many of the details, we may well think that the word ἄνωθεν here implies that St Paul had been known from his very childhood. The rest of the sentence seems to intimate that there were some among those who were now his accusers who could give evidence about his previous years if they were so minded.
κατὰ τὴν ἀκριβεστάτην αἵρεσιν, after the straitest sect. αἵρεσις in the singular = sect, as it is rendered everywhere in the Acts (in A.V.) except Act 25:14. In the Epistles where the plural only occurs it is ‘heresies.’
τῆς ἡμετέρας θρησκείας, of our religion. θρησκεία refers more especially to the outward marks of religious observance or life. Thus it would describe well the ceremonial for which the Pharisees were specially distinguished. In the LXX. it is only used of the worship of idols. See Wis 14:18; Wis 14:27.