1. Paul looked at the Jewish council and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life in a good way before God up to this day.”
2. Ananias, the high priest, heard this and told the men who were standing near Paul to hit him on his mouth.
3. Paul said to Ananias, “God will hit you too! You are like a wall that has been painted white! You sit there and judge me, using the law of Moses. But you are telling them to hit me, and that is against the law.”
4. The men standing near Paul said to him, “You cannot talk like that to God’s high priest! You are insulting him!”
5. Paul said, “Brothers, I did not know this man was the high priest. It is written in the Scriptures, ‘You must not curse a leader of your people.’”
6. Some of the men in the meeting were Sadducees, and others were Pharisees. So Paul shouted to them, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee and my father was a Pharisee! I am on trial here because I hope that people will rise from death!”
7. When Paul said this, there was an argument between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The group was divided.
8. (The Sadducees believe that after people die, they cannot live again. The Sadducees also teach that there are no angels or spirits. But the Pharisees believe in them all.)
9. So there was a great uproar. Some of the teachers of the law, who were Pharisees, stood up and argued, “We find nothing wrong with this man! Maybe an angel or a spirit did speak to him.”
10. The argument was beginning to turn into a fight. The commander was afraid that the Jews would tear Paul to pieces. So the commander told the soldiers to go down and take Paul away and put him in the army building.
11. The next night the Lord came and stood by Paul. He said, “Be brave! You have told people in Jerusalem about me. You must do the same in Rome also.”
12. In the morning some of the Jews made a plan to kill Paul. They made a promise that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed him.
13. There were more than 40 Jews who made this plan.