And {1} Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

(1) Paul, against the false accusations of his enemies, displays a clear conscience, for proof of which he repeats the whole course of his life.

People's New Testament

23:1 Paul's Defense Before the Sanhedrin

SUMMARY OF ACTS 23:

The Insult of the High Priest. Paul's Rebuke. His Appeal to the Pharisees. Their Favor. The Dissension; Paul Removed. The Vision of the Lord in the Night. The Plot of the Sicarii. Revealed to the Chief Captain by Paul's Nephew. Paul Sent Under an Escort of Soldiers to Caesarea. The Letter of Claudius Lysias to Felix.

Paul, earnestly beholding the council. Attentively studying his audience, and no doubt seeking whether there were old acquaintances among the members of the Sanhedrin. He probably knew at least a part of the body. Many years before he had been its trusted agent, to execute its orders against Christians; now he is on trial before it for being one of that body which it formerly employed him to destroy. They regarded him a renegade, much as out countrymen regard Benedict Arnold, and their hate was so vindictive that they were utterly unable to listen calmly to his defense. Hence, as soon as he began by declaring that he had acted in all good conscience until this day, the high priest ordered that he be smitten in the mouth (Ac 23:2).

Wesley's Notes

23:1 And Paul earnestly beholding the council - Professing a clear conscience by his very countenance; and likewise waiting to see whether any of them was minded to ask him any question, said, I have lived in all good conscience before God till this day - He speaks chiefly of the time since he became a Christian. For none questioned him concerning what he had been before. And yet even in his unconverted state, although he was in an error, yet he had acted from conscience, before God - Whatever men may think or say of me.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 23

Ac 23:1-10. Paul's Defense before the Samhedrim Divides the Rival Factions, from Whose Violence the Commandant Has the Apostle Removed into the Fortress.

1. Paul, earnestly beholding the council-with a look of conscious integrity and unfaltering courage, perhaps also recognizing some of his early fellow pupils.

I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day-The word has an indirect reference to the "polity" or "commonwealth of Israel," of which he would signify that he had been, and was to that hour, an honest and God-fearing member.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:1-5 See here the character of an honest man. He sets God before him, and lives as in his sight. He makes conscience of what he says and does, and, according to the best of his knowledge, he keeps from whatever is evil, and cleaves to what is good. He is conscientious in all his words and conduct. Those who thus live before God, may, like Paul, have confidence both toward God and man. Though the answer of Paul contained a just rebuke and prediction, he seems to have been too angry at the treatment he received in uttering them. Great men may be told of their faults, and public complaints may be made in a proper manner; but the law of God requires respect for those in authority.