Acts 23:1
<< Acts 23:1 >>
New International Version (©1984)
Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day."

New Living Translation (©2007)
Gazing intently at the high council, Paul began: "Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!"

English Standard Version (©2001)
And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Paul, looking intently at the Council, said, "Brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day."

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

International Standard Version (©2008)
Paul looked straight at the Council and said, "Brothers, with a clear conscience I have done my duty before God up to this very day."

Aramaic Bible in Plain English (©2010)
And Paulus gazed at The Assembly and he said, “Men, brothers: in all good conscience I have lived before God, until today.”

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Paul stared at the Jewish council and said, "Brothers, my relationship with God has always given me a perfectly clear conscience."

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

American King James Version
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brothers, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

American Standard Version
And Paul, looking stedfastly on the council, said, Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day.

Douay-Rheims Bible
AND Paul looking upon the council, said: Men, brethren, I have conversed with all good conscience before God until this present day.

Darby Bible Translation
And Paul, fixing his eyes on the council, said, Brethren, I have walked in all good conscience with God unto this day.

English Revised Version
And Paul, looking stedfastly on the council, said, Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day.

Webster's Bible Translation
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men, brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

Weymouth New Testament
Then Paul, fixing a steady gaze on the Sanhedrin, said, "Brethren, it is with a perfectly clear conscience that I have discharged my duties before God up to this day."

World English Bible
Paul, looking steadfastly at the council, said, "Brothers, I have lived before God in all good conscience until this day."

Young's Literal Translation
And Paul having earnestly beheld the sanhedrim, said, 'Men, brethren, I in all good conscience have lived to God unto this day;'

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And Paul, earnestly beholding - ἀτενίσας atenisas. Fixing his eyes intently on the council. The word denotes "a fixed and earnest gazing; a close observation." See Luke 4:20. Compare the notes on Acts 3:4. Paul would naturally look with a keen and attentive observation on the council. He was arraigned before them, and he would naturally observe the appearance, and endeavor to ascertain the character of his judges. Besides, it was by this council that he had been formerly commissioned to persecute the Christians, Acts 9:1-2. He had not seen them since that commission was given. He would naturally, therefore, regard them with an attentive eye. The result shows, also, that he looked at them to see what was the character of the men there assembled, and what was the proportion of Pharisees and Sadducees, Acts 23:6.

The council - Greek: the Sanhedrin, Acts 22:30. It was the great council, composed of seventy elders, to whom was entrusted the affairs of the nation. See the notes on Matthew 1:4.

Men and brethren - Greek: "Men, brethren"; the usual form of beginning an address among the Jews. See Acts 2:29. He addressed them still as his brethren.

I have lived in all good conscience - I have conducted myself so as to maintain a good conscience. I have done what I believed to be right. This was a bold declaration, after the tumult, and charges, and accusations of the previous day Acts 22; and yet it was strictly true. His persecutions of the Christians had been conducted conscientiously, Acts 26:9, "I verily thought with myself," says he, "that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." Of his conscientiousness and fidelity in their service they could bear witness. Of his conscientiousness since, he could make a similar declaration. He doubtless meant to say that as he had been conscientious in persecution, so he had been in his conversion and in his subsequent course. And as they knew that his former life had been with a good conscience, they ought to presume that he had maintained the same character still. This was a remarkably bold appeal to be made by an accused man, and it shows the strong consciousness which Paul had of his innocence. What would have been the drift of his discourse in proving this we can only Conjecture. He was interrupted Acts 23:2; but there can be no doubt that he would have pursued such a course of argument as would tend to establish his innocence.

Before God - Greek: to God - τῷ Θεῷ tō Theō. He had lived to God, or with reference to his commands, so as to keep a conscience pure in his sight. The same principle of conduct he states more at length in Acts 24:16; "And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men."

Until this day - Including the time before his conversion to Christianity, and after. In both conditions he was conscientious; in one, conscientious in persecution and error, though he deemed it to be right; in the other, conscientious in the truth. The mere fact that a man is conscientious does not prove that he is right or innocent. See the note on John 16:2.


Clarke's Commentary on the Bible

I have lived in all good conscience - Some people seem to have been unnecessarily stumbled with this expression. What does the apostle mean by it? Why, that, while he was a Jew, he was one from principle of conscience; that what he did, while he continued Jew, he did from the same principle; that, when God opened his eyes to see the nature of Christianity, he became a Christian, because God persuaded his conscience that it was right for him to become one; that, in a word, he was sincere through the whole course of his religious life, and his conduct had borne the most unequivocal proofs of it. The apostle means, therefore, that there was no part of his life in which he acted as a dishonest or hypocritical man; and that he was now as fully determined to maintain his profession of Christianity as he ever was to maintain that of Judaism, previously to his acquaintance with the Christian religion.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Paul earnestly beholding the council,.... Fastening his eyes upon them, looking wistly and intently at them, and thereby discovering a modest cheerfulness, and a becoming boldness, confidence, and intrepidity, as being not conscious of any guilt, and well assured of the goodness of his cause:

said, men and brethren; see Acts 22:1.

I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day; not only from the time of his conversion, but throughout the whole of his life; for though, strictly speaking, there is no good conscience but what is awakened by the Spirit of God, and is unprincipled by his grace, and is purged from sin by the blood of Christ; in which sense he could only have a good conscience, since he believed in Christ; yet whereas in his state of unregeneracy, and even while he was a blasphemer, and persecutor, he did not act contrary to the dictates of his conscience, but according to them, in which his view was to the glory of God, and the honour of his law; he therefore says he lived before God, or unto God, in all good conscience, though an erroneous and mistaken one; he thought he ought to do what he did; and what he did, he did with a zeal for God though it was not according to knowledge: besides, the apostle has here respect to his outward moral conversation, which, before and after conversion, was very strict, and even blameless, at least unblemished before men; nobody could charge him with any notorious crime, though he did not live without sin in the sight of the omniscient God.


Vincent's Word Studies

Earnestly beholding

See on Luke 4:20. Some, who hold that Paul's eyesight was defective, explain this steadfast look in connection with his imperfect vision.

Men and brethren

He addresses the Sanhedrim as an equal.

I have lived (πεπολίτευμαι)

Lit., have lived as a citizen, with special reference to the charge against him that he taught men against the law and the temple. He means that he has lived as a true and loyal Jew.

Conscience (συνειδήσει)

See on 1 Peter 3:16.


Geneva Study Bible

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.


Matthew 5:22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Acts 22:5 as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
Acts 22:30 The next day, since the commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.
Acts 23:6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead."
Acts 23:15 Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here."
Acts 23:20 He said: "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about him.
Acts 23:28 I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin.
Acts 24:16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.
1 Corinthians 4:4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me.
2 Corinthians 1:12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom but according to God's grace.
2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.

Beheld Beholding Clear Conscience Council Discharged Duties Earnestly Eyes Fixing Fulfilled Gaze Good Intently Life Paul Perfectly Sanhedrim Sanhedrin Steadfastly Steady Stedfastly Upright Walked


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

1 As Paul pleads his cause,
2 Ananias commands them to smite him.
7 Dissension among his accusers.
11 God encourages him.
14 The Jews' laying wait for Paul,
20 is declared unto the chief captain.
27 He sends him to Felix the governor.

earnestly. 6 6:15 22:5 Pr 28:1

Men. 22:1

I have. 24:16 1Co 4:4 2Co 1:12 4:2 2Ti 1:3 Heb 13:18 1Pe 3:16

Acts Chapter 23 Verse 1

Alphabetical: a all and at before Brethren brothers conscience Council day duty fulfilled God good have I in intently life lived looked looking My Paul perfectly said Sanhedrin straight the this to up with

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