Paul’s Second Defense to the Sanhedrin

Explaining the Defense

• Paul had been in the temple with four believers; a mob formed trying to kill him; saved by the Romans then made his first defense(apology) before the crowd of a Jewish worshippers ( ch. 21:27-22:21)
• "The next day" Claudius Lydias, the Roman tribune "desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews…commanded…all the council (Sanhedrin) to meet (22:30)

  The Sanhedrin has been called the "supreme court of the Jewish nation" (F.F. Bruce)
  it was made up of the two parties of Pharisees & Sadducees which were either "chief priests, elders, scribes," with high priest as chairman.

• Paul's defense (Greek, apologia, "apology")

  "I have lived my life (Greek, politeuoma, has political overtones of "being a good citizen") before God I all good conscience up to this day" (23:1)
  "The high priest Ananias commanded…to strike him on the mouth" (23:2)
  -Became high priest in AD 48, reputation as violent, untrustworthy, taker of bribes, confiscator of the old tithes, and being pro-Roman.
  "God is going to strike you whitewashed wall!" (23:3)
  -Ezekiel 13:10-16
  -In AD 66, the Jews burned his house casing him to flee, where he was found in an aqueduct and
  killed
  "I did not know he was the high priest" (23:5); citing Exodus 22:28
  "I am a Pharisee…it is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial"
  (23:6)

Applying the Defense

• 1st Entrust your life to loving providence of God very moment in every area
• 2nd Be confident that God has a plan & purpose for the evil that befalls you
• 3rd Embrace the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ with you in suffering