Footsteps #386. The next day Paul appeared before the Governor and a meeting of the Sanhedrin. The High Priest at that time was a tyrant named Ananias and his conduct towards Paul gives us an insight into his character. Scarcely had the apostle uttered the first sentence of his defence when Ananias ordered the officers of the court to smite him on the face. Stung by an insult so flagrant and outrage so undeserved, the natural temperament of Paul flamed into that sudden sense of anger that ought to be controlled. On the spur of the moment, he breathed out, “God will slap you, you corrupt hypocrite! What kind of judge are you to break the law yourself by ordering me struck like that?(Acts 23:3 NLT). God did take revenge on Ananias for his cruelty and hypocrisy. He was treacherously deposed from his position sometime later and few pitied him when he was dragged out of his hiding place in a sewer to perish miserably by the daggers of men who hated him. Paul’s anger expended itself in that one outburst and he instantly apologised (v5). But you and I know that it was more than pardonable if on that day he was a little unhinged, both morally and spiritually, by the wild and awful trials of the day before. It demonstrates that even near the end of his life sin was still somewhere inside him; resident but not president!  

While before the Sanhedrin Paul saw that he would meet with neither justice nor mercy from this tribunal and so he decided to throw among them the apple of discord. The Pharisees and Sadducees had widely differing opinions on the issue of the resurrection and so Paul Raised that issue among them. The stratagem was for the time almost magically successful. Paul’s enemies were instantly at each other’s throats. The scribes and Pharisees united to declare Paul’s innocence and the Sadducees that he was guilty. The clamour was succeeded by a tumult so violent that Paul again had to be whisked away to safety. 

Paul’s statement (Acts 23:6), however, was more than a clever tactic to distract the Sanhedrin. Since his encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus road lay at the foundation of his conversion and apostolic ministry, belief in the resurrection was the real issue for which he was being judged (Acts 24:20, 21; 26:6–8). Nothing else could explain how he had changed from his former zeal to become what he was now. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, then his ministry was pointless, and he knew it, too (1 Cor. 15:14–17).