Acts 23 — Paul before the council; the plot and transfer to Caesarea — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Acts 23 — Paul before the council; the plot and transfer to Caesarea
Paul before the divided council
Verse 23:1
Greek–English Translation
Paul looked intently at the council and said, “Men, brothers, I have conducted my life before God with an entirely good conscience to this day.”
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: Pepoliteumai evokes civic conduct or living one’s public life; conducted my life retains its ethical force without inventing a separate citizenship claim here.
Verse 23:2
Greek–English Translation
The high priest Ananias ordered those standing beside him to strike his mouth.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:3
Greek–English Translation
Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, whitewashed wall! You sit judging me according to the law, yet in violation of the law you order me struck?”
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: The rebuke’s force and the contrast between judging by law and violating it are retained.
Verse 23:4
Greek–English Translation
Those standing nearby said, “Are you insulting God’s high priest?”
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:5
Greek–English Translation
Paul said, “Brothers, I did not know that he was high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: I did not know is retained. The passage does not give a reason such as poor eyesight, unfamiliarity, or irony, so none is supplied as fact.
Verse 23:6
Greek–English Translation
When Paul perceived that one part consisted of Sadducees and the other of Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men, brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am being judged concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead.”
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: Son of Pharisees is plural in the selected reading. The hope-and-resurrection wording may express the hope of resurrection; both terms are retained.
Verse 23:7
Greek–English Translation
As he said this, dissension arose between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the multitude was divided.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:8
Greek–English Translation
For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, nor angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge both.
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: Both is retained although the preceding wording names resurrection, angel, and spirit; angel and spirit can be grouped as a second category. The translation does not silently change the quantifier to all three.
Verse 23:9
Greek–English Translation
A great outcry arose, and some scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and argued fiercely, saying, “We find nothing wrong in this man. But if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him—”
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: The selected sentence breaks off after the conditional clause. Its dash is retained; no let us not fight against God conclusion is supplied from a longer reading. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 23:9 assigns the additional let us not fight against God clause to RP.
Verse 23:10
Greek–English Translation
As the dissension grew great, the tribune feared Paul would be torn apart by them. He ordered the troops to go down, snatch him from their midst, and bring him into the barracks.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:11
Greek–English Translation
The following night the Lord stood beside him and said, “Take courage, for as you have borne solemn witness about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”
Textual and Reception Notes
The plot disclosed by Paul’s nephew
Verse 23:12
Greek–English Translation
When day came, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under a curse, saying they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: The curse-bound group is specified numerically in 23:13, not represented as every Jewish person. The oath’s harmful purpose is part of the narrative, not an endorsed vow.
Verse 23:13
Greek–English Translation
More than forty had made this conspiracy.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:14
Greek–English Translation
They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have bound ourselves under a solemn curse to taste nothing until we have killed Paul.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:15
Greek–English Translation
Now, therefore, you and the council should inform the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you intended to determine his case more accurately. We are ready to kill him before he comes near.”
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: As though marks the proposed hearing as a pretext in the conspirators’ own plan.
Verse 23:16
Greek–English Translation
Paul’s sister’s son heard about the ambush, came and entered the barracks, and reported it to Paul.
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: The family relationship is explicit; the nephew and his mother remain unnamed.
Verse 23:17
Greek–English Translation
Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to report to him.”
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:18
Greek–English Translation
So he took him and brought him to the tribune, saying, “The prisoner Paul called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, since he has something to tell you.”
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:19
Greek–English Translation
The tribune took him by the hand, withdrew privately, and asked, “What is it that you have to report to me?”
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:20
Greek–English Translation
He said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though it intended to inquire more accurately about him.
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: The selected singular neuter participle is taken with the council, rather than silently substituted with a plural referring to the conspirators. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 23:20 lists neuter mellon with NA28, nominative masculine mellōn with WH/Treg and accusative masculine mellonta with RP.
Verse 23:21
Greek–English Translation
But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty men among them are lying in wait for him. They have bound themselves under a curse neither to eat nor to drink until they kill him, and now they are ready, awaiting your agreement.”
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:22
Greek–English Translation
The tribune dismissed the young man, ordering him, “Tell no one that you have disclosed these things to me.”
Textual and Reception Notes
The escort and the commander’s letter
Verse 23:23
Greek–English Translation
He called two of the centurions and said, “Prepare two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, from the third hour of the night.”
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: Dexiolaboi is a rare military designation, conventionally rendered spearmen; its exact equipment and function remain uncertain. All three troop counts and the ancient departure hour are retained without modern conversion.
Verse 23:24
Greek–English Translation
He also ordered mounts to be provided so that they could put Paul on them and bring him safely to Felix the governor.
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: Mounts renders the pack/riding animals in context; the species and number are not stated.
Verse 23:25
Greek–English Translation
He wrote a letter in this form:
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:26
Greek–English Translation
“Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor Felix: greetings.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:27
Greek–English Translation
This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came with the troops and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman.
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: The commander presents his knowledge of Paul’s citizenship as linked to the rescue; the preceding narrative discloses it later, at 22:25–29. The letter’s self-presentation is preserved without rewriting either sequence.
Verse 23:28
Greek–English Translation
Wishing to learn the reason they accused him, I brought him down to their council.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:29
Greek–English Translation
I found him accused over questions of their law, but under no charge deserving death or imprisonment.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:30
Greek–English Translation
When a plot against the man was disclosed to me, I immediately sent him to you, also ordering his accusers to state their case against him before you.”
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: The selected letter ends here without an added farewell formula.
Paul arrives in Caesarea
Verse 23:31
Greek–English Translation
So the soldiers, according to their orders, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:32
Greek–English Translation
The next day they left the horsemen to go on with him and returned to the barracks.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:33
Greek–English Translation
When the horsemen entered Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and also presented Paul before him.
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: Horsemen supplies the antecedent of the Greek relative who, distinguishing them from the soldiers who returned.
Verse 23:34
Greek–English Translation
He read it, asked what province Paul was from, and learned that he was from Cilicia.
Textual and Reception Notes
Verse 23:35
Greek–English Translation
He said, “I will hear you fully when your accusers also arrive,” and ordered him kept under guard in Herod’s praetorium.
Textual and Reception Notes
Text: Praetorium retains the administrative residence designation. No trial verdict is given at this initial reception.