Acts 23:1

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

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
And	δὲ de	G1161	but · conjunction
Paul	Παῦλος Paulos	G3972	(little · noun — nominative singular masculine, a proper name
beholding	Ἀτενίσας Atenisas	G816	to gaze intently · verb — aorist active participle, nominative singular masculine
council	συνεδρίῳ sunedriō	G4892	a joint session · noun — dative singular neuter
said	εἶπεν· eipen	G2036	to speak or say (by word or writing) · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
Men	ἄνδρες andres	G435	a man (properly as an individual male) · noun — vocative plural masculine
brethren	ἀδελφοί, adelphoi	G80	a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (m… · noun — vocative plural masculine
I	ἐγὼ egō	G1473	I · personal pronoun — 1st person nominative singular
lived	πεπολίτευμαι pepoliteumai	G4176	to behave as a citizen (figuratively) · verb — perfect middle indicative, 1st person singular
all	πάσῃ pasē	G3956	all · adjective — dative singular feminine
good	ἀγαθῇ agathēa	G18	"good" (in any sense · adjective — dative singular feminine
conscience	συνειδήσει suneidēsei	G4893	co-perception · noun — dative singular feminine
God	θεῷ theō	G2316	figuratively · noun — dative singular masculine, a title
until	ἄχρι achri	G891	(of time) until or (of place) up to · preposition
this	ταύτης tautēs	G3778	the he (she or it) · demonstrative pronoun — genitive singular feminine
day	ἡμέρας. hēmeras	G2250	day · noun — genitive singular feminine

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Acts 24:16 And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.
2 Corinthians 1:12 For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grac…
2 Timothy 1:3 I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and…
Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.
1 Corinthians 4:4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
Acts 22:5 As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and wen…
Proverbs 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.
Acts 23:6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pha…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Acts 23:1-5

Perhaps when Paul was brought, as he often was (corpus cum causa - the person and the cause together), before heathen magistrates and councils, where he and his cause were slighted, because not at all understood, he thought, if he were brought before the sanhedrim at Jerusalem, he should be able to deal with them to some good purpose, and yet we do not find that he works at all upon them. Here we have, I. Paul's protestation of his own integrity. Whether the chief priest put any question to him, or the chief captain made any representation of his case to the court, we are not told; but Paul appeared here, 1. With a good courage. He was not at all put out of countenance upon his being brought…

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Adam Clarke on Acts 23:1

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 o…

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John Gill on Acts 23:1

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…

The Church Fathers

"And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." It shows his boldness, and how it awed them. What he means is this: I am not conscious to myself of having wronged you at all, or of having done anything worthy of these bonds.
— John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 48

"And Paul looking upon the council, said," etc. When Paul had said right in front of the council: "Men, brethren, I have conversed with all good conscience before God until this present day," the high priest Ananias commanded the men who stood by him to strike Paul's mouth, on the grounds that it had been blaspheming. But Paul replied to him with a free voice: "God shall strike thee, thou whited wall, that, sitting in a judge's place, commandest against the law that I be struck." When they accused him of wishing to revile the high priest, he replied that he had not known he had such a high dignity. And Paul, knowing that both Pharisees and Sadducees, who hold divergent beliefs from one another, had assembled there, proclaimed with a loud voice that he was a Pharisee and that he was standing a grievous trial because of the hope and resurrection of the dead, which they themselves believed in. At these words, a dispute soon arose among them, and the assembly was scattered.
— Cassiodorus, Complexiones on the Acts of the Apostles

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Conscience · 20:12; — 20:12;
Court · CONTEMPT OF — CONTEMPT OF
Defense · Of PaulAc 22; — Of PaulAc 22;
High Priest, The · Duties of: Presiding in the superior court — Duties of: Presiding in the superior court
Integrity · 3:13,14;6:31;11:42;16:10; — 3:13,14;6:31;11:42;16:10;

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Acts 23:1

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Acts 23:1-5

Adam Clarke on Acts 23:1

John Gill on Acts 23:1

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Acts 23:1

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Acts 23:1-5

Adam Clarke on Acts 23:1

John Gill on Acts 23:1

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Acts 23:1-5

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Acts 23:1