Acts 23:3 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Acts 23:3
Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?
and (to sit · verb — present middle or passive deponent indicative, 2nd person singular
thou
σεse
G4771
thou · personal pronoun — 2nd person accusative singular
judge
κρίνωνkrinōn
G2919
by implication · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
me
μεme
G3165
me · personal pronoun — 1st person accusative singular
after
κατὰkata
G2596
(prepositionally) down (in place or time) · preposition
law
νόμον,nomon
G3551
law (through the idea of prescriptive usage) · noun — accusative singular masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
commandest
κελεύειςkeleueis
G2753
"hail" · verb — present active indicative, 2nd person singular
me
μεme
G3165
me · personal pronoun — 1st person accusative singular
smitten
τύπτεσθαι;tuptesthai
G5180
to "thump" · verb — present passive infinitive
law
παρανομῶνparanomōn
G3891
to be opposed to law · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
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
Deuteronomy 25:1-2 If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, a…
John 7:51 Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?
Matthew 23:27-28 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are with…
Leviticus 19:15 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in right…
Leviticus 19:35 Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in weight, or in measure.
Psalms 58:1-2 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
Psalms 82:1-2 God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
Psalms 94:20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?
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…
God shall smite thee--as indeed He did; for he was killed by an assassin during the Jewish war [JOSEPHUS, Wars of the Jews, 2.17.9].
thou whited wall--that is, hypocrite (Mat 23:27). This epithet, however correctly describing the man, must not be defended as addressed to a judge, though the remonstrance which follows--"for sittest thou," &c.--ought to have put him to shame.
Adam Clarke on Acts 23:3
God shall smite thee, thou whited wall - Thou hypocrite! who sittest on the seat of judgment, pretending to hear and seriously weigh the defense of an accused person, who must in justice and equity be presumed to be innocent till he is proved to be guilty; and, instead of acting according to the law, commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law, which always has the person of the prisoner under its protection; nor ever suffers any penalty to be inflicted but what is prescribed as the just punishment for the offense. As if he had said: "Thinkest thou that God will suffer such an insult on his laws, on justice, and on humanity, to pass unpunished?"
John Gill on Acts 23:3
Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee,.... Which may be considered either as a prophecy of what would be, that God would smite him with some judgment here, or with death quickly, or with eternal damnation hereafter; taking up his own words, and suggesting that a retaliation would be made, and that the measure he meted, would be measured to him again; or else as an imprecation upon him; for the words may be rendered, "may God smite thee"; the future tense being often used by the Jews for the imperative, and that in this very phrase; for certain it is, that this is the form of an imprecation with them: for it is said, if anyone should say, , "may God smite", or "so may God smite"; this…
The Church Fathers
Of course, those who do not understand him think that [Paul] uttered a reproach when he had been slapped by order of the high priest, for, with seeming insolence, he then said, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall." But those who understand him take this as a prophecy. The "whitewashed wall" stands for hypocrisy; it is pretense, veiled beneath the priestly dignity, and under this title—as though beneath a white covering—it conceals, as it were, an inner slimy filthiness.
God will strike you, whitewashed wall. He did not say this disturbed in mind, but indeed he spoke prophetically, because that figurative priesthood, which was composed in the likeness of a whitewashed wall, was to be struck and destroyed when the true priesthood of Christ had come, with the apostles preaching the Gospel. And that is why he said: God will strike you. He did not say, may He strike you: indeed indicating this in the indicative mode that it would happen, not cursing in the optative. For that he spoke these things with a calm mind, he shows by the following response, saying:
"God will strike you, you who have been puffed up." It is worth asking how the same speaker elsewhere says, "When condemned we bless, when persecuted we endure," (1 Cor. 4:12) whereas here, on the contrary, he not only condemns but also curses. And we say that these expressions are more a matter of boldness than of anger. For he did not wish to appear scornful toward the centurion. If he himself refrained from sparing the rod, as though about to be handed over to the Jews to be beaten by their servants, he would have made that man more brazen. But this is not, as some say, addressed to the child, but to the one who gave the command, for whom he immediately pleads. For knowing that one must also restrain righteous anger and hide rightful indignation, he speaks as if repenting: "I did not know that he is the high priest," although he knew.
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
Ananias — A common Jewish name, the same as Hananiah. (1.) One of the members of the church at Jerusalem, who conspired with his wife Sapphira to deceive the brethren, and who fell down and immediately expired…
Thorn in the flesh — (2 Cor. 12:7-10). Many interpretations have been given of this passage. (1.) Roman Catholic writers think that it denotes suggestions to impiety. (2.) Luther, Calvin, and other Reformers interpret…
Ananias · 1. High priest, before whom Paul was tried — 1. High priest, before whom Paul was tried
Court · CONTEMPT OF — CONTEMPT OF
Courts Of Justice · The accused: Sometimes treated with insult — The accused: Sometimes treated with insult
Defense · Of PaulAc 22; — Of PaulAc 22;
High Priest, The · Duties of: Presiding in the superior court — Duties of: Presiding in the superior court
Law Of Moses, The · Divided into: Civil, relating to administration of justice — Divided into: Civil, relating to administration of justice
Walls · Illustrative: (Whited,) of hypocrites — Illustrative: (Whited,) of hypocrites
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 23:1-5
1. And Paul beheld the council steadfastly, and said, Men and brethren, I have served God until this day in all good conscience. 2. And the high priest Ananias commanded those that stood by him to smite him on the face. 3. Then Paul said to him, God will smite thee, thou painted wall; and thou sittest judging according to law, and transgressing the law, commandest thou me to be smitten? 4. And those which stood by said, Railest thou on God's high priest? 5. And Paul said, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest; for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.
1. Looking earnestly. Paul beginneth with the testimony of a good conscience, that a…
