See in Reader
1.6 KiB
Acts 23 General Notes
Structure and formatting
Some translations set quotations from the Old Testament farther to the right on the page than the rest of the text. The ULB does this with the quoted material in 23:5.
Special concepts in this chapter
Resurrection of the dead
The Pharisees believed that after people died, they would become alive again and God would either reward them or punish them. The Sadducees believed that once people died, they stayed dead and would never become alive again. (See: rc://en/tw/dict/bible/other/raise and rc://en/tw/dict/bible/other/reward)
"Called a curse"
Some Jews promised God that they would not eat or drink until they killed Paul, and they asked God to punish them if they did not do what they had promised to do.
Roman citizenship
The Romans thought that they needed to treat only Roman citizens justly. They could do as they desired with people who were not Roman citizens, but they had to obey the law with other Romans. Some people were born Roman citizens, and others gave money to the Roman government so they could become Roman citizens. The "chief captain" could have been punished for treating a Roman citizen the same way he would treat a non-citizen.
Important figures of speech in this chapter
Whitewash
This is a common metaphor in Scripture for appearing to be good or clean or righteous when one is evil or unclean or unrighteous. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor)