Despite Paul's attempts to reason with the zealous Jewish mob in Jerusalem, they demanded his execution. The tribune, a Roman official, thought he could get to the bottom of things by torturing the truth out of Paul.
Paul had endured beatings before that were in accordance with Jewish law, but not a Roman beating, which was much more than the word implies. Roman beatings like this one used a leather whip with metal or bone woven into them, resulting in the victim's flesh being ripped off during torture. It was common for victims to die as a result of the experience.(22:23-24)
Either because of the threat of death or because he would now have legal grounds against his would-be torturers, Paul declares his Roman citizenship at this time. In fact when pressed, Paul declares that he was a citizen by birth, which comes with a higher social standing than someone like the tribune, who had purchased his citizenship.
Since it was illegal to torture a Roman citizen, both the torturers and the tribune in charge became nervous. This was a detail they should not have missed and could now be in serious trouble themselves if Paul brought charges against them. (22:25-29)
The tribune then cleverly sets Paul "free", but first orders the Sanhedrin to meet and drops Paul off in front of them. At this point, Paul has been technically set free from the tribune's supervision, but Rome respected the right for Jews to govern their own people through their religious institutions, and even backed up rulings of Jewish courts with troop assistance. So the tribune is no longer responsible for imprisoning Paul, but still doesn't have to worry about him causing trouble and getting the mob angry again.
The Sanhedrin was made up of two kinds of Jewish religious leaders from two different schools of thought. The Sadducees did not believe in angels, spirits or life after death. (So they're very "sad, you see". Yeah, lame. But a handy memory device to keep these guys straight.) The Pharisees believed in angels and spirits, and also believed in a future resurrection from the dead.
Again, Paul looks for common ground, calling the council members "brothers", and claiming he had lived his life in good conscience before God until now. Of course Paul remembered how he had persecuted Christians, but he likely means here that even at that time he was doing what he thought was right and in service to God. (23:1)
The Sanhedrin now had a new high priest, Ananias, not to be confused with the high priest who had been serving at the time of Jesus' crucifixion. History informs us that Ananias was a tool of the Roman government who was drawn to using violence in the court and had also been stealing temple money that should have gone toward some of the poorer priests incomes. He was far from having his people's best interests in mind and was in fact killed by Jews during an uprising only a few years after this. (See the IVP Bible Background Commentary, Keener. Pg. 391)
Ananias didn't like Paul's claim to innocence of conscience, and had him struck. But Paul responds by accusing the High Priest of wrongdoing, since he had already begun to administer punishment before guilt or innocence had been determined. Paul calls him a whitewashed wall, a metaphor that describes something that was corrupt but had been painted over to hide the corruption. (23:2-3)
There are a few reasons for which Paul may seem to be "apologizing" for his words against the high priest. One is that he honestly did not recognize him. It's believed that Paul had poor eyesight. This also may have been a less formal gathering in which the high priest was not wearing his usually identifying attire. The other possibility is that Paul was being sarcastic, making the point that the behavior of the high priest was completely contrary to his office. (23:4-5)
At this point, Paul uses a sort of "divide and conquer" method to, at the very least, prevent a unanimous decision against him. He identifies himself as a Pharisee (which he was) who had learned new information pertaining to the resurrection. The Pharisees were prepared to allow for this possibility, but of course the Sadducees were not, creating strong division and uproar in the meeting. (23:6-9)
Things even became violent, and once again the tribune had to remove Paul from the situation before he wound up getting himself killed. (23:10)
It looked as though things were going horribly in Jerusalem. Paul had done his best to present and defend the truth. But he was met repeatedly with unreasoning antagonism and even violent hatred.
Yet Jesus encouraged Paul the next night, telling him that he had been representing the truth well and that he would continue to do so, effectively guaranteeing Paul that he would get out of Jerusalem alive. (23:11) An encouraging guarantee to get, since Paul's troubles in Jerusalem weren't over yet...
Communicating our thoughts and beliefs to others, especially those who are hostile or defensive, is extremely challenging and stressful. Especially so for those of us in the geek community who are already uncomfortable talking to others, or seem to be skilled at putting our foot in our mouth. But experiencing difficulty in our conversations with others is NOT an indication that we are doing poorly, or that God is not using our words.
Like Paul, we should avoid being arrogant or reckless as we choose our words, appealing to scripture as the highest authority when dealing with Christians and reason and logic when dealing with unbelievers. And also like Paul we can be encouraged and know that Jesus is using us even when we don't seem to be successful. (Wow! Words for me if ever there were some!)
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