30 The next day, the Roman commander still wanted to know what was behind the anger of the Jews, so he had Paul released from the cell, but brought him down to a room where he had ordered the chief priests and the Jewish council to convene. Paul was given a seat

23 and looking directly at the council members said, “Men, brothers, all my life I have lived before God as a good citizen and with a clean conscience.” 2 But Ananias the chief priest commanded one of his companions to whack Paul on the mouth. 3 “God will strike you,” said Paul, “you grand show-off. You’ve been brought here to judge me as someone who knows the law and yet you violate the law by commanding that I be hit in the face.”

4 But the others standing there said, “Are you insulting God’s chief priest?”

5 “Brothers,” said Paul, “I didn’t realise that he’s the chief priest, because the scriptures teach us not to speak wrongly of our leaders.”

6 But then, knowing that the council consisted of some from the sect of the Sadducees and some from the Pharisees’ party, Paul continued loudly, “Men, brothers, like my father, I’m a member of the Pharisees and I’m being tried today concerning the hope and the resurrection of the dead!”

7 Well, as soon as he said this, the council was split as the Pharisees and the Sadducees started arguing. 8 (Sadducees say that the dead don’t come back to life, and there’s no messengers and no spirits, but the Pharisees believe there is.) 9 So then there was a big kerfuffle because some of the teachers of the law spoke up for the Pharisees saying, “We don’t see anything wrong with this man. Maybe it was a spirit or one of God’s messengers that spoke to him.”

10 But the Roman commander was afraid that they might tear Paul apart in the big argument, so he called for his soldiers to come down to uplift Paul and return him to the barracks.

11 The following night, the master appeared to Paul and told him, “Be brave because just like you testified about me here in Yerusalem, so too you’ll tell them about me in Rome.”