Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite you, you whitewashed wall: for do you sit to judge me after the law, and command me to be smitten contrary to the law?
All Commentaries on Acts 23:3 Go To Acts 23
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Accordingly (Ananias) himself is put to a stand, and dares not say a word: only those about him could not bear Paul's boldness. They saw a man ready to die * * * for if this was the case, (Paul) had but to hold his peace, and the tribune would have taken him, and gone his way; he would have sacrificed him to them. He both shows that he suffers willingly what he suffers, and thus excuses himself before them, not that he wished to excuse himself to them— since as for those, he even strongly condemns them— but for the sake of the people. Violating the law, do you command me to be beaten? Well may he say so: for to kill a man who had done (them) no injury, and that an innocent person, was a violating of the law. For neither was it abuse that was spoken by him, unless one would call Christ's words abusive, when He says, Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, for you are like whited walls. Matthew 23:27 True, you will say: but if he had said it before he had been beaten, it would have betokened not anger, but boldness. But I have mentioned the reason of this. And (at this rate) we often find Christ Himself speaking abusively to the Jews when abused by them; as when He says, Do not think that I will accuse you. John 5:45 But this is not abuse, God forbid. See, with what gentleness he addresses these men: I knew not, he says, that he was God's high priest
