1 Paul looked straight at the Council and said, “My fellow-Israelites! My conscience is perfectly clear about the way in which I have lived before God to this very day.”
2 The High Priest Ananias ordered those who were standing close to Paul to strike him on the mouth.
3 Paul said to him, “God will certainly strike you — you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the Law, yet you break the Law by ordering them to strike me!”
4 The men close to Paul said to him, “You are insulting God's High Priest!”
5 Paul answered, “My fellow-Israelites, I did not know that he was the High Priest. The scripture says, ‘You must not speak evil of the ruler of your people.’ ”
6 When Paul saw that some of the group were Sadducees and the others were Pharisees, he called out in the Council, “Fellow-Israelites! I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. I am on trial here because of the hope I have that the dead will rise to life!”
7 As soon as he said this, the Pharisees and Sadducees started to quarrel, and the group was divided.