I Didn’t Know He Was the High Priest
Paul in his typical way lets the wicked high priest have it with both barrels.
And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. 3Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? 4And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest? 5Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.
Then he apologizes when he finds out it was the high priest.
What to make of this? Remember there is no question that this high priest was apostate and was part of an apostate line.
- Paul was being politic. There were still many Jewish converts and potential converts who believed in the Jewish rites and the Jewish priesthood.
- Paul was respecting him as a secular authority.
- Paul respected his residual line of authority even though he was apostate and the real authority was possessed by Peter and the apostles including Paul.
The last one raises some odd questions about our relationship to creedal Christianity.
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IAW
August 7, 2023
4. Paul knew very well it was the high priest, and was pulling an “oh, I had no idea who I was talking to” semi-sarcastic ploy.
There is actually a nealy zero chance Paul did not know who the high priest was, especially given the situation. As an educated Pharisee, he would have known, even if he did know the priest by face, that the high priest presided at hearings like his. The guy everyone else was deferring to was clearly the high priest. So Paul knew who was who.
Eric
August 7, 2023
I don’t see why there should be any odd questions about our relationship to credal Christianity. Catholic claims to the priesthood have never been accepted by us, and Protestants have an even weaker claim on the priesthood than Catholics do.