Acts 23:9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And there arose a great cry A great clamour and quarrel, so that the edge of their zeal began to turn from Paul against one another. Nor could they go on to act against him, when they could not agree among themselves, or prosecute him for breaking the unity of the church, when there was among them so little of the unity of the Spirit. All the cry had been against Paul: but now there arose a great cry against one another; and so much did a fierce, furious spirit prevail among all orders of the Jews at this time, that every thing was done, even respecting religion, with clamour, tumult, and noise. And the scribes of the Pharisees' part arose and strove In the prisoner's defence. Every sect contains both learned and unlearned: the former of which are usually the mouth of the party; saying, We find no evil in this man And can see no reason for his being condemned or detained; but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken unto him In the manner he represents, let us acquiesce, and wait the event, and not fight against God Which must end in our ruin. They allude to what Paul had affirmed in his speech from the stairs, that Jesus, whom they knew to have been dead, was alive, and had appeared and spoken unto him in his way to Damascus, and again in a vision. This they interpret of an angel or spirit appearing to him; not allowing that the person whom they had crucified was really risen from the dead.