Acts 23:2 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

The high priest Ananias. — See Note on Acts 22:5. The son of Nebedæus was conspicuous for his cruelty and injustice, and had been sent to Rome as a prisoner to take his trial before Claudius (A.D. 52). He had been acquitted, or at least released, and had returned to Judæa. To him this assertion of a life so utterly unlike his own seemed almost like a personal insult. He fitted the cap, and raged with a brutal cruelty which reminds us of Jeffreys’ treatment of Baxter.

Acts 23:2

2 And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth.