Acts 23:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest:— Animated on a sudden by the secret impulse of a prophetic Spirit, which bore him, as it were, for that moment beyond himself, St. Paul delivered the words of Acts 23:3 which being urged against him, he chose not to enter upon a question so difficult to be cleared up, as the divine original of that impulse on his mind, by which he found himself inclined to utter those remarkable words; and only touched upon a circumstance attending it, saying, "Indeed, brethren, in the sudden transport of my mind, I was not aware that it was the high-priest." This is a natural rendering of the original words;—which cannot fairly be translated, I do not acknowledge him to be the high-priest: nor can it be imagined that St. Paul would enter on so curious and so dangerous a question as the justice of his accession to that office. Some have thought that St. Paul did not know him personally,but his habit and place in the sanhedrim must have distinguished him; or, if we were to suppose with Ribetus and others, that St. Paul, hearing the voice while looking another way, did not know whence it came, the solution is utterly insufficient; for his answer plainly shews, that he knew the person speaking to be a judge. The best exposition therefore of this matter, I am persuaded, is that above given, which willeasily reconcile all that passed with Christ's promise of being with his disciples, when appearing before councils. Matthew 10:19. Mark 13:11. For, according to that exposition, St. Paul by inspiration uttered a true prediction, and then alleged a true fact, to prevent any ill use of the circumstance in which it was spoken; only waving something which he might have justly urged in his own vindication, and from which he had an undoubted right to recede, if he thought fit. In the mean time, the candour both of the apostle and of the sacred historian, is well worthy our remark.