And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
Paul before the Sanhedrim (23:1-5)
And Paul, earnestly beholding the council - with a look of conscious integrity and unfaltering courage, perhaps also recognizing some of his early fellow-pupils,
Said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. The phrase here rendered "lived before (or 'to') God" [pepoliteumai (G4176 ) too ( G3588) Theoo (G2316)] is understood by Meyer, Lechler, and others to assert no more than the conscientious discharge of his office. But, as the word has a primary reference to 'polity,' or 'citizenship,' there is good reason to think that the apostle here intended to affirm that he had ever been, and since his conversion to Christ, was as much as ever an honest, God-fearing member of "the commonwealth of Israel;" and (as Humphry says) it was probably the boldness of this assertion which called forth the outrage described in the next verse.