And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God.
And there arose a great cry: and the scribes - the true reading appears to be, 'scribes' (without the article);
That were of the Pharisees' part arose, and strove, saying, We find no evil in this man: but - as to those startling things which be brings to our ears,
If a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him - referring, perhaps, to his trance in the temple, of which he had told them (Acts 22:17 ). They put this favourable construction upon his proceedings for no other reason than that they had found him one of their own party; they cared not to inquire into the truth of what he alleged, over and above their opinions, but only to explain it away as something not worth raising a noise about.
[Let us not fight against God]. (This bracketed clause is clearly an addition to the genuine text.) [It is missing in 'Aleph (') A B C E, etc., the Vulgate, etc., and is supported chiefly by two late Uncials, G H.] The sense, then, will be, 'but what if a spirit or angel hath spoken to him?' The clause, "let us not fight against God," seems clearly taken from the similar expression of Gamaliel ( Acts 5:39), in circumstances not dissimilar to those here, in order to complete the sentence. But it is possible that the conclusion of the sentence was drowned in the hubbub, which the next verse shows to have been intense.
The tribune fearing, from the hubbub in the council, that the prisoner's life is in danger, has him removed by force into the barracks, where he is cheered by a night-vision of his Lord, assuring him he should yet testify for Him at Rome, even as he had done at Jerusalem (10,11)