4. The men standing beside Paul asked, “Don't you know you are insulting God's high priest?”
5. Paul replied, “Oh! I didn't know he was the high priest. The Scriptures do tell us not to speak evil about a leader of our people.”
6. When Paul saw that some of the council members were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he shouted, “My friends, I am a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee. I am on trial simply because I believe that the dead will be raised to life.”
7. As soon as Paul said this, the Pharisees and the Sadducees got into a big argument, and the council members started taking sides.
8. The Sadducees do not believe in angels or spirits or that the dead will rise to life. But the Pharisees believe in all these,
9. and so there was a lot of shouting. Some of the teachers of the Law of Moses were Pharisees. Finally, they became angry and said, “We don't find anything wrong with this man. Perhaps a spirit or an angel really did speak to him.”
10. The argument became fierce, and the commander was afraid that Paul would be pulled apart. So he ordered the soldiers to go in and rescue Paul. Then they took him back into the fortress.
11. That night the Lord stood beside Paul and said, “Don't worry! Just as you have told others about me in Jerusalem, you must also tell about me in Rome.”
12-13. The next morning more than forty Jewish men got together and vowed that they would not eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul.
14. Then some of them went to the chief priests and the nation's leaders and said, “We have promised God that we would not eat a thing until we have killed Paul.
15. You and everyone in the council must go to the commander and pretend that you want to find out more about the charges against Paul. Ask for him to be brought before your court. Meanwhile, we will be waiting to kill him before he gets there.”
16. When Paul's nephew heard about the plot, he went to the fortress and told Paul about it.
17. So Paul said to one of the army officers, “Take this young man to the commander. He has something to tell him.”