Paul now called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead." Is this only a clever diversionary ploy? Is Paul simply trying to divide the assembly, so that they cannot agree to request and be given this prisoner for trial and certain execution? No, Paul's confession focuses on that aspect of the gospel that will be central to his apologetic throughout his trial witness (24:15; 26:6-8; compare 28:20). It tells the truth about the ultimate reason for his arrest by the Jews. For Paul and Luke, resurrection, especially the resurrection of Messiah Jesus, is the key issue that determines the nature of the continuity and discontinuity between Jews and Christians as part of the true people of God. Hope in the resurrection of the dead (literally, "hope and resurrection of the dead") as a hendiadys is better rendered "hope, even the resurrection of the dead." Paul specifies Israel's future hope of messianic salvation by the event that inaugurates it. This was indeed Israel's understanding, and as Christians affirmed it they stood in direct continuity with the Old Testament people of God (Dan 12:2; 2 Macc 7:14; 1 Enoch 51:1-5; Psalms of Solomon 3:11-12). But the belief that the foundational fulfillment of that hope had occurred in the raising of Jesus created the discontinuity. The Jews, on the whole, did not embrace this truth.

Paul finds himself on trial because of the Messiah's resurrection and the new realities it introduced. For if Jesus had not risen from the dead, he could not have appeared to Paul on the Damascus Road, or in the temple, and commissioned him to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 22:15, 21). Paul would, then, not have promulgated a message or lived a lifestyle that his fellow Jews would have opposed.

And today, when many have contented themselves with pinning their hope on social or material progress in this life, we need to declare the good news of a true hope at the end of history, a resurrection to eternal life.

The Sanhedrin was composed of the priestly and lay nobility of the Sadducean theological persuasion together with scribes of the Pharisee faction. An uneasy peace existed between them, for though the Sadducees were the council's majority, the Pharisees had the good will of the people and were able to get their way regarding regulations for Israel's religious life (Josephus Jewish Antiquities 18.16-17).

As Luke points out and Josephus and other ancient Jewish literature document, the Sadducees and Pharisees differed on what happens to human beings after death. The Pharisees affirmed both an intermediate state as "angels and spirits" and a final resurrection (Josephus Jewish Wars 2.163; Jewish Antiquities 18.14; see 2 Baruch 51:5, 10 for evidence of Jewish belief in an intermediate state as angels; 1 Enoch 22:3, 7; 103:3-4 for postdeath existence as spirits; Daube 1990). The Sadducees affirmed neither (Josephus Jewish Wars 2.165; Jewish Antiquities 18.16; compare Lk 20:36).

These social, political and theological factors more than account for the dispute that breaks out, the great uproar that follows and the violence that might well leave Paul torn to pieces (Acts 23:7, 9-10). The debating point leads to a division—a number of the Pharisees argue vigorously that Paul is innocent. Their worldview enables them to admit the possibility that an angel or spirit had spoken to him on the Damascus Road or in the temple. They are not confessing Jesus as risen Messiah, let alone exalted Lord, but they are on the way.

The gospel's worldview assumptions will always challenge the givens in any of today's myriad cultural, religious, philosophical and ideological outlooks. Like Paul, we need to so know our audience's worldview so that we may communicate the truth in love, where possible identifying common ground yet knowing there is always bound to be disagreement.

Things are getting out of hand. The commander sends word for more troops to come down from the Antonia fortress and "snatch" Paul out of the midst of the Sanhedrin. With this second rescue by the Romans, Agabus's prediction has come to its complete fulfillment (21:34, 11): Paul is now fully in the Romans' custody.