Reading… and Thinking

And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?”

— Acts 23:1-3 (ESV)

What’s going on here? Paul had been arrested by the Roman commander in Jerusalem, after the apostle was nearly killed by a mob. The commander brought Paul to the Jewish council for charges to be brought. But what is going on in this exchange?

Remember, this is the same council that Paul had once been part of (back when he was known as Saul). He knew his accusers, and they knew him. When Paul said that he had always acted with a clear conscience, Ananias and the others are seeing before them a man who had betrayed them, switching sides and doing incalculable harm to the Law of God (as they understood it.) No wonder they ordered him to be struck!

Paul’s response is not as cryptic as it appears, considering that the audience would have been familiar with the prophets. Paul is making reference to this passage from Ezekiel:

“Because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out. And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’ Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end. And I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it.”    (Ezekiel 13:10-15, ESV)

A coat of paint can make something look nice, but it won’t change the underlying structure. If the structure is weak, the paint can’t save it. Jesus also talked about the “whitewash” of the authorities, with their outward show of righteousness. He compared them to whitewashed tombs: beautiful perhaps, but full of the uncleanness of death.

Paul is clearly declaring that the judgment pronounced by Ezekiel would come upon Ananias, and upon the nation. And so it happened. A few years after this, Ananias was dragged from his house and killed by a mob of zealots, because of his pro-Roman stance. (We have this from the history books, not from the Bible.) Some accounts say that his own sons participated. This was at the very beginning of the Jewish rebellion, which resulted four years later in the destruction of the temple, the end of the rule of the council, and the end of the Mosaic system of worship.

After this confrontation in the council, Paul remained in prison for years, while Ananias and his colleagues retained positions of wealth and power – power that Paul could have enjoyed himself if he hadn’t become a Christian. Many people would agree with Festus, who said a few chapters later, “Paul, you are out of your mind!” But power and prestige are just a coat of paint. Who had the enduring structure? Paul went to his death confident of resurrection and eternal life. Ananias perished without hope, struck down just as Paul said he would be.