Later text
Acts 23:3BSB
Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit here to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck.”
Intertextuality Pair
Acts 23:3 → Leviticus 19:15
Allusion
Earlier text
You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
+ 2 more earlier texts
Earlier text
The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.
Earlier text
Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have uttered vain words and seen false visions, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and speak lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of My people or be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD. Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built, tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth. Surely when the wall has fallen, you will not be asked, ‘Where is the whitewash with which you covered it?’ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you whitewashed and level it to the ground, so that its foundation is exposed. The city will fall, and you will be destroyed within it. Then you will know that I am the LORD. And after I have vented My wrath against the wall and against those who whitewashed it, I will say to you: ‘The wall is gone, and so are those who whitewashed it—
Significance
Rebuking the high priest who orders him struck before any verdict, Paul appeals to the Law the court claims to uphold: "You sit here to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck" (Acts 23:3). Leviticus commands the judge, "You must not pervert justice... you are to judge your neighbor fairly" (Leviticus 19:15), and Paul's charge that Ananias is a "whitewashed wall" evokes Ezekiel's oracle against leaders who daub a flimsy wall with whitewash (Ezekiel 13:8-15). The one on trial becomes the Law's true defender, exposing the illegality of his judges. By analogy the scene indicts every court that wields the law lawlessly, and it foreshadows the greater trial in which the truly Righteous One was struck and unjustly condemned by leaders who broke their own law — Christ, the coming Judge who will at last render justice with perfect equity.
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Allusion
- Connection Method(s)
- Analogy