Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 23:12

"And when it was day, the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul." — Acts 23:12 (ASV)

Certain of the Jews banded together . . .—The casuistry of the more fanatical Jews led them to the conclusion that a blasphemer or apostate was an outlaw, and that, in the absence of any judicial condemnation, private persons might take upon themselves the execution of the divine sentence. So, they may have argued, Mattathias, the founder of the Maccabean dynasty, had slain the apostate Jew who offered sacrifice at the altar at Modin ; so ten Zealots of Jerusalem had conspired to assassinate Herod the Great because he had built an amphitheater and held gladiatorial games in the Holy City (Jos. Ant. xii. 6, § 2; xv. 8, § 3).

It is melancholy but instructive to remember how often the casuistry of Christian theologians has followed the same course. In this respect, the Jesuit teaching, absolving subjects from their allegiance to heretical rulers, and the practical result of that teaching in the history of the Gunpowder Plot, and of the murders perpetrated by Clement and Ravaillac, present an all too painful parallel. Those who now acted in this manner were probably among the Zealots, or Sicarii.

Under a curse.—Literally, they placed themselves under an anathema. This was the Jewish kherem, and the person or thing on which it fell was regarded as devoted to the wrath of God. (Compare Notes on 1 Corinthians 16:22; Galatians 1:8–9.) So also in the Old Testament we find that Jericho and all that it contained was a kherem, or accursed thing, devoted to destruction (Joshua 7:1).