Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 23:6

"But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees: touching the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question." — Acts 23:6 (ASV)

Ananias’s interruption changed the entire course of the meeting, but not as he had expected. Instead of being cowed into submission, Paul began again (note the resumptive use of the formal address used in v.1). This time he took the offensive. “I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee,” he declared. “I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead” (cf. 24:21; 26:6–8; 28:20b). Pharisaism in Paul’s day was not as stereotyped as it later became under rabbinic development. He still considered himself a Pharisee because of his personal observance of the law and his belief in the resurrection, even though he did not separate himself from Gentiles. The phrase “the resurrection of the dead” seems to have been used by Paul and by Luke to refer to the whole doctrine of resurrection as that doctrine was validated and amplified by the resurrection of Jesus (cf. 17:32 in the context of 17:31).