Acts 23:5

Verse 5. I knew not, and so forth Some think Saint Paul here speaks ironically, or to signify that now he could be no longer high priest, since the Mosaic law, with its rites and ceremonies, was abolished. But Saint John Chrysostom rather judges that Saint Paul, having been long absent from Jerusalem, might not know the person of the high priest, who was not in the sanhedrim, but in the place whither the tribune had called the council, and who did not appear with that habit, and those marks which distinguished him from others. Witham.—It seems rather surprising that Saint Paul did not know that he was the high priest. The place which he held in the council, one would suppose, would have been sufficient to have pointed him out. The apostle’s absence from Jerusalem is perhaps a sufficient reason to account for his not knowing this circumstance; especially, as the order of succession to the priesthood was at that time much confused and irregular, determined by favour of the Roman emperor, or by purchase. Calmet.—At all events, any difficulties we may now find in assigning a probable or true reason, are merely negative arguments; and therefore too futile to be an impeachment of the apostle’s veracity. A.—S. Cyprian supposes that Saint Paul, considering the mere shadow of the name of priest, which Ananias then held, said: I knew not, brethren, that he is high priest. Ep. lxv. 69. nu. 2. S. Chrysostom says, that the apostle here shews the wisdom of the serpent; but that in his preaching, teaching, and patience, he used the simplicity of the dove.