Cassiodorus : "And Paul looking upon the council, said," etc. When Paul had said right in front of the council: "Men, brethren, I have conversed with all good conscience before God until this present day," the high priest Ananias commanded the men who stood by him to strike Paul's mouth, on the grounds that it had been blaspheming. But Paul replied to him with a free voice: "God shall strike thee, thou whited wall, that, sitting in a judge's place, commandest against the law that I be struck." When they accused him of wishing to revile the high priest, he replied that he had not known he had such a high dignity. And Paul, knowing that both Pharisees and Sadducees, who hold divergent beliefs from one another, had assembled there, proclaimed with a loud voice that he was a Pharisee and that he was standing a grievous trial because of the hope and resurrection of the dead, which they themselves believed in. At these words, a dispute soon arose among them, and the assembly was scattered. — Complexiones on the Acts of the Apostles John Chrysostom : "And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." It shows his boldness, and how it awed them. What he means is this: I am not conscious to myself of having wronged you at all, or of having done anything worthy of these bonds. — Homily on Acts 48