Acts 24:20

Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question before you this day.

This brought their whole case crashing to the ground. They had already tried Paul before the Sanhedrin, and there had been no guilty verdict. Instead the Sanhedrinists broke up the meeting fighting among themselves! So Paul put his forefinger into a very sore spot when he asked them to explain to the governor what they found out when they had already tried him!

Except it be for this one voice ... This must not be understood as the tiniest admission of any wrong on Paul's part. Adam Clarke paraphrased it like this: Of course, in the eyes of these Sadducean priests, they consider me to have done wrong in advocating a resurrection of the dead. "But as this doctrine is credited by the nation in general, and is not criminal, they can bring no accusation against me with reference to anything else."[22] Paul here implied that his belief in the resurrection was the true basis of their hatred of him.

McGarvey also noted that:

Paul made this last reference, not because he was conscious of any wrong in the matter, but in order to taunt his Sadduceean accusers, and to show Felix that they were moved against him by party jealousy.[23]

Paul's challenge for the high priest to tell what happened at that trial they had already completed administered the COUP DE GRACE to the hopes of the Jews that they might force an unfavorable verdict from Felix. "The high priest wanted no talk about their council meeting that had degenerated into a riot."[24] This was the summary end of the trial, except for the announcement of the verdict.

[22] Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1937), Vol. V, p. 876.

[23] J. W. McGarvey, op. cit., p. 237.

[24] Orrin Root, Acts (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1966), p. 182.