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The Acts of the Apostles 23

23 So Paul looked at the Jewish council members and said, “My fellow Jews, throughout my life I have lived respecting our God. I do not know of anything that I have done that I knew was wrong.” 2 When Ananias the high priest heard what Paul said, he told the men who were standing near Paul to hit him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to Ananias, “God will punish you for that, you hypocrite! You sit there and judge me, using the laws that God gave Moses. But you yourself disobey those laws! You commanded those men to strike me without proving that I have done anything wrong!” 4 But the men who were standing near Paul said to him, “You should not speak badly to God’s high priest!” 5 Paul replied, “My fellow Jews, I am sorry that I said that. I did not know that the man who told one of you to hit me was the high priest. If I had known that, I would not have talked badly about him. I know that we can read in the Law of Moses, ‘Do not speak badly about any of your leaders.’ ”

6 Now Paul knew that some of the council members were Sadducees and others were Pharisees. So he called out in the council hall, “My fellow Jews, I am a Pharisee. My ancestors have been Pharisees as well. You have put me on trial here because I am sure that one day God will cause those who have died to live again.” 7 And when he said that, the Pharisees and Sadducees started to argue with one another about whether people who have died will become alive again. The two groups strongly disagreed with each other. 8 They disagreed so strongly because Sadducees do not believe that after people die, they will become alive again. They also do not believe that there are angels or other kinds of spirits. But Pharisees do believe those things. 9 Then both groups started shouting at one another as they argued. Some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up. One of them insisted, “We think that this man has done nothing wrong. We believe that an angel or some other spirit spoke to him. So we must all agree that he is innocent!” 10 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees became very violent with one another. The commander became concerned that they would hurt Paul badly. So he told soldiers to come down from the fortress into the temple courtyard. He told them to take Paul away from the council members and bring him up into the barracks.

11 That night, Paul saw Jesus come and stand near him. Jesus said to him, “Be brave! You have told people here in Jerusalem about me. I will protect you so that you can tell people in Rome about me too.”

12 The next morning some of the Jews who hated Paul met and talked about how to kill him. To make sure that they killed him, they all promised that they would not eat or drink anything before they had killed Paul. They asked God to kill them if they did not do what they promised. 13 Now there were more than 40 men who agreed to kill Paul. 14 They went to the chief priests and Jewish elders and told them, “God has heard us promise that we will not eat or drink anything before we have killed Paul. 15 So to help us, we request that you go to the commander and ask him, on behalf of the whole Jewish council, to bring Paul down from the fortress to meet with you again. Tell the commander that you want to talk to Paul some more. We will be waiting to kill Paul while he is on the way here.”

16 But the son of Paul’s sister heard what they were planning to do, so he went into the fortress and told Paul. 17 When Paul heard about the plan to kill him, he called one of the officers and said to him, “Please take this young man to the commander. He needs to tell him something.” 18 So the officer took Paul’s nephew to the commander. The officer told the commander, “Paul, whom we are guarding here, asked to speak with me. He said, ‘Please take this young man to the commander, because he needs to tell him something important.’ ” 19 So the commander took Paul’s nephew by the hand and led him off by himself. Then he asked him, “What do you have to tell me?” 20 Then Paul’s nephew replied, “There are some Jews who are going to ask you tomorrow to bring Paul down from the fortress to meet with their council again. They will say that they want to ask him some more questions. But that is not true. 21 So do not do what they ask you to do. There are actually more than 40 Jewish men who will be hiding and waiting to kill Paul when he passes by on his way to the council. They have even promised God that they will not eat or drink anything until they have killed Paul. They are ready to do it. They are just waiting for you to agree to do what they are asking.” 22 The commander warned Paul’s nephew, “Do not tell anyone that you have told me about their plan.” Then he sent him away.

23 Then the commander called two of his officers and told them, “Get a group of 200 soldiers ready to travel. Take along 70 soldiers riding horses and 200 other soldiers carrying spears. All of you must be ready to leave at nine o’clock tonight and go to the city of Caesarea. 24 Take along horses for Paul to ride, and escort him to the palace of Governor Felix.” 25 Then the commander wrote a letter to send to the governor. This is what he wrote: 26 “Your Excellency, Governor Felix, this is Claudius Lysias writing to you. I send you my greetings. 27 I am sending you a man whose name is Paul. Certain Jews had seized him and were about to kill him. But I learned that he was a Roman citizen, so I and my soldiers went and rescued him. 28 I wanted to know what those Jews were saying that he had done wrong, so I took him to their Jewish council. 29 I listened while they asked this man questions and he answered them. The accusations they made against him had to do with their Jewish laws. But Paul has not disobeyed any of our Roman laws. So our officials should not execute him or even put him in prison. 30 Then someone told me that some Jews were planning to kill this man. So I sent him to you right away so that you could give him a fair trial there. I have also commanded the Jews who have accused him to go there to Caesarea and tell you why they are accusing him. Goodbye.”

31 So the soldiers did what the commander told them. They got Paul and took him with them during the night to the city of Antipatris. 32 The next day, the foot soldiers returned to Jerusalem and the soldiers who rode horses continued traveling to Caesarea with Paul. 33 When the soldiers who rode horses arrived in the city of Caesarea, they gave the letter to the governor and they brought Paul to him. 34 So the governor read the letter. Then he asked Paul, “What province are you from?” Paul answered, “I am from Cilicia.” 35 Then the governor said, “When the people who have accused you arrive, I will listen to what each of you says and then I will judge your case.” Then he commanded his soldiers to guard Paul in the palace that King Herod the Great had built.

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