Acts 23:23-35
Review:
Background:
Text:
Paul Sent to Felix the Governor
23 Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. 24 Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” 25 And he wrote a letter to this effect:
26 “Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings. 27 This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. 28 And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. 29 I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. 30 And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.”
31 So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. 32 And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. 33 When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. 34 On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, 35 he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod’s praetorium.
23:23 third hour of the night Leaving at nine o’clock at night allows the military to use the cover of darkness to protect Paul.
23:23, 24 Heavily equipped infantry and cavalry delivers Paul safely to Felix, the procurator of the imperial province of Judea. The official provincial headquarters is at Caesarea.
23:27 having learned that he was a Roman citizen. The tribune prudently omits the detail that he had ordered Paul’s flogging before he learned of his Roman citizenship.
23:27 he was a Roman citizen The charge against Paul is a Jewish issue irrelevant to the Romans, but they must take interest because he is a Roman citizen. Claudius is giving himself more credit than he deserves; he did not know Paul was a Roman citizen until after he was in custody and about to be flogged (21:31–36; 22:24–29).
23:35 Herod’s praetorium. The official residence built by Herod the Great. It became a Roman praetorium or official residence and included prisoners’ cells (John 18:28; Phil. 1:13).
Felix, the governor, however, hopes he can play ‘pass the parcel’. Having received this tricky character, perhaps he can send him on to somebody else. If Paul comes from a different province altogether he can have him sent there to be tried by his local governor. (Pontius Pilate, we recall, tried a similar move when he sent Jesus off to Herod, as in Luke 23:6–12; it didn’t work then, either.) But Paul is from Cilicia, which, like Judaea, comes under the Roman administration centred in Syria. So that won’t do. Felix has to face the problem himself; or park it, which is what eventually he decides to do.
Application:
Throughout much of the story, especially after the brief brush with Roman justice in Philippi, we have a sense that Paul would just as soon stay well away from Roman officials or soldiers. Like Jesus going around Galilee, always keeping on the move, hard to pin down by the anxious, brooding Herod as he heard tales about someone else going about being thought of as ‘king of the Jews’, so Paul kept on the move, happy that though no doubt various Roman officials had heard about him they were not trying to stop him doing what he had been called to do.
And now he is, so to speak, brought home in a hrududu. A Roman officer rescues him. The plot against him is discovered, and the tribune takes swift action. We now discover the tribune’s name: Claudius Lysias, where ‘Claudius’ may well be a new name added in reference to the emperor under whom he had purchased his citizenship (as in 22:28). And suddenly the full machinery of the Roman army, just what a travelling apostle would normally want to avoid if he could, is mustered to rescue him from the plot and to take him to the governor, who will keep him safe in more ways than one. So the guards, who the previous day had been ready to tie Paul up and flog him, are now transformed into his protectors, along with their colleagues. And the plotters, who are getting ready an ambush for the following morning in the hope that the tribune will do what they want and send Paul back from the barracks to the Sanhedrin, hear the clatter of hooves and boots in the night and realize, perhaps, that they are going to have to wait longer than they thought before they can eat and drink again. Two hundred soldiers, 70 horsemen, 200 spearmen; nobody ever accused the Romans of underplaying their hand when it came to military presence. They may not know exactly who Paul is or what the fuss is all about, but soldiering is about doing, not knowing, and doing is what the Romans do best.