23
“It Is Because of My Hope in the Resurrection of the Dead That I Am on Trial!”
1 Looking straight at the Sanhedrin, Paul said, “Brothers, in regard to my duty and conduct, it is with a completely clear conscience that I have lived my life before God up to this day.”
2 At that, the high priest Ananias ordered those who were standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.
3 Paul, then, said to him, “It is ˢyou whom God is going to strike down, you whitewashed wall! How can ˢyou sit there and judge me according to Torah, when it is in clear violation of Torah that you give the order for me to be struck?”
4 The men who were standing near Paul said, “Do ˢyou dare to insult the very high priest of God?”
5 “I didn’t realize, brothers, that he was the high priest,” replied Paul. “After all, it is written, ‘ˢYou must not call a curse down on a leader of ˢyour people.’+”
6 Paul, then, noticing that some of the council members belonged to the Sadducean party, but others to the Pharisee party, shouted out in the Sanhedrin, “I am a Pharisee, as were my parents! It is because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial!”
7 At these words a heated debate broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
8 (While those of the Sadducee party, you see, claim that the dead will not be resurrected, and also deny the existence of angels and spirits, those who belong to the Pharisee party affirm all these things.)
9 There was loud shouting, and some of the Torah-experts from the Pharisee party stood up and began to protest strongly, “We can’t find a thing wrong with this man! What if it is a spirit that has spoken to him, or an angel?”
10 When the dispute became so violent that the commanding officer began to fear Paul would be torn to pieces by them, he ordered his soldiers to go down and snatch Paul from their midst and bring him back to the soldiers’ quarters.
11 That night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! Just as ˢyou have borne solemn witness about me here in Jerusalem, you see, so ˢyou must bear witness, too, in Rome.”
“We Have Put Ourselves under a Solemn Oath”
12 When morning came, some Jews put themselves under a solemn oath, vowing not to eat or drink anything until they had killed Paul.
13 There were more than forty men involved in this plot.
14 They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have put ourselves under a solemn oath; may God heap calamity on us if we eat so much as a single bite before we have killed Paul.
15 Now then, as for ᵖyou, officially petition the commanding officer, along with the Sanhedrin, to bring Paul down to ᵖyou, on the pretext that you want to make a more thorough examination of his case. As for us, we are fully set and ready to do away with him, before he even gets close.”
16 When the son of Paul’s sister heard about the ambush, however, he went and, upon gaining entrance to the soldiers’ quarters, reported it to Paul.
17 Calling one of the officers over to himself, Paul said, “Please take to the commander this young man, for he has something to tell him.”
18 While the officer, therefore, taking Paul’s nephew along with him, led him to the commanding officer and said, “The prisoner, Paul, calling me over to himself, asked me to bring to ˢyou this young man, because he has something to tell ˢyou,”
19 the commanding officer, taking the young man by the hand and drawing him aside privately, asked, “What is it that ˢyou want to tell me?”
20 “The Jewish authorities,” Paul’s nephew replied, “have agreed to make a request that tomorrow ˢyou bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin, on the pretext that they want to examine his case more thoroughly.
21 ˢYou, therefore, must not let them win you over, because there are lying in wait to ambush him more than forty men, who have put themselves under a solemn oath not to eat or drink anything until they’ve killed him. And now they are ready, just waiting for ˢyour consent.”
22 The commanding officer, therefore, to begin with, dismissed the young man, instructing him, “Tell not one person that these matters have by you been made known to me.”
23 Then summoning two of his officers, he said, “Make sure that two hundred soldiers, along with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, are ready to leave for Caesarea by nine tonight,
24 and provide some animals for Paul to ride, so that he may be taken safely to Felix the governor.”
25 He wrote a letter with this message:
26 “From: Claudius Lysias.
To: The Most Honorable Governor Felix.
Greetings.
27 This man, having been seized by some Jews and on the verge of being killed by them, on arriving with my soldiers I rescued, having learned that he is a Roman citizen.
28 Wanting to know the exact charge they were bringing against him, I had him brought down before their Sanhedrin.
29 I discovered that the accusation against him had to do with controversial questions involving their law—certainly nothing worthy of the death penalty or imprisonment.
30 When I was informed, moreover, that there was about to be carried out a plot against this man, I immediately sent him to ˢyou, also ordering his accusers to present their charges against him before ˢyou.”
31 While the soldiers, therefore, in keeping with their orders, escorting Paul, took him during the night to the city of Antipatris,
32 the next day they let the horsemen go on with him, while they returned to the soldiers’ quarters.
33 When the horsemen arrived in Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.
34 After reading the letter and asking Paul which province he was from, and on learning that he was from Cilicia,
35 the governor said, “I will hear ˢyour case when your accusers, too, themselves arrive,” giving orders for Paul to be kept under guard here: In the governor’s headquarters that had been built by Herod.