The Early Church · c. AD 57–59
Chapter 28
Before Felix
The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Cheer up, Paul, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must testify also at Rome.”
For parents
At the high priest’s order Paul is struck on the mouth (Acts 23:2), and the quarrel in the council grows so fierce that the commanding officer fears Paul will be torn to pieces (23:10). More than forty men swear not to eat or drink until they have killed Paul and plan to ambush him; the plot is found out, and Paul is sent away under guard by night (23:12–33). The chapter also recalls that he had been ordered to be whipped and questioned (22:24).
was being held in the barracks in . The commanding officer had ordered him to be whipped and questioned. But Paul was a . The men who were about to question him had backed away. The commanding officer had been afraid too, because he had put a Roman in chains.
The next day the commanding officer wanted to know the truth about why the Jews were accusing Paul. So he took off Paul’s chains and called the and the whole together. Then he brought Paul down and stood him in front of them.
Paul looked steadily at the council. “Brothers,” he said, “I have lived before God with a good in every way, right up to today.”
Then the , , ordered the men standing near him to strike Paul on the mouth.
Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Do you sit there to judge me by the law, and then break the law by ordering me to be struck?”
The men standing by said, “Are you insulting God’s high priest?”
“I didn’t know, brothers, that he was the high priest,” said Paul. “It is written, ‘Don’t speak badly of a ruler of your people.’”
But Paul saw that one part of the council were and the other part . “Brothers,” he cried out in the council, “I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. My trial is about the hope and of the dead!”
When he said this, the Pharisees and the Sadducees began to argue, and the crowd was divided.
The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, no and no spirit, but the Pharisees believe in them all.
A great uproar broke out. Some of the on the Pharisees’ side stood up and argued hard. “We find nothing bad in this man,” they said. “But if a spirit or angel has spoken to him, let’s not fight against God!”
The argument turned fierce, and the commanding officer was afraid that they would tear Paul to pieces. He ordered the soldiers to go down, pull him out from among them by force, and take him to the barracks.
The next night, the Lord stood beside Paul and said, “Cheer up, Paul! Just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, you must testify in too.”
When day came, some of the Jews banded together and swore an oath, calling down a curse on themselves if they ate or drank anything before they had killed Paul. More than forty people had joined in this plot.
They came to the chief priests and the . “We have sworn an oath under a great curse not to taste anything until we have killed Paul,” they said. “So now you and the council must tell the commanding officer to bring him down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to look into his case more closely. We are ready to kill him before he comes near.”
But the son of Paul’s sister heard about the ambush. He came into the barracks and told Paul.
Paul called one of the over. “Take this young man to the commanding officer,” he said, “because he has something to tell him.”
So the centurion took him to the commanding officer. “Paul, the prisoner, called me over,” he said, “and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.”
The commanding officer took the young man by the hand, went off to one side with him, and asked him privately, “What is it you have to tell me?”
“The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow,” he said, “as though they wanted to look into his case more carefully. So don’t give in to them. More than forty men are waiting to ambush him, and they have sworn under a curse that they will neither eat nor drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, and are waiting for a promise from you.”
The commanding officer let the young man go, with an order: “Don’t tell anyone that you have told me about this.”
Then the commanding officer called two of the centurions. “Get two hundred soldiers ready to go as far as ,” he said, “with seventy horsemen and two hundred men armed with spears, to leave at about nine o’clock tonight.”
He asked them to provide animals to ride, so they could set Paul on one and bring him safely to the governor.
He also wrote a letter, and this is what it said: “, to the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings.
“The Jews had taken hold of this man and were about to kill him when I came with the soldiers and rescued him. I had learned that he was a Roman. I wanted to know the reason for their charges, so I brought him down to their council. There I found that the charges were about questions of their law, but nothing he was charged with deserved death or prison. When I was told that the Jews were waiting to ambush the man, I sent him straight on to you. I have also ordered his accusers to bring their accusations against him to you. Farewell.”
So the soldiers did as they were ordered. They took Paul and brought him by night to . The next day they went back to the barracks, leaving the horsemen to go with him.
When they came to Caesarea, they handed the letter to the governor and presented Paul to him as well.
When the governor had read the letter, he asked what Paul came from. Once he understood that Paul was from , he said, “I will hear everything you have to say when your accusers have come too.” And he ordered that Paul be kept in Herod’s palace.
After five days, the high priest Ananias came down. With him were some of the elders and a skilled speaker named . They made their accusations against Paul to the governor.
When he was called, Tertullus began to accuse Paul. “Because of you we enjoy much peace,” he said, “and because you plan ahead, good times are coming to this nation. In every way and in every place we accept this, most excellent Felix, with all our thanks. But I don’t want to hold you up, so I beg you to be patient with us and hear a few words.
“We have found this man to be a plague. He is a man who stirs up uprisings among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the . He even tried to make the temple unholy, and we arrested him. If you question him yourself, you can find out about all these things we are accusing him of.”
The Jews joined in the attack too, saying that all this was true.
The governor motioned to Paul to speak, and Paul answered, “I know that you have been a judge of this nation for many years, so I am happy to speak in my own defense.
“You can check for yourself that it hasn’t been more than twelve days since I went up to worship at Jerusalem. In the temple, in the and in the city, they didn’t find me in an argument with anyone or stirring up a crowd. And they can’t prove to you the things they are now accusing me of.
“But I do confess this to you: I serve the God of our ancestors as one who follows , which they call a sect. I believe all that agrees with the law, and all that is written in the prophets. My hope is in God, and these men are waiting for the same thing: that there will be a resurrection of the dead, of both the just and the unjust. So I, too, always work at keeping a clear conscience toward God and toward people.
“After some years, I came to bring my nation gifts for the needy, and offerings. I was doing this when some Jews from found me in the temple. I had been , and there was no mob with me and no uproar. They ought to have been here in front of you to accuse me, if they had anything against me.
“Or else let these men here say what wrong they found in me when I stood before the council, unless it is this one thing that I cried out as I stood among them: ‘My trial before you today is about the resurrection of the dead!’”
But Felix, who knew about the Way quite well, made them wait. “When Lysias the commanding officer comes down,” he said, “I will decide your case.”
He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard and to let him have some privileges, and not to stop any of his friends from helping him or coming to see him.
Some days afterward, Felix arrived with his wife , a Jewish woman. He sent for Paul and heard what he had to say about faith in Jesus.
As Paul reasoned about , self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was terrified. “Go on your way for now,” he answered. “When it suits me, I will send for you.”
Meanwhile, Felix also hoped that Paul would give him money to be set free. So he sent for him more often and talked with him.
Two years went by, and then took Felix’s place. Felix wanted to win favor with the Jews, so he left Paul in chains.