Beginning
Disturbing prophecies
21 When we had left them behind and had set sail, we made a straight course to Cos, and went on the next day to Rhodes and from there to Patara. 2 There we found a ship heading for Phoenicia, and we got on board and set sail. 3 We came in sight of Cyprus, passed it on our left side, sailed to Syria and arrived in Tyre, which was where the boat was going to unload its cargo. 4 We found some disciples and stayed there a week—and they told Paul, by the spirit, not to go to Jerusalem. 5 When our time there was up, we left and went on our way, with everyone, women and children included, coming with us out of the city. We knelt down on the seashore and prayed. 6 Then we said our farewells to one another. We got on the ship and they returned home.
7 The end of our voyage from Tyre saw us arrive at Ptolemais. There we greeted the Christians, and stayed a day with them. 8 On the next day we left and went on to Caesarea, and went into the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven, and stayed with him. 9 He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied.
10 After we’d been there several days, Agabus the prophet arrived from Jerusalem. 11 He came to us, took Paul’s girdle, and tied himself up with it, hand and foot.
“This is what the holy spirit says,” he declared. “The Judaeans in Jerusalem will tie up the man to whom this girdle belongs, just like this, and they will hand him over to the Gentiles.”
12 When we heard that, we and the people of that place begged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
13 Then Paul responded.
“What are you doing with all this weeping,” he said, “breaking my heart in pieces? I am quite prepared not only to be tied up but to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”
14 When we realized we couldn’t dissuade him, we gave up the attempt.
“May the Lord’s will be done,” was all we said.
Warding off the inevitable
15 After those days we made preparations to go up to Jerusalem. 16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us, and took us to the house of Mnason, an elderly disciple from Cyprus. That was where we were going to be staying.
17 When we came to Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters welcomed us gladly. 18 On the next day Paul went in with us to see James, with all the elders present. 19 He greeted them and laid out before them everything which God had done through his ministry among the Gentiles, telling it all step by step. 20 They praised God when they heard it.
“You see, brother,” they said, “that there are many thousands of Jews who have believed. They are all of them fiercely enthusiastic for the law. 21 But what they have heard about you is that you teach all the Jews who live among the nations to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to keep the customs. 22 Where does this leave us? They will certainly hear that you have come. 23 So do what we tell you: there are four men here who have taken a vow upon themselves. 24 Join in with these men. Purify yourself along with them, and pay the expenses for them as they have their heads shaved. That way everyone will know that there is no truth in the accusations against you, but rather that you too are behaving as a law-observant Jew should. 25 As for the Gentiles who have believed, we have written to them with our decision that they should keep themselves from what has been sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from fornication.”
26 So Paul took the men and, the next day, underwent the ritual of purification alongside them. He went into the Temple and made the declaration, stating when the days of purification would be completed and when the time would come for sacrifice to be offered for each of them.
Riot in the Temple
27 When the seven days were completed, some Jews from Asia spotted Paul in the Temple. They gathered a crowd and grabbed him.
28 “Men of Israel,” they yelled, “come and help us! This is the man who’s been teaching everybody everywhere against our people, our law, and this place! And now, what’s more, he’s brought some Greeks into the Temple, and he’s defiled this holy place!” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with Paul in the city, and they thought Paul had taken him into the Temple.)
30 The whole city was stirred up, and people rushed together from all around. They seized Paul and dragged him outside the Temple, and the gates were shut at once. 31 As they were trying to kill him, word reached the tribune of the guard that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 At once he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When the crowd saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the tribune came up, arrested him, ordered him to be bound with two chains, and asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd said one thing, some said another. Since he couldn’t find out what was really going on because of the uproar, he gave orders for Paul to be brought into the barracks. 35 When they got to the steps, the pressure of the crowd was so strong that the soldiers had to carry Paul. 36 The great mob of people was following, and shouting, “Kill him! Kill him!”
Why not hear my story?
37 As they were about to go into the barracks, Paul turned to the tribune.
“Am I allowed to say something to you?” he asked.
“Well!” replied the tribune. “So you know some Greek, do you? 38 Aren’t you the Egyptian who raised a revolt some while back and led those four thousand ‘assassins’ into the desert?”
39 “Actually,” replied Paul, “I’m a Jew! I’m from Tarsus in Cilicia. That’s not such a bad place to be a citizen. Please, please, let me speak to the people.”
40 So he gave him permission. Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people. When, eventually, there was silence, he spoke to them in Aramaic.
22 “My brothers and fathers,” he began, “hear me as I explain myself to you.”
2 When they heard him speaking in Aramaic they became even quieter.
3 “I am a Jew,” he continued, “and I was born in Tarsus in Cilicia. I received my education here, in this city, and I studied at the feet of Gamaliel. I was trained in the strictest interpretations of our ancestral laws, and became zealous for God, just as all of you are today. 4 I persecuted this Way, right to the point of killing people, and I bound and handed over to prison both men and women— 5 as the high priest and all the elders can testify. I received letters from them to the Jews of Damascus, where I was going in order to find the heretics who were there, tie them up, and bring them to Jerusalem to face their just deserts.
6 “Just as I was on the way, and getting near to Damascus, suddenly a bright light shone from heaven all around me. It was about midday. 7 I fell down on the ground and I heard a voice, saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 I answered, ‘Who are you, Master?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, and you are persecuting me!’
9 “The people who were with me saw the light, but they didn’t hear the voice of the person speaking to me. 10 So I said, ‘What shall I do, Master?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all the things that have been arranged for you to do.’
11 “So, as I couldn’t see because of the brightness of that light, the people with me led me by the hand, and I came to Damascus.”
Out of his own mouth
12 “There was a man named Ananias,” Paul continued. “He was a devout, law-keeping Jew, and all the Jews living in Damascus would testify to the fact. 13 He came and stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ In that very moment I could see, and I looked at him. 14 This is what he said. ‘The God of our ancestors chose you to know his will, to see the Righteous One, and to hear the word from his mouth. 15 This is because you are going to bear witness for him to all people, telling them what you have seen and heard. 16 Now, then, what are you going to do? Get up, be baptized and wash away your sins by calling on his name.’
17 “After I came back to Jerusalem, and was praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance, 18 and I saw him speaking to me. ‘Hurry up!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem as quickly as possible! They won’t accept your testimony about me.’ 19 ‘But, Lord,’ I replied, ‘they themselves know that in all the synagogues I used to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when they shed the blood of Stephen, your witness, I was myself standing there and giving my approval. I was looking after the cloaks of those who were killing him.’
21 “ ‘No,’ he said to me. ‘Go away from here! I’m sending you far away—to the Gentiles!’ ”
22 Up to this point the crowd listened to Paul. But now they began to shout.
“Away with him from the face of the earth!” they yelled. “Someone like that has no right to live!”
Roman citizenship comes in useful
23 The crowd was shouting, tearing their clothes, and throwing dust in the air. 24 The tribune gave orders for Paul to be brought into the barracks, and he told the guards to examine him by flogging, so that he could find out the reason for all the uproar against him.
25 As they were tying Paul up ready for the whips, Paul spoke to the centurion who was standing beside him.
“Is it lawful,” he said, “to flog a Roman citizen without first finding him guilty?”
26 When the centurion heard that, he went off to the tribune and spoke to him.
“What d’you think you’re doing?” he said. “This fellow’s a Roman citizen!”
27 The tribune came and spoke to Paul.
“Tell me,” he said. “Are you a Roman citizen?”
“Yes,” replied Paul.
28 “It cost me a lot of money to buy this citizenship,” said the tribune.
“Ah,” said Paul, “but it came to me by birth.”
29 The people who were about to torture Paul stepped back quickly from him. As for the tribune, he was afraid, discovering that he was a Roman citizen and that he had had him tied up.
30 On the next day, still wanting to get to the bottom of it all, and to find out what was being alleged by the Jews, he released Paul, and ordered the chief priests to come together, with the whole Sanhedrin. He brought Paul in and presented him to them.
Paul before the Sanhedrin
23 Paul looked hard at the Sanhedrin.
“My brothers,” he said. “I have conducted myself before God in a completely good conscience all my life up to this day.”
2 Ananias, the high priest, ordered the bystanders to strike Paul on the mouth.
3 “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall!” said Paul to Ananias. “You are sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet you order me to be struck in violation of the law?”
4 “You are insulting the high priest?” asked the bystanders.
5 “My brothers,” replied Paul, “I didn’t know he was the high priest. Scripture says, of course, ‘You mustn’t speak evil of the ruler of your people.’ ”
6 Paul knew that some of the gathering were Sadducees, and the rest were Pharisees.
“My brothers,” he shouted to the Sanhedrin, “I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. This trial is about the Hope, about the Resurrection of the Dead!”
7 At these words, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and they were split among themselves. 8 (The Sadducees deny that there is any resurrection, or any intermediate state of “angel” or “spirit,” but the Pharisees affirm them both.) 9 There was quite an uproar, with some of the scribes from the Pharisees’ party standing up and arguing angrily, “We find nothing wrong in this man! What if a spirit spoke to him, or an angel for that matter?”
10 Faced with another great riot, the tribune was worried that Paul was going to be pulled in pieces between them. He ordered the guard to go down and snatch him out of the midst of them and bring him back up into the barracks.
11 On the next night, the Lord stood by him.
“Cheer up!” he said. “You have given your testimony about me in Jerusalem. Now you have to do it in Rome.”
The oath and the plot
12 The next morning, the Jews made a plot together. They swore an oath, binding themselves not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. 13 There were more than forty of them who made this solemn vow with one another. 14 They went to the high priest and the elders.
“We have sworn a solemn and binding oath,” they said, “not to taste anything until we have killed Paul. 15 What you need to do is this: tell the tribune, with the Sanhedrin, to bring him down to you, as if you wanted to make a more careful examination of his case. And then, before he arrives, we’ll be ready to dispatch him.”
16 Paul’s nephew (his sister’s son) heard of the plot. He went off, entered the barracks, and told Paul about it. 17 Paul called one of the centurions.
“Take this young man to the tribune,” he said. “He’s got something to tell him.”
18 So he took him off and brought him to the tribune.
“Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you,” he said. “Apparently he’s got something to tell you.”
19 So the tribune took the young man by the hand, and led him off into a private room.
“What is it you have to tell me?” he asked.
20 “The Judaeans have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow,” he said. “It will look as if they’re wanting to make a more thorough investigation about him. 21 But don’t do what they want! There are more than forty men who are setting an ambush for him, and they’ve sworn a solemn oath not to eat or drink until they’ve killed him. They are ready right now, waiting for the word from you!”
22 So the tribune dismissed the lad.
“Don’t tell anyone at all that you’ve told me about this,” he said.
We have ways of keeping you safe
23 So the tribune summoned two of the centurions.
“Get ready a squad of two hundred,” he said. “They’re going to Caesarea. Also take seventy horsemen and two hundred light-armed guards. They leave at nine o’clock tonight. 24 Get horses ready for Paul to ride, and take him safely to Felix the governor.”
25 He wrote a letter which went like this:
26 “Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent governor Felix, greeting. 27 This man was seized by the Jews, who were going to kill him. When I learned that he was a Roman citizen I went with the guard and rescued him. 28 I wanted to know the charge on which they were accusing him, so I took him into their Sanhedrin. 29 There I discovered that he was being accused in relation to disputes about their law, but that he was not being charged with anything for which he would deserve to die or to be imprisoned. 30 I then received information that there was to be a plot against him. So I am sending him to you at once. I have told his accusers that they must inform you of their charges against him.”
31 So the soldiers did what they were told. They took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris, 32 and the next day they allowed the horsemen to go on with him while they returned to barracks. 33 The company arrived at Caesarea and handed over the letter to the governor, presenting Paul at the same time. 34 Felix read the letter, and asked which jurisdiction Paul was from. He found out that he was from Cilicia.
35 “I will hear your case,” he said, “when your accusers arrive.”
He ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod’s Praetorium.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.