Historical

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.

Bring on the barristers

24 After five days, Ananias the high priest came down to Caesarea with some of the elders, and with a barrister named Tertullus. They told the governor what they had against Paul. ² Paul was summoned, and Tertullus began his speech of accusation.

“Most excellent Felix! We are enjoying great peace because of you! Through your wise foresight and planning things have greatly improved for this people. ³ We welcome it in every way, in every place, and with every feeling of gratitude. ⁴ But, so as not to keep you waiting any longer, I beg you, of your forbearance, to listen to us briefly.

⁵ “We find this fellow to be a public nuisance. He stirs up civil strife among all the Jews, all over the world. He is a ringleader in the sect of the Nazoreans. ⁶ He even tried to defile the Temple! But we caught him. ⁸ If you examine him yourself you will be able to find out about all these things of which we’re accusing him.”

⁹ The Jews added their voices to this speech, agreeing that it was just as it had been said.

A defense of the Hope

¹⁰ The governor motioned to Paul to speak.

“I understand that you have been governor of this nation for several years,” he began, “and therefore I am all the more pleased to make my defense before you. ¹¹ You will be able to discover that it is not more than twelve days since I came up to worship at Jerusalem. ¹² They didn’t find me disputing with anybody in the Temple; nor was I stirring up a crowd, either in the synagogues or elsewhere in the city. ¹³ They can provide no proof of any of the charges they are now bringing against me.

¹⁴ “But this much I will confess to you: it is true that I do worship the God of my ancestors according to the Way which they call a ‘sect.’ I believe everything which is written in the law and the prophets, ¹⁵ and I hold to the hope in God, for which they also long, that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous. ¹⁶ For that reason I make it my settled aim always to have a clear conscience before God and all people.

¹⁷ “For several years I have been collecting alms and offerings to bring to my nation. ¹⁸ That was the business I was engaged in when they found me purified in the Temple, without any crowds and without any riot. ¹⁹ There were some Jews from Asia there; they are the ones who should appear before you and bring any accusations against me that they may have. ²⁰ Or let these people themselves say what wrong they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin— ²¹ unless it is about this one thing, which I shouted out as I was standing among them: ‘It’s because of the resurrection of the dead that I am being judged before you today.’ ”

Felix calms (and slows) things down

²² Felix was quite well informed about the Way. He adjourned the hearing.

“When Lysias the tribune comes down,” he said, “then I will make my decision about your business.”

²³ He told the centurion to keep Paul under guard, to allow him some freedom, and not to stop any of his companions from looking after him.

²⁴ After some days, Felix came with Drusilla his wife, who was Jewish. They sent for Paul and listened to him speaking about faith in the Messiah Jesus. ²⁵ As he talked about justice, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became afraid.

“That’s quite enough for now,” he said. “You can go. When I get a good opportunity I’ll call for you again another time.”

²⁶ At the same time he was hoping that Paul would give him money, and so he sent for him frequently and talked with him. ²⁷ After two years Felix handed over the reins of office to Porcius Festus. He wanted to do the Jews a favor, and so he left Paul in prison.

To Caesar you shall go

25 So Festus arrived in the province, and after three days he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. ² The high priests and the leading men of the Jews appeared before him, laying charges against Paul, and putting a request to him. ³ They wanted him to do a special favor for them and against Paul, by sending for him to be brought up to Jerusalem. They were making a plan to kill him on the way. ⁴ But Festus answered that he was keeping Paul at Caesarea, and that he himself would shortly be going back there.

⁵ “So,” he said, “your officials should come down with me. They can put any accusations of wrongdoing they may have against the man.”

⁶ He stayed with them for a few days (about eight or ten) and then went down to Caesarea. On the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought to him. ⁷ When he appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him and hurled many serious accusations at him, which they were not able to substantiate. ⁸ Paul made his response: “I have offended neither against the Jews’ law, nor against the Temple, nor against Caesar.”

⁹ Festus, however, wanted to do a favor to the Jews. “Tell me,” he said to Paul in reply, “how would you like to go up to Jerusalem and be tried by me there about these things?”

¹⁰ “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal,” said Paul, “which is where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you well know. ¹¹ If I have committed any wrong, or if I have done something which means I deserve to die, I’m not trying to escape death. But if I haven’t done any of the things they are accusing me of, nobody can hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”

¹² Festus consulted with his advisers.

“You have appealed to Caesar,” he said, “and to Caesar you shall go.”

Agrippa and Bernice

¹³ After some days King Agrippa came to Caesarea, with Bernice, to greet Festus. ¹⁴ They spent several days there, and during that time Festus put to the king the whole matter of Paul and the case against him.

“I have a man here,” he said, “who was left by Felix as a prisoner. ¹⁵ When I was up in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the Jewish elders came before me and asked me to pass sentence on him. ¹⁶ My response was that it is not our Roman custom to hand anyone over until the accused has had a chance to look his accusers in the face and make a defense against the charges. ¹⁷ So they came down here, and I didn’t postpone the business, but sat in court the next day and commanded the man to be brought. ¹⁸ His accusers stood there and brought charges—but not of the sort of wrongdoing I had been expecting. ¹⁹ It turned out to have to do with various wranglings concerning their own religion, and about some dead man called Jesus whom Paul asserted was alive. ²⁰ I simply didn’t know what to do about all this dispute, and so I asked him if he would like to go up to Jerusalem and be judged there about these things. ²¹ But Paul then appealed for his case to be sent up to His Majesty! So I gave the order that he should be kept under guard until I can send him to Caesar.”

²² “I should like to hear this man for myself,” said Agrippa to Festus.

“Very well,” said Festus. “You shall do so tomorrow.”

²³ On the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great ceremony, and entered the audience chamber. With them came the tribunes and the leading men of the city. Festus gave the order, and Paul was brought in.

²⁴ “King Agrippa,” said Festus, “and all of you assembled here, you see this man. The whole multitude of the Jews appealed to me about him, both in Jerusalem and here. They shouted that it wasn’t right to let him live. ²⁵ But I found that he had done nothing to deserve death, and since he then himself appealed to His Majesty I decided to send him. ²⁶ I don’t have anything definite to write to our Lord and Master about him, and so I’ve brought him here to you, and particularly before you, King Agrippa, so that I may know what to write once we have had a judicial hearing. ²⁷ There seems no sense to me in sending a prisoner without giving some indication of the charges against him.”