Acts 23:23–35

TO CAESAREA BY NIGHT

²³He summoned two of his centurions and said, “Get two hundred soldiers ready with seventy cavalry and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight.^{Ba 24}Also provide mounts to ride so that Paul may be brought safely to Felix the governor.”

²⁵He wrote the following letter:^C

²⁶Claudius Lysias,

To the most excellent governor Felix:

Greetings.^b

²⁷When this man had been seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, I arrived with my troops and rescued him because I learned that he is a Roman citizen.^{c 28}Wanting to know the charge they were accusing him of, I brought him down before their Sanhedrin. ²⁹I found out that the accusations were concerning questions of their law,^d and that there was no charge that merited death or imprisonment.^{e 30}When I was informed that there was a plot against the man,^Df I sent him to you right away. I also ordered his accusers^g to state their case against him in your presence.^E

³¹So the soldiers took Paul during the night and brought him to Antipatris as they were ordered. ³²The next day, they returned to the barracks, allowing the cavalry to go on with him. ³³When these men entered Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.^{h 34}After he^F read it, he asked what province he was from. When he learned he was from Cilicia,^{i 35}he said, “I will give you a hearing whenever your accusers also get here.” He ordered that he be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.^Aj