The Way Home
TWO YEARS IN PRISON
Story 16 -
Acts 22:30 to 24:27
After Paul had been rescued from the Jewish mob, he was taken for safekeeping into the castle at the north of the Temple. The chief captain wanted to know why the Jews bitterly hated Paul. So he commanded the chief priests and rulers to meet together, and he brought Paul down from the castle and set him before them. Paul looked earnestly upon the council and said: “Brethren, I have lived all my life trying to do the will of God.”
The high priest, whose name was Ananias, was sitting in the council, dressed in the white garments worn by all priests. He was so enraged at Paul’s words that he said, “Strike him on the mouth.”
And Paul, roused to sudden anger at such unjust words, said, “God will strike you, O whited wall! Do you set to judge me by the law and yet against the law command me to be struck?”
Those that were standing by said to Paul, “Do you speak such words against the high priest of God?”
“I did not know,” answered Paul, “that he was high priest. It is written in the law not to speak evil of a ruler of your people.”
Paul saw that there were two parties in the council and by a few wise words he made some of the rulers friendly to him, so that they stood up and said, “We find no evil in this man. Perhaps a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel.”
This made the rulers on the other side even more furious, and a quarrel arose between them. There was so much quarreling that the chief captain feared
that Paul might be torn to pieces. So he again sent down soldiers to take him by force from the council and bring Paul back into the castle.
On the night after this, while Paul was in his cell, the Lord stood by him and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have spoken for Me at Jerusalem, so shall you speak for Me at Rome.”
Early the next morning more than forty of the Jews had a plan to kill Paul. They bound themselves together by an oath, swearing that they would neither eat nor drink until they had slain him. These men came to the chief priests and said, “We have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will taste nothing until we have killed Paul. Now ask the chief captain to bring Paul down again to meet the council so that they may hear him and try his case once more. And while he is on his way to the council, we will rush in and kill him.”
Now Paul had a sister living in Jerusalem, and her son heard of this plot and came to the castle and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the officers and said, “Take this young man to the chief captain, for he has something to tell him.”
So the officer brought the young man to the chief captain and said, “Paul, the prisoner, called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you, for he has something to say.”
Then the chief captain took the young man aside and asked, “What is it that you have to say to me?”
And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the council again; but do not let him go, for there are more than forty men watching for him, who have sworn an oath together that they will neither eat nor drink until they have killed Paul.”
The chief captain listened carefully and then sent the young man away, after saying to him, “Do not tell anyone that you have spoken of these things to me.”
And after the young man had gone, the chief captain called two centurions, captains over a hundred men, and he said, “Make ready two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea and seventy men on horseback and two hundred men with spears, at nine o’clock at night.”
And he told them also to have horses ready for Paul. He intended to send Paul safely to Felix, the governor of the land, who was located at Caesarea. The chief captain wrote a letter: “Claudius Lysias sends greeting to the most noble governor Felix. This man was seized by the Jews and would have been killed by them, but I came upon him with the soldiers and took him from their hands, having learned that he was a citizen of Rome. And to find out the reasons why they were so strongly against him, I brought him down to their council. But I found that the charges against him were about questions of their law, but nothing deserving death or prison. When I heard that there was a plot to kill the man, I sent him at once to you and told his enemies to go before you with their charges.” So in the night almost five hundred men were sent as guards for Paul.
He was taken out of the castle and that night they traveled about forty miles, to Antipatris. The next day many of the soldiers left him, assuming that he was no longer in danger, and returned to Jerusalem. But the soldiers on horseback rode on with Paul to Caesarea, where Felix the governor lived. The officer in charge gave the letter to the governor. After reading it, Felix then asked Paul from what land he had come. Paul told him that he belonged to the land of Cilicia in Asia Minor. The governor said, “I will hear your case when those who bring charges against you have come.”
And he put Paul in a castle that once belonged to Herod. After five days the high priest Ananias and some others came to Caesarea, bringing with them a lawyer named Tertullus. And when Paul was brought before them in the presence of Felix, the governor, Tertullus made a speech charging Paul with riot and lawbreaking, and many evil deeds. They also said that Paul was “a ringleader in the party of the Nazarenes,” which was the name they gave to the church of our Lord. And all the Jews joined in the charge, saying that these things were true. After they had spoken, the governor motioned with his hand toward Paul, showing that he might speak, and Paul said, “I know that you have been for many years a judge over this people, and for that reason I speak to you willingly. For you may know that it is only twelve days since I went up to worship at Jerusalem. Nor was I quarreling with anyone in the Temple nor stirring up a crowd in the Temple or the synagogues in the city. Nor can they prove to you the things that they have said against me.
“But I do admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call ‘the party of the Nazarenes.’ I believe all things in the law and in the prophets, and I have hope in God that the dead shall be raised up. And I have always tried to keep my heart free from wrong toward God and toward men.
“Now, after many years, I came to bring gifts to my people and offerings for the altar. And with these they found me in the Temple, but not with a crowd, nor with a riot. But there were certain Jews from Asia Minor who ought to have been here, if they have anything against me.”
Felix, the governor, knew somewhat about the church of our Lord and the followers of Jesus, and he said, “When Lysias, the chief captain, shall come down, I will settle this case.”
He ordered Paul to be kept under guard, but allowed his friends to freely visit him. After a few days Felix and his Jewish wife Drusilla, sent for Paul and heard from him about the Gospel of Christ. And as Paul preached about right living and ruling self and of the judgment of God that would come upon sinners, Felix was alarmed, and said, “Go away for this time; when a fit time comes and I am ready to listen, I will send for you.”
Felix wasn’t a fair judge and he hoped that Paul might give him money to be set free. With this in his mind, he sent for Paul and talked with him many times. After two whole years Paul was still in prison at Caesarea. At the end of that time Felix was called back to Rome, and a man named Porcius Festus was sent to take his place as governor. Wishing to please the Jews, Felix left Paul a prisoner.
