A scene of great confusion now ensued (Acts xxiii. 10), in the midst of which Claudius Lysias being afraid lest the Roman citizen should be torn in pieces by them, ordered a detachment to go down instantly, and bring him into the barracks. Thus the Apostle was delivered from the most imminent danger, and in the evening his anxieties were relieved by the appearance of his Divine Master in a vision of the night, bidding him be of good cheer, and declaring that, as he had testified unto Him in Jerusalem, so he must testify also at Rome (Acts xxiii. 11).
The following morning however had hardly dawned, before a fresh danger revealed itself. Disappointed on the previous day in their malicious designs, more than forty of the Jews bound themselves by a solemn vow that they would neither eat nor drink till they had put the Apostle to death. Accordingly they went to the chief members of the Sanhedrin, and proposed that they should present themselves before the commandant and request him to allow St Paul to be brought down and placed a second time before them, in order that they might resume the enquiry so tumultuously interrupted, and they, on their part, undertook that he should not reach the council-chamber alive, for they would murder him on his way down from the fortress.
But their design in some way reached the ears of the Apostle’s nephew[1090], who was now present in Jerusalem, and he no sooner heard of the danger which threatened his uncle, than he obtained admittance into the barracks, and imparted to him the intelligence. Thereupon St Paul called one of the centurions, and requested him to take the young man to Claudius Lysias, for he had something to tell him. The officer complied, and conducting him to the commandant told him of St Paul’s message. Claudius Lysias received the young man kindly, and leading him cautiously aside enquired what he wished to say. The other thereupon acquainted him with the plot that had been laid, and was dismissed with strict injunctions not to divulge the fact that he had given this information.
Thus assured of the danger that threatened his prisoner, and knowing that he was responsible for his safety as a Roman citizen, Lysias resolved to send him away that very night under a strong escort to Cæsarea, and there leave him in the hands of the governor Felix. Summoning therefore two of the centurions, he gave orders that 200 of the legionary soldiers, with 70 cavalry and 200 spearmen[1091], should be in readiness to proceed thither by nine[1092] in the evening. In the meantime he wrote to the governor a dispatch, giving a fair and clear account of the case, save in the statement that he had rescued St Paul in the first instance because he had discovered he was a Roman citizen, and in the suppression of all allusion to his intention to scourge him (Acts xxiii. 26–30).
At the time appointed the escort was ready, and mounted on horseback[1093] between the two Roman soldiers, to whom he was chained, the Apostle was conducted from Jerusalem to Antipatris[1094]. Here the soldiers halted after their long night-march, and while the cavalry proceeded to Cæsarea, the legionary troops, no longer necessary to the Apostle’s safety[1095], returned to the fortress of Antonia. It was probably during the afternoon of the day succeeding[1096] their departure that the cavalry reached Cæsarea, and the officer in charge immediately delivered up his prisoner to the governor, with the dispatch from Claudius Lysias. Felix[1097] read it, and enquired to what province the prisoner belonged[1098], and having ascertained that he was a native of Cilicia, replied that he would hear and decide his case as soon as his accusers had arrived, and ordered that for the present he should be kept in Herod’s prætorium[1099] (Acts xxiii. 35).
CHAPTER VI.
PAUL BEFORE FELIX AND FESTUS.
A.D. 58–60.
FIVE days after the Apostle’s arrival at Cæsarea his accusers made their appearance, headed by the high-priest Ananias, certain of the elders, and an orator named Tertullus[1100], whose services had been engaged for this occasion. Accordingly, Felix took his seat on the tribunal[1101], and Paul having been sent for, Tertullus formally opened the case. After paying an adroit compliment to the procurator on the comparative quiet which the land enjoyed owing to his vigilance and energy[1102], he brought three charges against the prisoner: First, that he was a pestilent mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, which amounted to a charge of treason[1103] against the emperor; secondly, that he was a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes; and thirdly, that he had made an attempt to profane the Temple at Jerusalem. On these charges he declared the Jews had been about to judge him before their own tribunal, when Lysias forcibly took him away, and referred his accusers to the judgment-seat of Felix.
To these allegations the Jews present expressed their consent, hoping doubtless that the procurator would hand over the prisoner to their courts, where his fate would be soon decided. But Felix made a sign to the Apostle to proceed with his defence, and he, after expressing his satisfaction in pleading before one who had been so long familiar with the nation, commenced replying to the charges that had been brought against him. A disturber of the nation, he said, he was not, for on his recent visit to the Holy City but twelve days before, he had neither caused a disturbance, or even disputed in the temple, the synagogue, or the streets. As to his being a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, he had never swerved from his belief in the Law and the Prophets; like his accusers, he believed the doctrine of a resurrection, and strove to keep a conscience void of offence towards God and man. As to profaning the Temple, he had lately visited it as the bearer of offerings for his nation, and to observe some of the strictest ceremonies of the Law, not to gather together a multitude or cause a tumult. Certain Jews of Asia, indeed, had brought an accusation against him, but they ought now to have been present as witnesses, ready to bring forward a specific charge, if they had any (Acts xxiv. 10–21).
Felix, who had listened attentively to the Apostle’s address, was well acquainted with the character of the Christian religion, which had not only penetrated into Cæsarea, but also numbered disciples even among the troops[1104]. He was, therefore, in a position fully to appreciate the weakness of the allegations against the prisoner, and the misrepresentations of his accusers, and must have felt that the only proper course was to pronounce his acquittal and set him free. But this he could not make up his mind to do, and chose to reserve his final[1105] decision till Lysias should arrive, and in the meantime committed the Apostle to the charge of the centurion[1106] who had brought him to Cæsarea, with instructions to keep him safely, but at the same time to allow his friends[1107] to have free access to his apartments.