Acts 23-24

Acts 23

¹And Paul, looking fixedly at the Sanhedrin, said, My brothers, my life has been upright before God till this day.

²And the high priest, Ananias, gave orders to those who were near him to give him a blow on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, God will give blows to you, you whitewashed wall: are you here to be my judge by law, and by your orders am I given blows against the law?

⁴And those who were near said, Do you say such words against God's high priest?

⁵And Paul said, Brother, I had no idea that he was the high priest: for it has been said, You may not say evil about the ruler of your people.

⁶But when Paul saw that half of them were Sadducees and the rest Pharisees, he said in the Sanhedrin, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, and the son of Pharisees: I am here to be judged on the question of the hope of the coming back from the dead.

⁷And when he had said this, there was an argument between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and a division in the meeting.

⁸For the Sadducees say that there is no coming back from the dead, and no angels or spirits: but the Pharisees have belief in all these.

⁹And there was a great outcry: and some of the scribes on the side of the Pharisees got up and took part in the discussion, saying, We see no evil in this man: what if he has had a revelation from an angel or a spirit?

¹⁰And when the argument became very violent, the chief captain, fearing that Paul would be pulled in two by them, gave orders to the armed men to take him by force from among them, and take him into the army building.

¹¹And the night after, the Lord came to his side and said, Be of good heart, for as you have been witnessing for me in Jerusalem, so will you be my witness in Rome.

¹²And when it was day, the Jews came together and put themselves under an oath that they would take no food or drink till they had put Paul to death.

¹³And more than forty of them took this oath.

¹⁴And they came to the chief priests and the rulers and said, We have taken a great oath to take no food till we have put Paul to death

¹⁵So now, will you and the Sanhedrin make a request to the military authorities to have him sent down to you, as if you were desiring to go into the business in greater detail; and we, before ever he gets to you, will be waiting to put him to death.

¹⁶But Paul's sister's son had word of their design, and he came into the army building and gave news of it to Paul.

¹⁷And Paul sent for a captain and said, Take this young man to your chief, for he has news for him.

¹⁸So he took him to the chief captain and said, Paul, the prisoner, made a request to me to take this young man to you, for he has something to say to you.

¹⁹And the chief took him by the hand and, going on one side, said to him privately, What is it you have to say to me?

²⁰And he said, The Jews are in agreement together to make a request to you for Paul to be taken, on the day after this, into the Sanhedrin, to be questioned in greater detail.

²¹But do not give way to them, for more than forty of them are waiting for him, having taken an oath not to take food or drink till they have put him to death: and now they are ready, waiting for your order.

²²So the chief captain let the young man go, saying to him, Do not say to anyone that you have given me word of these things.

²³And he sent for two captains and said, Make ready two hundred men, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, to go to Caesarea, at the third hour of the night:

²⁴And get beasts so that they may put Paul on them, and take him safely to Felix, the ruler.

²⁵And he sent a letter in these words:

²⁶Claudius Lysias, to the most noble ruler, Felix, peace be with you.

²⁷This man was taken by the Jews, and was about to be put to death by them, when I came on them with the army and took him out of danger, having knowledge that he was a Roman.

²⁸And, desiring to get at the reason for their attack on him, I took him down to their Sanhedrin:

²⁹Then it became clear to me that it was a question of their law, and that nothing was said against him which might be a reason for prison or death.

³⁰And when news was given to me that a secret design was being made against the man, I sent him straight away to you, giving orders to those who are against him to make their statements before you.

³¹So the armed men, as they were ordered, took Paul and came by night to Antipatris.

³²But on the day after, they sent the horsemen on with him, and went back to their place:

³³And they, when they came to Caesarea, gave the letter to the ruler, and took Paul before him.

³⁴And after reading it, he said, What part of the country do you come from? And, hearing that he was from Cilicia,

³⁵I will give hearing to your cause, he said, when those who are against you have come. And he gave orders for him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium.

Acts 24

¹And after five days, the high priest, Ananias, came with certain of the rulers, and an expert talker, one Tertullus; and they made a statement to Felix against Paul.

²And when he had been sent for, Tertullus, starting his statement, said, Because by you we are living in peace, and through your wisdom wrongs are put right for this nation,

³In all things and in all places we are conscious of our great debt to you, most noble Felix.

⁴But, so that I may not make you tired, I make a request to you of your mercy, to give hearing to a short statement.

⁵For this man, in our opinion, is a cause of trouble, a maker of attacks on the government among Jews through all the empire, and a chief mover in the society of the Nazarenes:

⁶Who, in addition, was attempting to make the Temple unclean: whom we took,

⁸And from whom you will be able, by questioning him yourself, to get knowledge of all the things which we say against him.

⁹And the Jews were in agreement with his statement, saying that these things were so.

¹⁰Then when the ruler had given him a sign to make his answer, Paul said, Because I have knowledge that you have been a judge over this nation for a number of years, I am glad to make my answer:

¹¹Seeing that you are able to make certain of the fact that it is not more than twelve days from the time when I came up to Jerusalem for worship;

¹²And they have not seen me in argument with any man in the Temple, or working up the feelings of the people, in the Synagogues or in the town:

¹³And they are not able to give facts in support of the things which they say against me now.

¹⁴But this I will say openly to you, that I do give worship to the God of our fathers after that Way, which to them is not the true religion: but I have belief in all the things which are in the law and in the books of the prophets:

¹⁵Hoping in God for that which they themselves are looking for, that there will be a coming back from the dead for upright men and wrongdoers.

¹⁶And in this, I do my best at all times to have no reason for shame before God or men.

¹⁷Now after a number of years I came to give help and offerings to my nation:

¹⁸And having been made clean, I was in the Temple, but not with a great number of people, and not with noise: but there were certain Jews from Asia,

¹⁹And it would have been better if they had come here to make a statement, if they have anything against me.

²⁰Or let these men here present say what wrongdoing was seen in me when I was before the Sanhedrin,

²¹But only this one thing which I said among them in a loud voice, I am this day being judged on the question of the coming back from the dead.

²²But Felix, who had a more detailed knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, When Lysias, the chief captain, comes down, I will give attention to your business.

²³And he gave orders to the captain to keep Paul under his control, and to let him have everything he had need of; and not to keep his friends from coming to see him.

²⁴But after some days, Felix came with Drusilla his wife, who was of the Jews by birth, and sent for Paul, and gave hearing to him about faith in Christ Jesus.

²⁵And while he was talking about righteousness and self-control and the judging which was to come, Felix had great fear and said, Go away for the present, and when the right time comes I will send for you.

²⁶For he was hoping that Paul would give him money: so he sent for him more frequently and had talk with him.

²⁷But after two years Porcius Festus took the place of Felix, who, desiring to have the approval of the Jews, kept Paul in chains.