§62 Paul Transferred to Caesarea (Acts 23:23–35)

23:23–24 / No sooner had his nephew departed than preparations were made to remove Paul to Caesarea under armed guard. They were to leave that night about the “third hour” (nine o’clock), and the guard would comprise two hundred soldiers [with their centurions], seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen (v. 23). This would represent about half the garrison and is regarded by some as a far larger force than was warranted. Luke is accused of exaggeration. All of this gives added interest to the interpretation of the word rendered “spearmen.” It is found only twice elsewhere in all of ancient Greek literature—and then in writings much later than Acts (the seventh and tenth centuries)—and it is by no means certain that it means “spearmen.” The derivation suggests that has to do with taking hold with the right hand, and a number of other suggestions have been made, including “led horses.” If we accept this, it eliminates the two hundred spearmen and replaces them with the right number of horses to carry the other foot soldiers to Antipatris on the first stage of their journey. If that stage was accomplished in one night (see disc. on v. 32), a distance of nearly forty miles, this possible interpretation becomes probable.

But even if the word does mean “spearmen,” an escort of 470 men may not have been unreasonable in view of the troubled times and the fanaticism of the Jewish nationalists. And of course the commander had no idea of the extent of the plot. The boy had spoken of “more than forty men” (v. 21), but how many more he did not know. In any case, the foot soldiers were only to accompany Paul on the first and most dangerous part of the journey and would then return while Paul went on with the horsemen to Caesarea (cf. v. 32). Paul himself was mounted, but the plural, mounts for Paul (v. 24), raises a number of possibilities. The additional horses may have been for relays or for baggage or, if he was chained to a soldier, for that man as well. But it could equally mean that Paul had his friends riding with him (cf. 24:23)—Luke, perhaps, and Aristarchus, who were certainly with him in Caesarea at a later date (27:1f.). For Felix, see the discussion on 24:1.

23:25 / As the law demanded of a subordinate officer in this situation, a written statement explaining the case (the elogium) was sent with the escort. This is the only example in the New Testament of a secular letter. Its realistic style makes it possible that Luke had seen it or at least heard it read, perhaps in open court before Felix. Or a copy may have been given to Paul as part of the documentation for his appeal to Caesar. It bears the impress of what a Roman officer might have said, including a better presentation of his own conduct than a strict adherence to the truth might have suggested and a rather contemptuous reference to Jewish “questions about their law” (v. 29). However, we probably do not have the letter verbatim. Luke introduces it with the comment that it went “something like this.” The original would have been in Latin.

23:26 / The letter began in the usual way, with the writer named first, then the person to whom it was addressed, and thirdly a word of greeting (cf. 15:23). Here, for the first time the prefect is named (see disc. on 22:28). The title Excellency was that appropriate to a man of equestrian rank (see note on 1:1), and though Felix was not of that rank, most procurators were and its use here was only natural (and diplomatic).

23:27 / Lysias outlined the circumstances that had brought Paul into his custody. His account conforms broadly with what we already know, except that he claims to have rescued Paul knowing that he was a Roman citizen, whereas, of course, it was only later that he made that discovery (for another version, see 24:5f.).

23:28 / In the Greek text, the statements of verses 27 and 28 are closely linked, as though the commander was anxious to move quickly from his rescue of Paul to the inquiry by the Sanhedrin, drawing a veil over his own conduct in the interim that was open to censure.

23:29 / As far as the commander was concerned, Paul had done nothing worthy of prison, much less of death, and this remained the Roman attitude throughout the affair (cf. 26:31; also 18:14f.). The charge that he had “brought Greeks into the temple area” (21:28b) had been shelved for lack of evidence (cf. 24:13). The Asian Jews on whose word alone it had rested had evidently returned home. The more general charge that he was teaching “all men everywhere against our people,” and so on (21:28a; cf. 24:5) was now all that was left to the Sanhedrin, which had taken up the Asians’ cause against Paul. But this was a theological, not a criminal, matter, and as such held no interest for the Romans.

23:30 / Lysias was probably glad to be rid of Paul, and in any case the governor was the proper authority to deal with the matter. He had told the Jews that if they wished to lay charges they should do so before the governor. The usual “farewell” at the end of a letter is omitted here by the best manuscripts.

23:31–32 / Antipatris had been rebuilt by Herod the Great and named in honor of his father, Antipater. It was not a fortress, but it was strategically placed and did serve as a military station (mutatio). The town marked the border between Judea and Samaria. From Jerusalem to Antipatris, by a descending and winding road, was a journey of thirty-seven miles, and Luke implies that Paul and his escort reached the town that same night. This distance might have been just possible in the time for well-trained foot soldiers (see R. Jewett, p. 139), but it is possible (contrary to the impression given by Luke) that the foot soldiers did not go that far, but only as far as was necessary to see the party out of the immediate danger, leaving the others to go on to Antipatris and the next day to Caesarea. But of course the possibility still remains that the whole party was mounted (see disc. on v. 23).

23:33–35 / The second leg of the journey, from Antipatris to Caesarea, was a distance of about twenty-five miles through open, mainly Gentile, country (the Plain of Sharon; see disc. on 8:40 and 9:35). Once in Caesarea, the escort delivered both the letter and their prisoner to the governor. When Felix had read the letter, he followed standard bureaucratic procedure by asking Paul what province he came from. Having discovered that it was Cilicia, he agreed nevertheless to hear the case. This little interchange reflects criminal law of the time. The practice had been to try criminals in the province in which their crime was committed, but by the beginning of the second century A.D., and almost certainly earlier, the possibility existed of sending the accused for trial in his own province. “The point,” then, “of the question put to Paul, in mid-first century, was not to protect the rights of the accused …, but to enable the procurator … to avoid a tiresome affair altogether, if he felt inclined, either by expelling an accused person from a province to which he did not belong, or by a refusal of jurisdiction” (Sherwin-White, p. 31). Why then did Felix not take up this option? Patently, it would be a “tiresome affair.” The answer may lie in the status of Cilicia, which was at that time was still apparently part of Syria (see note on 15:23) and “the legate of Syria was not to be bothered with minor cases.” In any case, “the status of Cilicia did not require that its natives should be sent back to it for trial” (Sherwin-White, p. 56). So Paul was retained in Caesarea, kept under guard in Herod’s palace (v. 35), now the headquarters of the Roman administration (see disc. on 10:1). This was his real “handing over to the Gentiles” that Agabus had foretold (21:11).