Acts 23:25

THE MESSAGE

Then he wrote this letter: From Claudius Lysias, to the Most Honorable Governor Felix: Greetings! I rescued this man from a Jewish mob. They had seized him and were about to kill him when I learned that he was a Roman citizen. So I sent in my soldiers. Wanting to know what he had done wrong, I had him brought before their council. It turned out to be a squabble turned vicious over some of their religious differences, but nothing remotely criminal. The next thing I knew, they had cooked up a plot to murder him. I decided that for his own safety I'd better get him out of here in a hurry. So I'm sending him to you. I'm informing his accusers that he's now under your jurisdiction.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He wrote the following letter:

King James Version (1611)
And hee wrote a letter after this manner:

King James Version
And he wrote a letter after this manner:

English Standard Version
And he wrote a letter to this effect:

New American Standard Bible
And he wrote a letter with the following content:

New Century Version
And he wrote a letter that said:

Amplified Bible
And [after instructing the centurions] he wrote a letter to this effect:

Legacy Standard Bible
And he wrote a letter having this form:

Berean Standard Bible
And he wrote the following letter:

Contemporary English Version
The commander wrote a letter that said:

Complete Jewish Bible
And the commander wrote the following letter:

Darby Translation
having written a letter, couched in this form:

Easy-to-Read Version
The commander wrote a letter that said:

Geneva Bible (1587)
And he wrote an epistle in this maner:

George Lamsa Translation
And he wrote a letter after this manner and gave it to them:

Good News Translation
Then the commander wrote a letter that went like this:

Lexham English Bible
He wrote a letter that had this form:

Literal Translation
For he was writing a letter, having this form:

American Standard Version
And he wrote a letter after this form:

Bible in Basic English
And he sent a letter in these words:

Hebrew Names Version
He wrote a letter like this:

International Standard Version
He wrote a letter with this message:

Etheridge Translation
And he wrote a letter, and gave it to them, which was thus:

Murdock Translation
And he wrote a letter and gave them, in which was, thus:

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he wrote a letter, after this maner.

English Revised Version
And he wrote a letter after this form:

World English Bible
He wrote a letter like this:

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And he wrote a letter after this manner, Claudius Lysias to the most excellent Governor Felix, greeting.

Weymouth's New Testament
He also wrote a letter of which these were the contents:

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
For the tribune dredde, lest the Jewis wolden take hym bi the weie, and sle hym, and aftirward he miyte be chalengid, as he hadde take money.

Update Bible Version
And he wrote a letter after this form:

Webster's Bible Translation
And he wrote a letter after this manner:

New English Translation
He wrote a letter that went like this:

New King James Version
He wrote a letter in the following manner:

New Living Translation
Then he wrote this letter to the governor:

New Life Bible
He wrote a letter which said,

New Revised Standard
He wrote a letter to this effect:

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And he wrote a letter, after this form: -

Douay-Rheims Bible
(For he feared lest perhaps the Jews might take him away by force and kill him: and he should afterwards be slandered, as if he was to take money.) And he wrote a letter after this manner:

Revised Standard Version
And he wrote a letter to this effect:

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
and wrote a letter in this maner.

Young's Literal Translation
he having written a letter after this description:

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and he wrote a letter on this maner:

Mace New Testament (1729)
at the same time he writ a letter to Felix to this purport.

Simplified Cowboy Version
Then the commander wrote this letter to the governor,

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And he wrote a letter having this form:

Contextual Overview

¹²Next day the Jews worked up a plot against Paul. They took a solemn oath that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed him. Over forty of them ritually bound themselves to this murder pact and presented themselves to the high priests and religious leaders. "We've bound ourselves by a solemn oath to eat nothing until we have killed Paul. But we need your help. Send a request from the council to the captain to bring Paul back so that you can investigate the charges in more detail. We'll do the rest. Before he gets anywhere near you, we'll have killed him. You won't be involved." ¹⁶Paul's nephew, his sister's son, overheard them plotting the ambush. He went immediately to the barracks and told Paul. Paul called over one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the captain. He has something important to tell him." ¹⁸ The centurion brought him to the captain and said, "The prisoner Paul asked me to bring this young man to you. He said he has something urgent to tell you." ¹⁹ The captain took him by the arm and led him aside privately. "What is it? What do you have to tell me?" ²⁰Paul's nephew said, "The Jews have worked up a plot against Paul. They're going to ask you to bring Paul to the council first thing in the morning on the pretext that they want to investigate the charges against him in more detail. But it's a trick to get him out of your safekeeping so they can murder him. Right now there are more than forty men lying in ambush for him. They've all taken a vow to neither eat nor drink until they've killed him. The ambush is set—all they're waiting for is for you to send him over." ²² The captain dismissed the nephew with a warning: "Don't breathe a word of this to a soul." ²³The captain called up two centurions. "Get two hundred soldiers ready to go immediately to Caesarea. Also seventy cavalry and two hundred light infantry. I want them ready to march by nine o'clock tonight. And you'll need a couple of mules for Paul and his gear. We're going to present this man safe and sound to Governor Felix." ²⁵Then he wrote this letter: From Claudius Lysias, to the Most Honorable Governor Felix: Greetings! I rescued this man from a Jewish mob. They had seized him and were about to kill him when I learned that he was a Roman citizen. So I sent in my soldiers. Wanting to know what he had done wrong, I had him brought before their council. It turned out to be a squabble turned vicious over some of their religious differences, but nothing remotely criminal. The next thing I knew, they had cooked up a plot to murder him. I decided that for his own safety I'd better get him out of here in a hurry. So I'm sending him to you. I'm informing his accusers that he's now under your jurisdiction. ³¹The soldiers, following orders, took Paul that same night to safety in Antipatris. In the morning the soldiers returned to their barracks in Jerusalem, sending Paul on to Caesarea under guard of the cavalry. The cavalry entered Caesarea and handed Paul and the letter over to the governor. ³⁴After reading the letter, the governor asked Paul what province he came from and was told "Cilicia." Then he said, "I'll take up your case when your accusers show up." He ordered him locked up for the meantime in King Herod's official quarters.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Reciprocal: Acts 23:33 - delivered

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he wrote a letter after this manner. The chief captain wrote a letter to Felix the governor, the form and sum of which were as follow; this letter he sent by one of the centurions to him.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Acts 23:25. He wrote a letter after this manner — It appears that this was not only the substance of the letter, but the letter itself: the whole of it is so perfectly formal as to prove this; and in this simple manner are all the letters of the ancients formed. In this also we have an additional proof of St. Luke's accuracy.