Bible Commentaries
Acts 23

Verses 1-9

21 Here we have the cause of Israel's apostasy laid bare. They were to be a channel of blessing to the other nations, but, instead, they kept all Jehovah's gifts to themselves and refused to share them with the less favored nations. They were like the slave who owed ten thousand talents, but, having nothing to pay with, is forgiven the debt. But when he found a fellow slave who owed him much less, he refused to be merciful and had him cast into prison. Consequently his Lord was indignant and gave him up to the tormentors ( Mat_18:23 ). Israel is the ten thousand talent debtor. The nations were their fellow-slaves. Israel was pardoned, but, since they refuse to pass on the blessing to the nations, the pardon is withdrawn and the nation has been in the hands of the tormentors ever since. Only a few years after this Jerusalem was destroyed, the nation scattered and driven from the land to wander up and down the earth, despised by the nations whom they had wronged.

25 On several previous occasions Paul had been protected from the fury of his own countrymen by the intervention of the Roman power. Gallio had turned the tables against them ( Act_18:12-17 ), and the scribe of Ephesus had cleared him ( Act_19:37 ), but never before had he appealed to his Roman citizenship as a defense against his own kin. In Philippi he had used it, not to shield himself, but for the sake of the evangel. Now, however, that the nation in the land is finally given over to judgment, he has no hesitancy in claiming his rights as a Roman citizen. He had already been beaten five times by the Jews ( 2Co_11:24 ) and it was needless to bear any more.

25 As he was a Roman citizen, the captain had no right to bind Paul, much less to scourge him before trial. But the fact that he had bound him illegally put Paul in an advantageous position, to which was added the respect due to one who had received such a citizenship by birth, while the captain had obtained it by purchase. "I am a Jew" availed nothing with the Jews. But on his declaration that he is a Roman, his word is instantly accepted. It was a capital offense to claim unlawfully the possession of the citizenship.

1 Paul now stands before the Sanhedrin, in which body he seems to have had a vote after the death of Stephen. Doubtless many who were there were old associates of his and most of them were acquainted with his life and doctrines, so that the inquiry was a mere form and bound to arrive at no conclusion. Paul, contrary to his usual custom of speaking first in a winning way of his auditors, commences immediately with his own defense, and seems to apologize for the fact that his Roman citizenship had entitled him to this hearing before them. This so enraged the chief priest, who probably took it as a hint that he was beyond his jurisdiction, that he has him slapped on the mouth. There were constant changes in the high priestly office in those days, which accounts for the ignorance of the apostle as to the personality of the high priest. Josephus tells us that Paul's prediction was fulfilled in the Jewish war, when this hypocritical president of the Sanhedrin was murdered by assassins. Paul had the privileges of a Greek ( Act_21:37 ), a Hebrew ( Act_22:2 ), and a Roman ( Act_22:27 ). The man that Christ found had been separated and trained and circumstanced by God.

6 The Pharisees had this in common with the faith of Christ, that they believed in a resurrection of the dead, which was, however, denied by the Sadducees. This question was the cause of perpetual strife between them. Paul, seeing how useless any further appeal to the council would be, determined to shift the contention to the subject of resurrection, in which he would have the Pharisees on his side and thus they would be diverted into strife amongst themselves. The result justified his plan, for the Pharisees immediately become violent partisans of his and some are even willing to allow that a spirit-which the Sadducees did not believe in-had spoken to him. They thought to use his testimony as an argument against their enemies the Sadducees. Thus it has ever been with the Jews. Their own internal strife was seldom laid aside even in face of the gravest crisis, and became the cause of many of their miseries.

Verses 10-27

10 The captain was more concerned that a Roman citizen should not be injured than to get their report, and so sends his soldiers to rescue him a second time from their clutches. It was well that he was again taken into the custody of the Romans, for the Jews would soon have torn him to pieces.

11 After such experiences we may well imagine that the future looked black to the persecuted saint. Now, if ever, he might yield to discouraging forebodings. At just such periods in the apostle's ministry he received divine help in the form of a vision to comfort and encourage him. In Corinth, when Jewish opposition threatened to wreck his testimony, the Lord spoke to him "Fear not! " And the reason was that God had a purpose to fulfil which demanded his continuance ( Act_18:9 ). Again, in the midst of the storm on his journey to Rome, he is again assured, "Fear not, Paul" ( Act_27:24 ). So now, he receives the definite and cheering assurance that it is the purpose of God that he should fulfill his wish to see Rome. Besides, the Lord commends his testimony in Jerusalem, which was such a failure seemingly. This word of approval should deter us from criticising any of the apostle's acts, for they undoubtedly were in line with God's purpose, and that, rather than our own provincial standard of right and wrong, is the true test of conduct. Results are not the test of a true ministry. Paul at Jerusalem was as great a failure as Noah, Elijah and Jeremiah. But for this commendation, Paul would seem to be out of the will of God.

12 In contrast with this serene assurance is the malignant activity of the Jews, who seem to have recovered from their temporary occupation with their own differences. The apostle now becomes the object of a plot to assassinate him. Thus the Roman citadel becomes his fortress rather than his prison. If the conspirators had been true to their oath, more than forty of them would have died of self inflicted famine, but the Talmud assures us that they could be absolved. What a conscienceless load of crime was cloaked under the religious zeal of these pious Jews!

16 Paul's family was influential in the Hebrew world. His nephew was in a position to learn the secret plans of the Jewish leaders.

18 Roman citizens, while awaiting trial were kept in custody in several ways: accordrng to circumstances and the rank of the prisoner. Public custody consisted in being thrust into the common jails and confined in dungeons of the worst kind. They were kept in chains or kept in stocks as in the case of Paul and Silas at Philippi. Free custody was simply a guarantee on the part of some person of high rank that the person would appear for trial. Military custody consisted in putting the person in charge of a soldier who was responsible for the prisoner with his own life. It was usual to chain the prisoner's right hand to the soldier's left. Sometimes, however the military custody was relaxed to the extent of merely putting the prisoner under the observation of a soldier, without chains. The soldiers, of course, relieved one another in military custody. There seems to be no doubt that Paul's imprisonment was a mild form of military custody, with liberty of access for his friends and relatives.

23 The Roman provinces were divided into armed and unarmed, the former being under the authority of the emperor, the latter under the senate. Roughly speaking, the garrisoned provinces were on the frontiers, or where the country had not been fully subjugated. Tacitus and .Josephus tell us that the fifth, tenth, and fifteenth legions were stationed in Caesarea, Ptolemais, or Jerusalem a few years after this. They were largely recruited in the province where they were located. The Jews were, however, exempt from military duty, so that the soldiers in Judea were drawn from the Syrian and Greek population. A legion consisted of more than six thousand infantry, perhaps as many auxiliaries, besides a regiment of cavalry. Such was the force at the captain's command from which he drew the detachment which conveyed Paul to Caesarea, the seat of the governor of the province.

26 Claudius Lysias was a diplomat and did not stop at a simple lie to gain credit for himself for having protected a Roman citizen from the Jews.

Verses 28-35

28 As in the case of our Lord, witness after witness testified that Paul had done nothing deserving the bonds he endured or the death with which he was threatened. All who heard his case concurred in the opinion that the accusations against him were unfounded and false. Yet it was in this way that he fulfilled that part of his ministry foretold by Ananias which he hitherto had no opportunity of carrying out. He had witnessed to the Jewish people and to the nations. Now he was to testify before kings ( Act_9:15 ) and thus close the kingdom testimony. His undoubted innocence, coupled with his Roman citizenship, greatly mitigated the terrors of a long imprisonment. The divine reason for this seems to be that the testimony to the Jews in the land was fulfilled, and Paul was, as a consequence, put beyond their power. All that they are allowed to do aids him in fulfilling his final kingdom testimony to the kings of the land, and provides for his journey to Rome, the greatest center of earthly power at the time, there solemnly to close up the kingdom proclamation altogether. Paul's imprisonment was a sign that the earthly kingdom was being withdrawn, otherwise its herald would be delivered from the earthly rulers. And this is emphasized by the fact that the nation who rejected it is the cause of his imprisonment.

34 It was a nice point with the Roman authorities not to interfere with one another's jurisdiction. Thus Pilate, when our Lord was brought before him, learning that he was of Galilee, which was in Herod's jurisdiction, sent Him to Herod ( Luk_23:7 ). Felix does not seem to have heeded Paul's Cilician origin, probably because the complaints against him were not sustained, and the alleged crimes were committed mainly in Jerusalem.

1 Ananias, the chief priest, lost no time in following the man who had called him a whitewashed wall. He hires a professional pleader against Paul, probably an Italian, acquainted more accurately with the Roman law, and the flattery to which governors were accustomed. As at the trial of the Master it was really Pilate before Christ, so now the judges are being judged, though judgment is not denounced here as in the Sanhedrin.

3 The smooth eulogy of Felix was most undeserved. He was a freedman of Claudius and brother of that Pallas who was a favorite of the emperor. Having been a slave and now owing his elevation to influence at Rome, it is no wonder Tacitus tells us that "in the practice of all kinds of lust and cruelty he exercised the power of a king with the temper of a slave." He had Jonathan, one of the high priests, assassinated because he protested against some of his practises. It must be acknowledged, however. that he did rid parts of Judea from robbers, and especially, at about this time, drove out the Egyptian for whom Paul was mistaken by Claudius Lysias. His acts stirred the Jews against the Roman rule so that. when he retired from the province and went to Rome, he was tried for maladministration, but acquitted by Nero through the influence of his brother Pallas.

5 Tertullus makes three charges against Paul. The first was against Roman law stirring up treason against the government. The second was against the law of Moses, as they supposed, a ring-leader of the Nazarenes. The third was against both Roman and Jewish law, profaning the sanctuary, for the Roman law protected the Jews in the exercise of their worship.

6-8 The omission of "and want to judge by a law of ours, yet captain Lysias, coming with much force, leading him away out of our hands, orders his accusers to come to you" is based on the evidence of almost all the ancient manuscripts and has the consent of almost all of the editors of the text. It is most unlikely that an orator like Tertullus would so damage his own influence as to accuse captain Lysias of a wrong, or suggest that Felix had no right to judge the case.

10 Paul quickly disposed of the two charges involving the Roman law. Since coming to Jerusalem only a few days before he had done nothing upon which they could base their charge of sedition. Neither had he profaned the temple, The other charge he admits, and makes it the occasion of his testimony. His dignified and truthful introduction is in marked contrast to that of his accuser.