A Study of Acts: Paul is Moved to Caesarea
Acts 23:23-35 - God obviously works details in human history. Is your heart right before God or are you moving ahead and stepping out of His purposes?
“And he called to him two of the centurions and said, “Get two hundred soldiers ready by the third hour of the night to proceed to Caesarea, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen.” They were also to provide mounts to put Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor.
And he wrote a letter having this form: “Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent governor Felix, greetings. “When this man was arrested by the Jews and was about to be slain by them, I came up to them with the troops and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman. And wanting to ascertain the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their Council; and I found him to be accused over questions about their Law, but under no accusation deserving death or imprisonment.
“When I was informed that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, also instructing his accusers to bring charges against him before you.” So the soldiers, in accordance with their orders, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.
But the next day, leaving the horsemen to go on with him, they returned to the barracks. When these had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him. When he had read it, he asked from what province he was, and when he learned that he was from Cilicia, he said, “I will give you a hearing after your accusers arrive also,” giving orders for him to be kept in Herod’s Praetorium.”
Acts 23:23-35 NASB1995
I searched in vain for a good and usable (e.g., public domain or no credit) artwork of Paul being transported to Caesarea by what is nearly a battalion of Roman soldiers, but had no luck so I used one of the Biblehub verse images.
We now know the name of the commander of the Roman soldiers in the barracks in Jerusalem - Claudius Lysias. He calls two centurions and tells them to gather two hundred soldiers in the third hour of the night (about 9:00 pm), along with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen (so this is apparently a force of 470 men to protect Paul). A horse is also provided for Paul and the group leaves Jerusalem immediately headed for Caesarea.
Claudius Lysias penned a letter to the Roman governor in Caesarea about the situation with Paul. This governor, Felix, has an intriguing background story, as noted in this commentary by William Barclay, quoted in Precept Austin:
The governor to whom Paul was taken was Felix and his name was a byword. For five years he had governed Judaea and for two years before that he had been stationed in Samaria; he had still two years to go before being dismissed from his post. He had begun life as a slave. His brother, Pallas, was the favourite of Nero. Through the influence of Pallas, Felix had risen first to be a freedman and then to be a governor. He was the first slave in history ever to become the governor of a Roman province. Tacitus, the Roman historian, said of him, "He exercised the prerogatives of a king with the spirit of a slave." He had actually been married to three princesses one after another. The name of the first is not known; the second was a grand-daughter of Antony and Cleopatra; the third was Drusilla, the daughter of Herod Agrippa the First. He was completely unscrupulous and was capable of hiring thugs to murder his own closest supporters. It was to face a man like that that Paul went to Caesarea.
So Felix is not a good guy, apparently. The letter from Lysias is interesting and, quite frankly, smoothly political in that the commander does not admit to the treatment that Paul suffered initially (being bound and nearly scourged) but makes it sound like he rescued him from his accusers and learned immediately that Paul was a Roman citizen. He describes the plot against Paul and also says that the charges against him were related to the Judaic law and did not appear to merit death or imprisonment. He decides to elevate the situation to the governor for consideration.
Map showing Antipatris from the Bibleatlas.org
The group traveled in the night to Antipatris (see map above). A group of amateurs vowing to murder Paul would be no threat against these trained soldiers. At Antipatris, the border with Samaria, the 400 foot soldiers left and returned to the barracks while the mounted soldiers continued to Caesarea with Paul. The threat was less in this flat region filled with Gentiles so there was no need to keep the large protective force intact.
The group arrives in Caesarea, the letter is presented to Felix and Paul is also presented to the governor. Paul notes that he is from the province of Cilicia when asked and Felix orders that he be kept in Herod’s Praetorium until his accusers can arrive. This starts a long period of confinement for Paul in Caesarea, but it also sets up the chain of events that eventually brings him to Rome. This commentary by Ray Stedman that I found on Precept Austin is quite compelling about how God works in human history:
There were two kinds of provinces in the Roman Empire: There were those under the control of the Roman senate, and those which reported to the emperor (See map from 117 AD of these two types of provinces - note Cilicia just above the island of Cyprus) -- the imperial provinces. He learns that Paul is from Cilicia which, like Judea, is an imperial province under the direct control of the emperor himself, responsible to him. And so the steps are being laid, as God is operating behind the scenes to pave the way, for bringing Paul and the emperor, Nero, face to face. God is going to accomplish it his way." These are his wheels within wheels (Ezekiel 1:15-21) by which he manipulates human history.
It might not look as if God were involved at all, and yet all these incidents are occurring at his command, accomplishing his purposes. The striking thing from this part of the story is that God has no trouble handling history. That is no problem. He can work out his will through human events without any difficulty whatsoever. Even stubborn, obstinate, resistant, rebellious people can be used by God to bring people to where he wants them and to do what he wants done. But what gives him grief and heartache is when his own people resist his will and stubbornly determine to have something which God has said it is not time for yet. They are the ones who halt and limit the program of God. As long as the hearts of his people are right, before him, he has no difficulty.
It is only when, because of an overwhelming desire for our own way [and] we step out of his purposes, that we find ourselves in conflict with the movement of history and, like the apostle, suffer hurt and limitation as a result. And, you know, since I have been studying this through, I have to tell you that every day I must say to myself, "Look, Stedman, you can fall, too. You can miss God's will. You can get so intent on something that you think is right, and press and push for it so hard, that you too can miss the will of God." My heart's cry is that God will keep me from that. And I hope that you are praying that way, too. Be alert, be sensitive to the warning of the Holy Spirit, so that you may always walk in his purposes. (Acts 22:30-23:35 Love That Never Lets Go)
So is your heart right before God? Paul is doing his best, but he is also zealous and stubborn. He was that way before his conversion and there is nothing that contradicts that nature that we can find in Scripture after his conversion except he is sweetly tempered with spiritual fruit. We must always be sensitive to the warnings of the Holy Spirit and walk in His purposes and not try to get ahead of God’s plan.
So do you think the murderous oath-takers died of thirst or starvation because they were unable to fulfill their oath? Enduring Word tells us that we probably shouldn’t worry about them; their oaths probably had as much weight as a politician’s promises:
Some wonder if the men who made the vow of fasting died because they failed in their mission to kill Paul. This was probably not the case. Ancient rabbis allowed for four types of vows to be broken: “Vows of incitement, vows of exaggeration, vows made in error, and vows that cannot be fulfilled by reason of constraint” – exclusions allowing for almost any contingency. (Richard Longenecker).
My next devotional examines Acts 24:1-9, The accusers of Paul appear before Felix.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - I pray that I am always sensitive to the warnings of the Holy Spirit and walk in Your Will. Amen.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
The Bibleatlas.org is licensed under this Creative Commons license.
Precept Austin was accessed on 1/18/2024 to review commentary for Acts 23:23-35.
Commentary from Enduring Word by David Guzik is used with written permission.