ACTS 22:30 TO ACTS 23:10. PAUL BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN. This is a difficult section, and does not advance the action. Unless the proceedings took place in Greek, the tribune would scarcely secure his object of learning the charge against Paul; it is strange that he should have called a meeting of the S... [ Continue Reading ]
ACTS 23:11. THE LORD APPEARS TO PAUL. This section is independent of the preceding scene; the testifying spoken of is in ch. 22, and the vision would stand quite well after Acts 22:29. The idea of Rome was in his mind (see Acts 19:21); the Lord makes his imprisonment appear as a road there, which it... [ Continue Reading ]
JEWISH PLOT: REMOVAL OF PAUL. The Jews propose what the tribune, in Acts 22:30 to Acts 23:10, has already done on his own initiative; here we are on historical ground. The hated person being removed from their power, they plan an assassination. Forty of them make themselves a curse (so literally), _... [ Continue Reading ]
LETTER OF CLAUDIUS LYSIAS TO FELIX. Felix is addressed as most excellent (so Luke 1:3; Acts 26:25), a title of courtesy applied to proconsuls, officers of rank, and private persons. Lysias allows himself to say that he had assisted Paul because he had heard he was a Roman, and that he had done nothi... [ Continue Reading ]
ARRIVAL AT CÆ SAREA. Antipatris (p. 28), a Greek town even the name of which has disappeared, was where Ras-el-Ain is now, on the road from Lydda to Cæ sarea, 40 miles from Jerusalem, 25 from Cæ sarea. 40 miles are more than a night's march for infantry. The procurator asks the necessary question as... [ Continue Reading ]