Acts 23:26-30

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 nothing worthy of bonds (cf. the two chains, Acts 21:33; Acts 22:30). An official sending a prisoner to a higher court might specify the charge (cf. Acts 25:27); and Lysias takes credit for having investigated the point, and for having found that the charge involved no legal offence. This, even if true, does not prove that the Sanhedrin scene (Acts 22:30 to Acts 23:10) had really taken place; Lysias had other means of satisfying himself.