Acts 23:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

After Paul was sent away, the chief priests probably came with a request to the commander and returned in shame, without success. The commander acted justly. He resolved neither to release Paul nor to agree with them.

The tribune of the Roman cohort saw that, to preserve Paul's life from the attempts of his enemies, it was necessary to take him under guard out of Jerusalem to Caesarea and hand the whole case over to the procurator Felix.

The Jews were greatly angered that the Roman official was not wholly on their side. They were also angered that the trial of Paul had not fulfilled their desire to deliver the apostle to death.

Then certain fanatics from among them, forty men in number, took a vow neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

To carry out their murderous design, they told the high priest and the other members of the Sanhedrin to ask the commander to bring Paul before them again for trial. During his journey to the Sanhedrin, they intended to kill him.

But their design was discovered, and Paul’s nephew brought it to the commander’s attention.

When Lysias learned of this desperate conspiracy, he secretly sent the prisoner to Caesarea under strong military protection. He sent him to his superior, the procurator Felix, with an official report concerning the prisoner and his case.

Felix was a freedman of the emperor Claudius. He belonged to those Roman administrators notorious for baseness and greed, who obtained their offices by servile flattery and bribery.

They used their position for shameful profit at the expense of the provinces entrusted to their rule.

According to the Roman historian Tacitus, Felix was at once licentious and cruel. He fulfilled his almost royal duties with the spirit of a slave.

“Donkeys,” that is, several animals, for Paul’s convenience on the journey. As is clear from what follows (vv. 31, 32), the journey was appointed to be made in haste. For this, spare animals were necessary, or at least could be needed.

In any case, Lysias’ care for the apostle’s comfort and safety is evident here, and in this his favorable disposition toward him.

Felix, that is, Antonius Felix, who is mentioned here, was then the Roman procurator of Judea. He was a freedman of the Roman emperor Claudius, the brother of Nero’s favorite Pallas, and the son-in-law of Herod Agrippa I.

The preparation of a large escort for Paul shows that the commander expected an attack from Paul’s enemies with strong arms and with support from the Sicarii, who were always ready for every seditious deed.

There is a supposition that other plans existed besides the plan of the forty conspirators, and that the commander feared a popular uprising.

“So large an escort was a wise precaution, in order to bring Paul, a Roman citizen, safely to Caesarea. Lysias’ care for the apostle’s comfort and safety is evident here, as is his favorable disposition toward him.”

It seems that those who testified against him were also sent to Caesarea together with the Apostle Paul. Having this in mind, Saint John Chrysostom says: “If Paul had been recognized as innocent, why were the accusers sent there?