Acts 23:25Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

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.

He also wrote a letter to explain the matter to the procurator, to whom Paul, it seems, had until then been unknown.

The letter with which the tribune Lysias sent the Apostle Paul to the proconsul Felix is remarkable in many respects. It is like many other letters of that time, both in its external form and in its presentation.

Thus, for example, the writer identifies himself at the very beginning. Despite the businesslike character of the letter, he wishes Felix health at both its beginning and its end.

This was, so to speak, a necessity of secular correspondence. So too was the naming of Felix as most excellent, for he was indeed honored by the great rank of chief governor of Palestine.

Yet he was a man of low birth and base moral qualities. Concerning the apostle, Lysias reports everything briefly, factually, and truthfully.