Acts 23:4-27

⁴The men that were standing near Paul said, “You are saying something bad to God’s man, the big boss of our Jewish ceremonies. You shouldn’t do that.”

⁵Paul said, “Oh, my bothers, I’m sorry. I didn’t know that he is the big boss of our Jewish ceremonies. I know that Moses wrote in our Jewish law, ‘Don’t say bad things about any of your bosses.’”

⁶Some of the Jewish council men there belonged to the mob called Sadducees, and others belonged to the mob called Pharisees. The Sadducee mob believe that after people die, they will never become alive again. And they believe that there are no spirits, not even God’s spirit messengers called angels. But the Pharisees believe that all of those things are true. Paul worked out that some of those council men were Sadducees, and some were Pharisees, so he called out loudly to them. He said, “My friends, I’m a Pharisee, like my father was. I believe that after people die, one day God will make them alive again. That’s why I’m here in this court.” As soon as Paul said that, the Pharisees and Sadducees started to argue with each other.

⁹The council split into 2 mobs and started shouting at each other. Some of the teachers of the law were Pharisees. They stood up and said, “We reckon this man hasn’t done anything wrong. Maybe an angel or some other spirit talked to him. That’s all right.”

¹⁰Then those 2 mobs argued with each other and got really wild, and the big boss of the soldiers thought, “They are going to tear Paul to bits.” So he told his soldiers, “Go and save Paul from those council men, and take him back to your big house.” So the soldiers did that.

¹¹That night, Paul saw Jesus come and stand near him, and Jesus said to him, “Be brave, Paul. You told people here in Jerusalem about me, and you have to tell people in Rome about me, too.”

¹²The next morning some of those Jews met together secretly and thought about a way to kill Paul. Then they promised God, “We will not eat or drink anything until we kill Paul. If we break this promise and don’t kill Paul, then, God, you can kill us.”

¹³There were more than 40 men in that mob.

¹⁴They went to the leaders of the Jewish ceremonies and the other Jewish leaders and told them, “We promised God that we will not eat or drink anything until we kill Paul.

¹⁵So we want you to go to the big boss of the soldiers and say to him, ‘The Jewish council wants to ask Paul some more questions. Can you bring him to our meeting place?’ But we will hide beside the road, and when they bring Paul along it we will jump up and kill him.”

¹⁶But the son of Paul’s sister heard what those Jews were going to do, so he went into the big house of the soldiers and told Paul about it.

¹⁷Then Paul called to one of the bosses of the soldiers and said, “Please take this young man to your big boss. He has some news to tell him.”

¹⁸So that soldier took him to his big boss and said, “That prisoner, Paul, called me and asked me to take this young man to you. He has some news to tell you.”

¹⁹The big boss held the young man’s hand and took him away from the other people, and then he asked him, “What is the news you have for me?”

²⁰The young man said, “The Jewish leaders will ask you to take Paul to their council place tomorrow. They will tell you they want to ask him some more questions. But that is not true.

²¹Don’t do what they will ask you to do. There are more than 40 men that will hide beside that road and wait for Paul to come along, so they can grab him and kill him. They even promised God that they will not eat or drink anything until they kill Paul. They are ready right now. They are just waiting for you to agree to do what they want.”

²²The big boss of the soldiers said to the young man, “You can go home now, but don’t tell anyone that you told me this news.”

²³Then the big boss got 2 other bosses of soldiers and told them, “Get 200 soldiers ready to go north to Caesarea. And get ready 70 soldiers that ride horses to go there with you, and get another 200 soldiers ready, those soldiers that use spears, and they can go with you too. All of you have to be ready to leave at 9 o’clock tonight.

²⁴And get horses for Paul to ride, and take him to Felix, the governor of this country. He is in the town called Caesarea. Make sure you keep Paul safe.”

²⁵Then that big boss of the soldiers wrote a letter for them to take with them to that governor of the country. He wrote,

²⁶“Dear Felix I am Claudius Lysias. I’m writing to your honour, Felix, the governor of this country. I hope you are good and happy.

²⁷I’m sending this man, Paul, to you. Some Jews grabbed him and they were starting to kill him, but somebody told me that he is a Roman, so I got my soldiers and we saved him.