King James Version › Acts › 23

Acts

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1 And Paul, earnest­ly be­hold­ing the coun­cil, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good con­science be­fore God un­til this day. 2 And the high priest Ana­nias com­mand­ed them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. 3 Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whit­ed wall: for sittest thou to judge me af­ter the law, and com­man­d­est me to be smit­ten con­trary to the law? 4 And they that stood by said, Re­vilest thou God's high priest? 5 Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is writ­ten, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy peo­ple. 6 But when Paul per­ceived that the one part were Sad­ducees, and the oth­er Phar­isees, he cried out in the coun­cil, Men and brethren, I am a Phar­isee, the son of a Phar­isee: of the hope and res­ur­rec­tion of the dead I am called in ques­tion. 7 And when he had so said, there arose a dis­sen­sion be­tween the Phar­isees and the Sad­ducees: and the mul­ti­tude was di­vid­ed. 8 For the Sad­ducees say that there is no res­ur­rec­tion, nei­ther an­gel, nor spir­it: but the Phar­isees con­fess both. 9 And there arose a great cry: and the scribes that were of the Phar­isees' part arose, and strove, say­ing, We find no evil in this man: but if a spir­it or an an­gel hath spo­ken to him, let us not fight against God. 10 And when there arose a great dis­sen­sion, the chief cap­tain, fear­ing lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, com­mand­ed the sol­diers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and to bring him into the cas­tle. 11 And the night fol­low­ing the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast tes­ti­fied of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear wit­ness also at Rome. 12 And when it was day, cer­tain of the Jews band­ed to­geth­er, and bound them­selves un­der a curse, say­ing that they would nei­ther eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. 13 And they were more than forty which had made this con­spir­a­cy. 14 And they came to the chief priests and el­ders, and said, We have bound our­selves un­der a great curse, that we will eat noth­ing un­til we have slain Paul. 15 Now there­fore ye with the coun­cil sig­ni­fy to the chief cap­tain that he bring him down unto you to mor­row, as though ye would en­quire some­thing more per­fect­ly con­cern­ing him: and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him. 16 And when Paul's sister's son heard of their ly­ing in wait, he went and en­tered into the cas­tle, and told Paul. 17 Then Paul called one of the cen­tu­ri­ons unto him, and said, Bring this young man unto the chief cap­tain: for he hath a cer­tain thing to tell him. 18 So he took him, and brought him to the chief cap­tain, and said, Paul the pris­on­er called me unto him, and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee, who hath some­thing to say unto thee. 19 Then the chief cap­tain took him by the hand, and went with him aside pri­vate­ly, and asked him, What is that thou hast to tell me? 20 And he said, The Jews have agreed to de­sire thee that thou wouldest bring down Paul to mor­row into the coun­cil, as though they would en­quire some­what of him more per­fect­ly. 21 But do not thou yield unto them: for there lie in wait for him of them more than forty men, which have bound them­selves with an oath, that they will nei­ther eat nor drink till they have killed him: and now are they ready, look­ing for a promise from thee. 22 So the chief cap­tain then let the young man de­part, and charged him, See thou tell no man that thou hast shewed these things to me. 23 And he called unto him two cen­tu­ri­ons, say­ing, Make ready two hun­dred sol­diers to go to Cae­sarea, and horse­men three­score and ten, and spear­men two hun­dred, at the third hour of the night; 24 And pro­vide them beasts, that they may set Paul on, and bring him safe unto Fe­lix the gov­er­nor. 25 And he wrote a let­ter af­ter this man­ner: 26 Claudius Lysias unto the most ex­cel­lent gov­er­nor Fe­lix sendeth greet­ing. 27 This man was tak­en of the Jews, and should have been killed of them: then came I with an army, and res­cued him, hav­ing un­der­stood that he was a Ro­man. 28 And when I would have known the cause where­fore they ac­cused him, I brought him forth into their coun­cil: 29 Whom I per­ceived to be ac­cused of ques­tions of their law, but to have noth­ing laid to his charge wor­thy of death or of bonds. 30 And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straight­way to thee, and gave com­mand­ment to his ac­cusers also to say be­fore thee what they had against him. Farewell. 31 Then the sol­diers, as it was com­mand­ed them, took Paul, and brought him by night to An­tipa­tris. 32 On the mor­row they left the horse­men to go with him, and re­turned to the cas­tle: 33 Who, when they came to Cae­sarea, and de­liv­ered the epis­tle to the gov­er­nor, pre­sent­ed Paul also be­fore him. 34 And when the gov­er­nor had read the letter, he asked of what province he was. And when he un­der­stood that he was of Cili­cia; 35 I will hear thee, said he, when thine ac­cusers are also come. And he com­mand­ed him to be kept in Herod's judg­ment hall.