Acts 23:23-35 - To Caesarea By Night

²³ Then he called two of his officers and said, "Get two hundred soldiers ready to go to Caesarea, along with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, by nine o'clock tonight." [Note: This was calculated according to Jewish time]. ²⁴ And he [also] requested that they furnish animals for Paul to ride so he could be brought safely to Felix, the governor.

²⁵ The commander then wrote a letter like this:

²⁶ "Claudius Lysias, [commander of the battalion, is writing] to His Excellency, Governor Felix. Greetings:

²⁷ This man [i.e., Paul] was grabbed by the Jews and almost killed by them when I discovered what they were doing and rescued him, after learning that he was a Roman citizen. ²⁸ So, I brought him before the Council because I wanted to know the reasons for the charges [they were] bringing against him. ²⁹ I found out that he was being accused over questions regarding their law, but that they had no charges against him deserving of the death penalty, or [even] of being kept in prison. ³⁰ And when I was told that there was a plot against the man, I sent him to you immediately, also ordering his accusers to present their case against him in front of you."

³¹ So, the soldiers took charge of Paul and took him at night to Antipatris [Note: This was a town on the road between Jerusalem and Caesarea] as they were ordered. ³² The next day the soldiers allowed the horsemen to go on with Paul, while they [themselves] returned to headquarters. ³³ When they came to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul before him. ³⁴ And when the governor read the letter, he asked what province Paul was from. When he learned that he was from Cilicia, ³⁵ he said, "I will hear your case fully when your accusers also get here." Then he ordered that Paul be kept [under guard] in Herod's palace.