Acts 23:23-35 - To Caesarea By Night

²³ Then he called in two of his captains and said to them, "Get two hundred men ready to march to Caesarea, with seventy mounted soldiers and two hundred armed with spears, to leave at nine o'clock tonight." ²⁴ He further told them to provide horses for Paul to ride, so as to bring him in safety to Felix, the governor, to whom

²⁵ he wrote the following letter:

²⁶ "Claudius Lysias sends greetings to his Excellency Felix, the governor.

²⁷ This man had been seized by the Jews and they were on the point of killing him when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, because I had learned that he was a Roman citizen. ²⁸ As I wanted to know the exact charge they were making against him, I brought him before their council, ²⁹ and found him to be charged with questions about their law, but having no charge against him involving death or imprisonment. ³⁰ Because a plot against the man has been reported to me as brewing, I at once am sending him on to you and have directed his accusers to present their charge against him before you."

³¹ So the soldiers took Paul, as they had been ordered to do, and brought him by night as far as Antipatris. ³² The next day they returned to the barracks, leaving the mounted men to go on with him; ³³ they, on reaching Caesarea, delivered the letter to the governor and turned Paul over to him, too. ³⁴ He read the letter and asked Paul what province he was from, and on learning that he was from Cilicia, ³⁵ he said, "I will carefully hear your case as soon as your accusers arrive." Then he ordered him to be kept in custody in Herod's palace.