Reference: Lysias, Claudius
Easton
the chief captain (chiliarch) who commanded the Roman troops in Jerusalem, and sent Paul under guard to the procurator Felix at Caesarea (Ac 21:31-38; 22:24-30). His letter to his superior officer is an interesting specimen of Roman military correspondence (Ac 23:26-30). He obtained his Roman citizenship by purchase, and was therefore probably a Greek. (See Claudius.)
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They were bent upon killing him, when it was reported to the Officer commanding the garrison, that all Jerusalem was in commotion. He instantly got together some officers and men, and charged down upon the crowd, who, when they saw the Commanding Officer and his men, stopped beating Paul. read more. Then he went up to Paul, arrested him, ordered him to be doubly chained, and proceeded to inquire who he was, and what he had been doing. Some of the crowd said one thing, and some another; and, as he could get no definite reply on account of the uproar, he ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. When Paul reached the steps, he was actually being carried by the soldiers, owing to the violence of the mob; For the people were following in a mass, shouting out: "Kill him!" Just as he was about to be taken into the Fort, Paul said to the Commanding Officer: "May I speak to you?" "Do you know Greek?" asked the Commanding Officer. "Are not you, then, the Egyptian who some time ago raised an insurrection and led the four thousand Bandits out into the Wilderness?"
The Commanding Officer ordered Paul to be taken into the Fort, and directed that he should be examined under the lash, that he might find out the reason for their outcry against him. But just as they had tied him up to be scourged, Paul said to the Captain standing near: "Is it legal for you to scourge a Roman citizen, unconvicted?" read more. On hearing this, the Captain went and reported it to the Commanding Officer. "Do you know what you are doing?" he said. "This man is a Roman citizen." So the Commanding Officer went up to Paul and said: "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," replied Paul. "I had to pay a heavy price for my position as citizen," said the Officer. "I am one by birth," rejoined Paul. The men who were to have examined Paul immediately drew back, and the Officer, finding that Paul was a Roman citizen, was alarmed at having put him in chains. On the next day the Commanding Officer, wishing to find out the real reason why Paul was denounced by the Jews, had his chains taken off, and directed the Chief Priests and the whole of the High Council to assemble, and then took Paul down and brought him before them.
'Claudius Lysias sends his compliments to His Excellency Felix the Governor. The man whom I send with this had been seized by the Jews, and was on the point of being killed by them, when I came upon them with the force under my command, and rescued him, as I learned that he was a Roman citizen. read more. Wishing to ascertain exactly the ground of the charges they made against him, I brought him before their Council, When I found that their charges were connected with questions of their own Law, and that there was nothing alleged involving either death or imprisonment. Having, however, information of a plot against the man, which was about to be put into execution, I am sending him to you at once, and I have also directed his accusers to prosecute him before you.'
Hastings
A chiliarch of a cohort in Jerusalem who rescued St. Paul from the Jews in the Temple and took him to the 'Castle,'