The seven days were almost over when the Jews from Asia caught sight of him in the Temple, and stirred up all the crowd and seized him, shouting, "Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches everybody everywhere against our people and the Law and this place, and besides he has actually brought Greeks into the Temple and desecrated this sacred place." read more. For they had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the Temple. The whole city was thrown into confusion, and the people hurried together, and seized Paul and dragged him outside of the Temple, the gates of which were immediately shut. They were trying to kill him when the news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a tumult. He immediately got some officers and men and hurried down among them, and when they saw the colonel and the soldiers they stopped beating Paul. Then the colonel came up and seized him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains, and then inquired who he was and what he had been doing.

Then the colonel came up and seized him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains, and then inquired who he was and what he had been doing. Some of the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and as he could not find out the facts on account of the confusion, he ordered him to be taken into the barracks. read more. When Paul got to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers, on account of the violence of the mob, for the mass of people followed them shouting, "Kill him!"

the colonel ordered Paul brought into the barracks, and gave directions that he should be examined under the lash, so that he might find out why they made such an outcry against him. But when they had strapped him up, Paul said to the officer who was standing near, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen, and without giving him a trial?" read more. Upon hearing this, the officer went to the colonel and reported it. "What do you propose to do?" he said. "This man is a Roman citizen." Then the colonel came to Paul and said, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he said. "I had to pay a large sum for my citizenship," said the colonel. "But I am a citizen by birth," said Paul. Then the men who had been going to examine him immediately left him, and the colonel himself was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

In the morning, the Jews made a conspiracy and took an oath not to eat or drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than forty of them involved in this plot, read more. and they went to the high priests and elders and said to them, "We have taken a solemn oath not to touch anything to eat till we have killed Paul. Now you and the council must suggest to the colonel that he should have Paul brought down to you, as you mean to look into his case more carefully, and we will be ready to kill him before he gets down." But Paul's nephew heard of the plot, and he came and got into the barracks, and told Paul. Paul called one of the officers and said to him, "Take this young man to the colonel, for he has something to tell him." So he took him to the colonel, and said, "The prisoner Paul called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you." So the colonel took him by the arm and stepping aside where they could be alone, asked, "What is it that you have to tell me?" "The Jews," he answered, "have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, on the ground that you mean to have a fuller inquiry made into his case. But do not let them persuade you, for more than forty of them are lying in wait for him, and they have taken an oath not to eat or drink till they have killed him. They are all ready now, and are only waiting to get your promise." So the colonel sent the youth away, directing him not to tell anyone that he had given him this information. Then he called in two of his officers and said to them, "Get two hundred men ready to march to Caesarea, with seventy mounted men and two hundred spear-men, by nine o'clock tonight." They were also to provide horses for Paul to ride, so that they might take him in safety to Felix, the governor, to whom he wrote a letter to this effect: "Claudius Lysias sends greetings to his Excellency Felix, the governor. This man had been seized by the Jews and they were just going to kill him when I came upon them with my men and rescued him, as I had learned that he was a Roman citizen. As I wanted to learn what charge they made against him, I had him brought before their council, and found that their accusations had to do with questions about their Law, but that he was not charged with anything that would call for his death or imprisonment. As I have been informed that a plot against him is brewing, I am sending him on to you at once, and directing his accusers to present their charges against him before you." Then the soldiers took Paul, as they had been ordered to do, and escorted him as far as Antipatris that night. The next day, they returned to the barracks, leaving the mounted men to go on with him, and they on reaching Caesarea delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him.

They were trying to kill him when the news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a tumult.