As the seven days were drawing to a close, the Jews from Asia caught a glimpse of him in the temple and began to stir up all the crowd, and seized him, as they kept shouting, "Men of Israel, help! help! This is the man who teaches everybody everywhere against our people and the law and this place; yea, more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and desecrated this sacred place." read more. For they had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus in the city with him, and so they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. The whole city was stirred with excitement, and all at once the people rushed together, and seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and its gates at once were shut. Now while they were trying to kill him, news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a ferment. So he at once got together some soldiers and captains and hurried down against them, but as soon as they saw the colonel and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the colonel came up and seized Paul and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he then asked who he was and what he had done.

Then the colonel came up and seized Paul and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he then asked who he was and what he had done. But they kept shouting in the crowd, some one thing, some another. As he could not with certainty find out about it, because of the tumult, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. read more. When Paul got to the steps, he was actually borne by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, for a tremendous crowd of people kept following them and shouting, "Away with him!"

the colonel ordered Paul to be brought into the barracks, and told them to examine him by flogging, in order that he might find out why they were crying out against him in such a way. But when they had tied him for the flogging, Paul asked the captain who was standing by, "Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman, and one who is uncondemned at that?" read more. When the captain heard that, he went to the colonel and reported it. Then he asked him, "What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen." So the colonel came to Paul and asked, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" He answered, "Yes." Then the colonel said, "I paid a large sum for this citizenship of mine." Paul said, "But I was born a citizen." So the men who were going to examine him left him at once, and the colonel himself was frightened when he learned that he was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

After day had dawned, the Jews formed a conspiracy and took an oath not to eat or drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than forty of them who formed this conspiracy. read more. They went to the high priests and elders and said to them, "We have taken a solemn oath not to taste a morsel till we have killed Paul. So you and the council must now notify the colonel to bring him down to you, as though you were going to look into his case more carefully, but before he gets down we will be ready to kill him." But Paul's nephew heard of the plot and came to the barracks and told Paul. So Paul called one of the captains and said, "Take this young man to the colonel, for he has something to tell him." So he took him and brought him to the colonel and said, "The prisoner Paul called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you, because he has something to tell you." So the colonel took him by the arm, stepped to one side so as to be alone, and asked him, "What is it you have to tell me?" He answered, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though you were going to examine his case more carefully. But do not yield to them, for more than forty of them are lying in wait for him; they have taken an oath not to eat or drink till they have killed him. They are all ready now, just waiting for your promise." So the colonel sent the young man away, with strict directions not to tell anybody that he had notified him of this plot. 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." He further told them to provide horses for Paul to ride, so as to bring him in safety to Felix, the governor, to whom he wrote the following letter: "Claudius Lysias sends greetings to his Excellency Felix, the governor. 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. As I wanted to know the exact charge they were making against him, I brought him before their council, and found him to be charged with questions about their law, but having no charge against him involving death or imprisonment. 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." So the soldiers took Paul, as they had been ordered to do, and brought him by night as far as Antipatris. The next day they returned to the barracks, leaving the mounted men to go on with him; they, on reaching Caesarea, delivered the letter to the governor and turned Paul over to him, too.

Now while they were trying to kill him, news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a ferment.