¹Then Paul, when he had looked intently at the Council, said: Men, brothers, I myself have lived as a citizen to God in all good conscience unto this day.

²Then the high priest Ananias commanded those standing by him to strike his mouth.

³Then Paul said to him: God is about to strike you, whitewashed wall! And do you yourself sit judging me according to the law, and, violating the law, command me to be struck?

⁴Now those who were standing by said: Do you insult the high priest of God?

⁵Then Paul was saying: I had not known, brothers, that he is high priest; for it has been written that you will not speak evil of the ruler of your people.

⁶Then Paul, when he had known that the one part consists of Sadducees but the other of Pharisees, was crying out in the Council: Men, brothers, I myself am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I myself am judged.

⁷Then his saying this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the crowd was divided.

⁸For Sadducees indeed say there is not to be resurrection, neither messenger nor spirit; however Pharisees confess them both.

⁹Then a great clamor arose; and some of the scribes of the party of the Pharisees, when they had risen up, were contending, saying: We find no evil thing in this man; now what if a spirit has spoken to him, or a messenger? Surely we shall not be fighting God?

¹⁰Then dissension is becoming great, and the commander, having feared lest Paul be torn to pieces by them, commanded the troop, having gone down, to take him by force from their midst, and to bring him into the barracks.

¹¹But on the following night the Lord, having stood by him, said: Take courage, Paul; for as you have fully testified about Me at Jerusalem, thus it behooves you also to testify in Rome.

¹²Then when it was becoming day, the Jews, having made a conspiracy, put themselves under an oath, declaring neither to eat nor to drink until they kill Paul.

¹³Now there were more than forty who had made this plot;

¹⁴who, having come to the chief priests and to the elders, said: With an oath we have bound ourselves to eat nothing until we kill Paul.

¹⁵Therefore now you yourselves make a report to the commander, along with the Council, so that he may bring him down to you tomorrow, as being about to examine the things about him more earnestly; then we ourselves, before his drawing near, are ready to kill him.

¹⁶However, when the son of the sister of Paul had heard of the ambush, having come near and entered into the barracks, he reported it to Paul.

¹⁷Then Paul, having called to him one of the centurions, was saying: Take this young man to the commander; for he has something to report to him.

¹⁸Therefore the one indeed, when he had taken him, brought him to the commander, and he says: The prisoner Paul, having called to me, asked me to lead this young man to you, having something to say to you.

¹⁹Then the commander, having taken hold of his hand and when he had withdrawn in private, was inquiring: What is it that you have to report to me?

²⁰Then he said that the Jews have agreed to ask you that tomorrow you may bring Paul down into the Council, as being about to inquire something more earnestly about him.

²¹Therefore you yourself, do not be persuaded by them; for men of theirs, more than forty, lie in wait for him, who put themselves under an oath neither to eat nor to drink until they execute him; and now they are ready, awaiting the promise from you.

²²Therefore the commander indeed dismissed the young man, having instructed him to tell no one that you reported these things to me.

²³And having called to him two certain of the centurions, he said: Prepare two hundred soldiers, so that they may go as far as Caesarea, and seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, for the third hour of the night,

²⁴providing mounts, so that, having set Paul upon them, they may bring him safely to Felix the governor;

²⁵having written a letter having this form:

²⁶Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent governor Felix: Greeting.

²⁷This man, having been seized by the Jews and being about to be killed by them, I rescued, having come up with the troop, when he had learned that he is a Roman;

²⁸then, resolving to know the charge on account of which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council;

²⁹whom I found being accused concerning questions of their law, however having no accusation worthy of death or of chains.

³⁰Then when a plot against the man was being disclosed to me, that was about to happen by the Jews, at once I sent him to you, having instructed the accusers also to speak the things against him before you. Farewell!

³¹Therefore the soldiers indeed, according to that ordered them, having taken Paul, brought him through the night to Antipatris.

³²Now on the next day, having allowed the horsemen to go with him, they returned to the barracks;

³³who, having entered into Caesarea and having delivered the letter to the governor, presented Paul also to him.

³⁴Then the governor, when he had read it and had asked from what province he is, and having learned that he is from Cilicia,

³⁵I will hear you fully, he was saying, when your accusers also may have arrived. Then he commanded him to be guarded in the Praetorium of Herod.