Therefore I testify to you, upon this very day, that I am clean of the blood of all of you; for I never gave up announcing all God's will to you. Take heed, then, for yourselves and for all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has set you as guardians, to be shepherds of the church of God which he brought about with his own blood. I know that after I leave you, fierce wolves will come among you who will not spare the flock; and men from your own number will rise up and speak perversely, to pull the disciples into their own following. Therefore be watchful, remembering how for three years I never ceased, night and day, from counseling each one of you, with tears. And now I give you into the charge of the Lord and the word of his grace, which has power to restore you and give you your inheritance among all who have been consecrated. I never wanted anyone's silver or gold or clothing; you yourselves know that these hands of mine provided for my needs and for my companions. I have always shown you that thus you should toil to help those who are weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ which he himself spoke: It is more blessed to give than to receive.
So saying, he knelt with all of them and prayed. And there was much lamentation by all, and they fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. What had grieved them the most was when he said that they would never see his face again. And they escorted him to his ship.
IWhen we had to tear ourselves away from them and put out to sea, we made a straight to Cos, and on the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara; and finding there a ship that was crossing to Phoenicia we went aboard and sailed. After sighting Cyprus and leaving it behind on the left, we sailed to Syria and came ashore at Tyre, for it was there that the ship unloaded her cargo. We found the disciples and stayed there seven days; and they warned Paul, because of what the Spirit had told them, not to go on to Jerusalem. But when we had come to the end of our days there, we left and started on our way, and they all escorted us, with their wives and children, outside the city; and we all knelt down on the beach and prayed and said our farewells; and then we boarded the ship, and they t^ned back to their homes.
We ended our sea voyage from Tyre by reaching Pto- lemais, and there we greeted the brothers and stayed with them for a day. And on the next day we set forth and reached Caesarea and went to the house of Philip the evangelist, one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four maiden daughters, who were prophetic. After we had stayed there for a number of days, there came down from Judaea a prophet named Agabas, who came up to us and took off Paul's belt and bound his own feet and his hands, saying: Thus says the Holy Spirit. The Jews will thus bind the man, whose belt this is, in Jerusalem, and they will give him over into the hands of the heathens. When we heard this, we, together with the people who lived there, implored him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered: Why are you doing this, crying and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound but to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. So when he would not be persuaded we held our peace, saying: The Lord's will be done.
After these days we made our preparations and went up to Jerusalem; and some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and took us where we could be the guests of a certain Mnason of Cyprus, a disciple of long standing, and when we arrived in Jerusalem the brothers welcomed us gladly. On the next day Paul went with us to the house of James, and all the elders were there. And Paul greeted them and recounted to them one by one all the things that God had made happen among the Gentiles through his ministry. When they heard, they glorified God; but they said to Paul: You can see, brother, how many tens of thousands there are among the Jews who have come to believe; and all of them are zealots for the law. And they have been told concerning you that you are teaching all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children and not to follow his customs.
What to do, then? They will surely learn that you are here. So do as we tell you, thus. There are four men among us who have taken a vow, of their own free will. Take them along with you and be purified along with them, and pay their expenses so that they can shave their heads; and all will realize that what they were told about you is not true, but you also hold to serving the law. Concerning the Gentiles who have come to believe, we have sent word decreeing that they must keep themselves from idol offerings, and blood, and what has been strangled, and lechery.
Then on the next day Paul took the men with him, and was purified along with them and entered the temple, giving notice of the time when the days of purification would be completed, at which time the offering should be made for each one of them. But when the seven days were about to be completed, the Jews from Asia, who had seen him in the temple, stirred up the whole populace, and they laid hands on him, shouting: Men of Jerusalem, help us. This is the man who teaches all men everywhere, going against the people and the law and this place; and now he has even brought Greeks into the temple and profaned this holy place. For they had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus with him in the city, and they thought Paul had brought him into the temple. The whole city was aroused, and the people made a rush and seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut. And as they were demanding his death, word got to the tribune of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was rioting; and he, taking with him his soldiers and their centurions, ran at once to where they were, and when they saw the tribune and the soldiers they stopped beating Paul. Then the tribune went to Paul and seized him and ordered him to be bound with double chains, and asked who he was and what he had done. Some in the crowd said one thing and some said another. And when the tribune could not find out for sure because of the uproar, he ordered him to be taken into the barracks. But when he got to the steps, he had to be carried by the soldiers, because of the violence of the mob, for most of the population followed him crying: Kill him.
When he was about to be taken into the barracks, Paul said to the tribune: May I say something to you? He said: You know Greek? Then you are not that Egyptian who started a riot some days ago and went off into the desert with four thousand of the assassins? Paul said: I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I request of you, give me leave to speak to the people. When he gave him leave, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people; and when there was mostly silence, he spoke to them in Hebrew, saying:
1 Brothers, fathers, listen to the defense I make before you now. And when they heard him speaking to them in Hebrew they were the more quiet. And he said: I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, and brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed in the strict style of the law of our fathers, and I was a zealot for God as all of you are today. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding men and women and delivering them to the prisons, as the high priest and the entire council of elders will testify. From them I received letters to the brothers in Damascus and I was on my way to bring those who were there in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. And it befell me that as I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon, a great light from the sky suddenly flashed about me, and I fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And I answered: Who are you, Lord? And he said to me: I am Jesus of Nazareth; whom you persecute. And the men who were with me saw the light but they did not hear the voice which spoke to me. And I said: What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me: Rise up and go on to Damascus, and there you will be told about all the things that you have been appointed to do.
But since from the glory of that light I could not see, I came to Damascus with my companions leading me by the hand. Then a certain Ananias, a man devout in the law and well spoken of by all the Jews who live in Damascus, came and stood over me and said: Brother Saul, regain your sight; and in that moment I saw him. And he said: The God of our fathers has chosen you to le^ his will, and to see the Just One
and to hear the voice from his mouth; because you will be his witness, to all men, of what you have seen and heard. And now, why delay? Rise up and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling upon his name.
Then it befell me that when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple I fell into a trance, and I saw him and he was saying to me: Make haste and go from Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony concerning me. And I said: Lord, they themselves know that I kept imprisoning and flogging those in one synagogue after another who believed in you; and when the blood of Stephen your martyr was shed, I myself was standing by and approving and keeping the coats of the men who were killing him. But he said to me: Go, because I shall send you far from here, among the Gentiles.
They had been listening to him up until this word, but then they cried aloud, saying: Rid the earth of him; such a man has no right to live. And as they clamored and threw off their coats and raised a cloud of dust in the air the tribune ordered him to be taken into the barracks, telling them to whip him so as to get it out of him and find out why they cried out so against him. But when they stretched him out for the lashes, Paul said to the centurion who stood by: Are you permitted to whip a Roman citizen, and that without a trial? When the centurion heard this, he went and told it to the tribune, saying: What do you mean to do? This man is a Roman citizen. The tribune went to him and said: Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? He said: Yes. The tribune said: I paid a great deal to get this citizenship. Paul said: I was born to it. Then those who had been going to interrogate him immediately withdrew from him; and the tribune was frightened, realizing that he was a Roman, and that he had put him in chains.
The next day, wishing to find out precisely what he was accused of by the Jews, he released him, and ordered the high priests and the entire council to assemble, and then brought Paul in and set him before them.
Paul looked hard at the council and said: Men and brothers, I have been God's citizen in full good conscience down to this very day. Then the high priest Ananias ordered the men who stood beside him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him: God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. And do you sit there and judge me according to the law while you unlawfully order me to be struck? The men who stood beside him said: Do you revile the high priest of God? Paul said: I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest; for it is written: You shall not insult the leader of the people.
Then Paul, knowing that one part of them was Sad- ducees and the other Pharisees, cried aloud in the council: Men and brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; I am being tried for my hope for the resurrection of the dead. When he said this, there was strife between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was split in two. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees believe in both of these. And there was a great uproar, and some of the scribes of the Pharisaean sect rose up and dissented, saying: We find no evil in this man. It may be that a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel. And as the quarrel grew violent, the tribune, fearing that Paul might be torn to pieces by them, ordered his soldiers to go down and snatch him out of their midst and take him into the barracks.
On the following night the Lord stood over him and said: Take heart; for as you testified concerning me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.
When day came, the Jews formed a gang and bound themselves by oath neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty men in this conspiracy; and these went to the high priests and elders and said: We have bound ourselves by oath to taste nothing until we kill Paul. Do you now explain to the tribune, along with the council, that he should bring the ^^ before you, since you wish to learn more accurately about him; and we are ready to kill him before he gets to you.
But the son of Paul's sister heard of the ambush, and he went to the barracks and got in and reported it to Paul. Paul called over one of the centurions and said: Take this young man to the tribune, since he has something to report to him. So the centurion took him to the tribune and said: The prisoner Paul called me over and asked me to bring this young man to you; he has something to tell you. The tribune took him by the hand and led him to a place apart and asked him: What is this you have to tell me? He said: The Jews have decided to ask you to bring Paul before the council tomorrow, as if for the purpose of learning more accurately about him. But do not do as they say; for more than forty of them are lying in wait for him, and they have bound themselves by oath neither to eat nor drink until they kill him; and now they are ready and waiting for the word from you.
The tribune let the young man go, saying to him: Do not tell anyone that you gave me this information. Then he called in two of his centurions and said: Have two hundred infantrymen, and seventy horsemen, and two hundred light troops ready to start for Caesarea at the third hour of the night; and have horses for Paul to ride, and get him safely to Felix, the governor. And he wrote a letter which read as follows: Claudius Lysias to Felix the most mighty governor, greetings. When this man had been seized by the Jews and was on the point of being killed by them, I went with an armed force and rescued him, having learned that he is a Roman citizen, and I brought him before their council, wishing to le^n what was their case against him. And I found that he was accused because of questions concerning their law, but not on any charge that would deserve death or imprisonment. And being informed of a plot against the man I immediately sent him to you, having also ordered his accusers to charge him in your presence.
So the soldiers, as ordered, took Paul by night and brought him to Antipatris; and the next day, leaving the horsemen to go on with him, they returned to the barracks. And the cavalry went on to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor and also brought Paul to him. When he had read it, and asked from what province he came and learned that he was from Cilicia, he said: I will hear you when your accusers are also here. And he ordered him held in the residence of Herod.
After five days the high priest ^^mias came down from Jerusalem with some of the elders and a certain orator, Tertullus, and they brought a charge against Paul before the governor. And when Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying: We have had much peace because of you, and reforms of every kind have come from everywhere in this country through your forethought, which, most mighty Felix, we acknowledge in all gratitude. But, not to weary you, I beg you in your graciousness to give us a brief hearing. For we have found this man to be a plague, one who stirs up dissensions among all the Jews in the empire, and the ringleader of the heretical sect of Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple. We seized him, and wanted to try him by our own law, but the tribune Lysias came and forcibly took him out of our hands and said that his accusers must go to you. You yourself will be able to le^ by questioning him about all that we accuse him of. And the Jews joined in the attack, saying that this was true.
Then Paul answered, when the governor nodded his permission to speak: Knowing that for many years you have been judge over this nation, I will speak in my own defense with a good will; since you can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship, and they have not found me talking to anyone or attracting a mob either in the temple or the synagogues or about the city; nor are they able to prove any of the things of which they now accuse me. But I do admit this to you, that the Way which they call heresy is the Way in which I serve the God of our fathers (for I believe all that is written in the law and the prophets) with hope in God, a hope these men also share, that there will soon be a resurrection of the just and the unjust. In this matter I myself make it my study to have a clear conscience before God and man throughout.
Now, after a number of years, I went to Jerusalem to effect some charities for my people and to bring offer�
�ings; during which they found me in the temple after my purification, but not with any crowd or causing disturbance. But there are some Jews from Asia, who ought to be here before you and accusing me, if they have anything against me; or else let these men say what wrongdoing they found in me when I stood before the council other than that one cry that I uttered when I stood among them: I am being judged by you today over the resurrection of the dead.
Then Felix, who knew a great deal about the Way, put them off, saying: When the tribune Lysias comes here I will decide your case. And he ordered the centurion to have him kept under guard, but to give him some freedom, and not to prevent any of his own people from ministering to him.
And after a few days, Felix came with Drusilla, his ownwn wife, who was Jewish, and sent for Paul, and heard him tell about belief in Christ Jesus. But when Paul discoursed about righteousness and continence and the judgment to come, Felix was frightened and said: For the present, go, but I will send for you again when I find another occasion. Also, he was hoping to be given money by Paul, for which reason he sent for him and talked with him the more frequently.
After a full two years, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus; and wishing to store up some favor with the Jews, Felix left Paul still a prisoner.
1 Three days after setting foot in his province Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem; and the high priests and the foremost men of the Jews brought charges against Paul; and they urged Festus, asking to be favored against Paul, to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were planning to lie in wait for him and kill him on the way. But Festus answered that Paul was being held in Caesa- rea, and that he himself was about to leave for there very soon. So, he said, let your chief men come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, charge him with it.
The New Testament Page 28