Kisah Para Rasul 23:20

23:20 He replied, ¹  “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council ²  tomorrow, as if they were going to inquire more thoroughly about him.

Kisah Para Rasul 23:24-27

23:24 and provide mounts for Paul to ride ³  so that he may be brought safely to Felix ⁴  the governor.” ⁵  23:25 He wrote ⁶  a letter that went like this: ⁷ 

23:26 Claudius Lysias to His Excellency Governor ⁸  Felix, ⁹  greetings. 23:27 This man was seized ¹⁰  by the Jews and they were about to kill him, ¹¹  when I came up ¹²  with the detachment ¹³  and rescued him, because I had learned that he was ¹⁴  a Roman citizen. ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Grk “He said.”

² tn Grk “the Sanhedrin” (the Sanhedrin was the highest legal, legislative, and judicial body among the Jews).

³ tn Grk “provide mounts to put Paul on.”

sn Mounts for Paul to ride. The fact they were riding horses indicates they wanted everyone to move as quickly as possible.

⁴ sn Felix the governor was Antonius Felix, a freedman of Antonia, mother of the Emperor Claudius. He was the brother of Pallas and became procurator of Palestine in a.d. 52/53. His administration was notorious for its corruption, cynicism, and cruelty. According to the historian Tacitus (History 5.9) Felix “reveled in cruelty and lust, and wielded the power of a king with the mind of a slave.”

⁵ tn Grk “Felix the procurator.” The official Roman title has been translated as “governor” (BDAG 433 s.v. ἡγεμών 2).

⁶ tn Grk “writing.” Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun here in the translation, supplying “he” (referring to the commanding officer, Claudius Lysias) as subject. The participle γράψας (grayas) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

⁷ tn Grk “having this form,” “having this content.” L&N 33.48 has “γράψσς ἐπιστολὴν ἔχουσαν τὸν τύπον τοῦτον ‘then he wrote a letter that went like this’ Ac 23:25. It is also possible to understand ἐπιστολή in Ac 23:25 not as a content or message, but as an object (see 6.63).”

⁸ tn Grk “Procurator.” The official Roman title has been translated as “governor” (BDAG 433 s.v. ἡγεμών 2).

⁹ sn Governor Felix. See the note on Felix in v. 24.

¹⁰ tn The participle συλλημφθέντα (sullhmfqenta) has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style. The remark reviews events of Acts 21:27-40.

¹¹ tn Grk “and was about to be killed by them.” The passive construction has been converted to an active one in the translation for stylistic reasons.

¹² tn Or “approached.”

¹³ tn Normally this term means “army,” but according to BDAG 947 s.v. στράτευμα, “Of a smaller detachment of soldiers, sing. Ac 23:10, 27.” In the plural it can be translated “troops,” but it is singular here.

¹⁴ tn In Greek this is a present tense retained in indirect discourse.

¹⁵ tn The word “citizen” is supplied here for emphasis and clarity.

sn The letter written by the Roman commander Claudius Lysias was somewhat self-serving. He made it sound as if the rescue of a Roman citizen had been a conscious act on his part. In fact, he had made the discovery of Paul’s Roman citizenship somewhat later. See Acts 21:37-39 and 22:24-29.