18. Paul’s Arrest in Caesarea

Acts of the Apostles

 

Paul was arrested in Jerusalem. The crowd in the temple tried to lynch him, the court commander intervened and saved him, discovered that he was a Roman citizen and, therefore, does not know how to proceed; he tries to make him judge by the Sanhedrin, but skillfully Paul defends himself by setting the Pharisees against the Sadducees and the two groups fight. A riot breaks out in the Sanhedrin and the commander thinks the only thing to do is to get the prisoner out of the way and think of other solutions.

In chapter 23 of the Acts of the Apostles, in which these episodes are told, we find a very important detail. A mystical experience that the Apostle Paul lives precisely during this arrest in the Antonia fortress; that night after the uproar in the Sanhedrin the Lord Jesus came to Paul and said to him “Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.”

Until now Paul’s plan was to go to Jerusalem; now that he arrived in Jerusalem, he was arrested in the same place where the trial of Jesus took place, in the Praetorium, Paul discovers another perspective: going to Rome, arriving in Rome as a witness to Christ, as his credible spokesman, even as a martyr—in Greek the term is what we call ‘witness’, a martyr—or rather, we have given the sense of martyrdom, that is, of violent death to one who is a witness, who guarantees with his life the faith he professes.

Paul, therefore, was a prisoner in the Antonia fortress, has created a great upheaval in Jerusalem. The Jews, since they could not organize a judicial elimination of this character they hated, they try to do it differently; they organize a conspiracy: “When day came, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who formed this conspiracy.” They are fanatical people, linked to violent movements that aim at all costs to get Paul out of the way. They presented themselves to the authority of the Sanhedrin expressing their violent intention and asking to set a ruse in motion: they must send for Paul to be transferred back to the Sanhedrin and they commit themselves to attack the few soldiers on guard at the transfer of the prisoner to kill Paul.

A character appears that Luke, the narrator of the Acts, introduces and that, otherwise, is absolutely unknown: the son of Paul’s sister, so we learn that he had a sister who lived in Jerusalem and her son was inserted in the Jewish environment, learns of this conspiracy and tries to talk to the uncle who is a prisoner; he makes him aware of this problem and the prisoner sends him directly to the commander to learn of the plot and thus avoid exposing the prisoner to a violent assault.

The plot ends up by vanishing; the commander trusts in that young man, dismissed him with this recommendation: “Tell no one that you gave me this information.” And tries another way. He realizes that Paul’s presence in Jerusalem is risky and therefore he secretly organizes the transfer of the prisoner. Caesarea is the main seat where the Roman army resides, is the seat of the Governor of Judea. Caesarea Maritima is a city of recent construction with the port in the Mediterranean and is the habitual residence of the procurator of Judea, so the Jerusalem commander believes that the safest thing to do is to transfer the prisoner to Caesarea. “Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, “Get two hundred soldiers ready to go to Caesarea by nine o’clock tonight, along with seventy horsemen and two hundred auxiliaries.”

Three hours after sunset he sets in motion a whole army to distract. A single prisoner would not be escorted by such a number of soldiers and horsemen. To prevent Jerusalem from thinking about a transfer, he organizes a military maneuver from above. He entrusts Paul to this troop to be led safely to Governor Felix in Caesarea. The commander also wrote a letter and Luke shows that he has a knowledge of the military environment in Jerusalem because he brings us the text of the letter. It is not necessarily that he knew him directly, but with the ability from a Hellenistic storyteller Luke imagines what the commander could have said.

It is a summary of the facts that we already know: “Claudius Lysias to his excellency the governor Felix, greetings.” It is an opportunity for us to know the style of an official message among the Roman military leaders. He tells us that the commander’s name is Claudius Lysias and that the governor is Antonius Felix. “This man, seized by the Jews and about to be murdered by them, I rescued after intervening with my troops when I learned that he was a Roman citizen. I wanted to learn the reason for their accusations against him so I brought him down to their Sanhedrin. I discovered that he was accused in matters of controversial questions of their law and not of any charge deserving death or imprisonment. Since it was brought to my attention that there will be a plot against the man, I am sending him to you at once.”

Synthetically he told us again what we already knew. “So the soldiers, according to their orders, took Paul and escorted him by night to Antipatris.” And there the change of guard took place; all those soldiers returned to Jerusalem and the next morning only the horsemen continued with Paul until they arrived in Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor who, after reading it, he asked Paul who he is, where he comes from and what he is doing… “I shall hear your case when your accusers arrive.” He is not interested in the case he considers a triviality, he puts him in prison in the praetorium built by Herod and expects the accusers to come forward.

In fact, in the meantime, the tribune Claudius Lysias had informed the Sanhedrin that Paul had been transferred to Caesarea; and, therefore, the movement of those 40 who wanted to eliminate him at all costs failed. They had made a vow not to eat until Paul had been killed. If they kept their vote they died of hunger, otherwise they violated the vote that they had done; their intention has been frustrated. The Sanhedrin must organize another methodology to silence Paul and they hire a rhetorician, a great lawyer, to carry out a requisition to show Governor Felix the guilt of this defendant.

“Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and an advocate, a certain Tertullus, and they presented formal charges against Paul to the governor.” This lawyer begins a melodious and flattering speech where he gives the governor’s eulogy in a cloying way. Luke was accompanying Paul at this time, went to Jerusalem with him and moved to Caesarea with him, and had the opportunity if not to be present at these hearings, to know the people who were there and was directly informed by the people present in the environment of the praetorium about what happened and with literary skill recreates the possible speech of lawyer Tertullus.

“Since we have attained much peace through you, and reforms have been accomplished in this nation through your provident care, we acknowledge this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with all gratitude. But in order not to detain you further, I ask you to give us a brief hearing with your customary graciousness. We found this man to be a pest; he creates dissension among Jews all over the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazoreans. He even tried to desecrate our temple, but we arrested him. If you examine him you will be able to learn from him for yourself about everything of which we are accusing him.”

The speech is extremely synthetic, of course, in reality it was much longer. Substantially Tertullus says Paul is a plague, properly in the sense of pestilence, a real epidemic; the definition is very accurate. They wanted to present it in a negative way, but at the same time, they were able to describe Paul’s power that like an infection passes on the message of the Gospel. This man is an epidemic, his word is contagious, whoever meets him is caught.

You have to turn the negative image upside down and make it positive to realize how perfectly they had understood the power that Paul emanated, with the capacity of conviction to attract people, to lead people to the truth of Christ. “He creates dissension.” Yes, indeed this was true because wherever his preaching went it created confusion, in the sense that it put people in a certain position towards Christ and hurt the sensitivity of the Jews who rejected Christ.

Tertullus is mistaken in calling him the leader of the ‘Nazarene’ sect or of the ‘Nazarenes’. Here we find the precise indication that a Jew does not call him a ‘Christian’, but calls Paul a Nazarene, a derogatory term to indicate Jesus as an inhabitant of a small village lost in the countryside. Or, a variant of Nazareth, it could be that of ‘nazir’ or ‘nazireo’, understood as consecrated. Jesus would have been a consecrated man and these are the ‘Nazirites’, a sect. In Greek, the term ‘Airesis’ is used. Airesis’ is heresy, that is, a part, a group. They are considered a sectarian group of which they think Paul is the leader, probably because he is the most active man, the most famous, who gave the greatest importance to this preaching.

When the governor beckoned Paul to speak, Paul gave another speech; and here the narrator, once again, makes Paul speak with an apologetic, self-defense speech, in which the apostle tells his own situation and tells it from a different perspective. He is not simply talking to the Jews, but he is talking to a Roman court. The Jews are accusing, but the judge in this case is Governor Antonius Felix who is not interested in all the discourses of Jewish culture, nor is he interested in Paul’s extraordinary experience of Christ and therefore, the apostle speaks a judicial language: “I know that you have been a judge over this nation for many years and so I am pleased to make my defense before you. As you can verify, not more than twelve days have passed since I went up to Jerusalem to worship. Neither in the temple, nor in the synagogues, nor anywhere in the city did they find me arguing with anyone or instigating a riot among the people. Nor can they prove to you the accusations they are now making against me. But this I do admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect.”

Paul uses the term ‘Ὁδὸν’ ‘hodòs, camino. It is an important term that Luke likes very much because it is part of his theology. The Christian group is the group of the Way, those of the Way. “I worship the God of our ancestors and I believe everything that is in accordance with the law and written in the prophets. I have the same hope in God as they themselves have that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous. Because of this, I always strive to keep my conscience clear before God and man. After many years, I came to bring alms for my nation and offerings. While I was so engaged, they found me, after my purification, in the temple without a crowd or disturbance…. I am on trial before you today for the resurrection of the dead.”

Paul defended himself with civil arguments, according to the criteria of a trial. He made it clear that there is no reason for an accusation and a conviction. “Then Felix, who was accurately informed about the Way—that is, Christianity— postponed the trial, saying, ‘When Lysias the commander comes down, I shall decide your case.’” He suspends the hearing, postpones the accusers and takes its time. Notice the way the weight is lifted off their shoulders. Commander Lysias sends Paul to Governor Felix for trial; Governor Felix says he will wait for commander Lysias in order to be able to judge him.

“He gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that he should not prevent any of his friends from caring for his needs.” Certainly, among these friends is Luke, who has followed the apostle to Caesarea and helps him, assists him. The two share the news of what is happening inside the praetorium. Luke knows it directly from Paul.

“Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish.” Drusilla is a lady of the high aristocracy, she is the sister of Herod Agrippa II and his sister Berenice. They are the three brothers, heirs of the Herodian dynasty. Drusilla married the governor Antonius Felix (let’s do some gossip of those times…), Berenice lived with her brother and years later she will become the lover of Titus and will move with him to Rome, and Titus will become an emperor, very inserted in the Jewish aristocracy.

Now, Antonius Felix, with his wife Drusilla, interrogates Paul and listens to him about the matter for which he was arrested, but when Paul begins to speak of justice, of continence, of future judgment Felix was frightened and said: “You may go for now; when I find an opportunity I shall summon you again.” He is a very practical man, interested in money and little in philosophy, not at all in religion, especially when it demands a serious commitment; and Luke at this point inserts a painful note: “Felix hoped that a bribe would be offered him by Paul, and so he sent for him very often and conversed with him.” And he didn’t do anything.

He keeps him in jail without going through with the trial because he basically wants to get paid, hoping that Paul is a corrupt one. If Paul, who has so many friendships, is willing to pay, the governor will set him free; if he is not willing to pay him, he will stay rotting in that room where he is imprisoned awaiting trial; and not a few days, or a few months but two years go by, from 58 to 60, that Paul remained waiting for the trial without anything being done. Then Antonius Felix was transferred.

The changing of the guard happened at the beginning of the year 60. The new governor Porcius Festus arrived, who has a bit of an ugly name, but is a wiser and more honest man. “Wishing to ingratiate himself with the Jews, Felix left Paul in prison.” And then the new governor Porcius Festus finds that among the many problems to be solved is also the case of the prisoner Paul.