Paul is placed before the Sanhedrin to make his defense. At the end of the last chapter, the tribune commanded the chief priests and council to meet so he could determine exactly why he was being accused by the Jews. Luke indicated that the tribune simply wanted to clarify the charges. It is far more likely that the Sanhedrin placed formal charges against Paul and forced the issue. The tribune would have preferred to let him go and avoid any talk about how he almost broke Roman law by having a Roman citizen scourged.

If the Sanhedrin formally placed charges against Paul, the tribune would be forced to do two things. He must allow the Sanhedrin to call their council against Paul and he must protect Paul the Roman citizen from mob violence. It is interesting that a motivating factor for everyone except Paul was the avoidance of riots. Romans viewed riots as direct rebellion against their rule and did not tolerate leaders who allowed such things to happen.

Paul appears before the Sanhedrin with the tribune present to insure his safety. He has been extremely composed throughout all these proceedings and he remains composed as he starts his defense. "Brethren, I have lived before God in all good conscience up to this day." That is neither an outrageous statement nor a contradiction of Jewish beliefs. When the high priest, Ananias, ordered him to be struck in the mouth, we get a good idea of what kind of hearing Paul is going to get. A few years ago, we were astonished to find that one bishop of another jurisdiction slapped another bishop, who responded by stabbing the first bishop in the hand with a pencil. It is good that we are shocked when we find such behavior in leaders. Paul was shocked as well and responded with the temper we have come to both fear and respect.

Paul called Ananias, the high priest a white washed wall. That doesn’t seem much of an insult in our culture. In the Jewish culture, things painted white were to be avoided and the white paint made them visible and recognizable. Anything that was painted white was considered unclean and contaminated. Paul denied knowing that Ananias was the high priest and acknowledged that one should not speak ill of the ruler of the people. It is possible that Paul did not recognize the high priest as he was new in the office. You will note that Paul did not exactly apologize nor retract his statement.

The second result of the high priest’s inappropriate action was that Paul then proceeded to divide the council and divert further attention from himself. When Paul recognized that the council was made up of both Sadducees and Pharisees, he told them about his Pharisaic background and his respect for their beliefs. The Pharisees had the greatest influence over the religious life of the people. The Sadducees main interest was to keep the temple going. It was a profitable undertaking as long as Rome tolerated it. They wanted nothing to affect the sweet deal they were enjoying. Any changes to the practices could attract the attention of Rome and they could lose their ability to run the temple.

The Pharisees were more interested in a genuine religious life. They were ready to accept the resurrection of the dead if it existed. Paul said, "Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead I am on trial." This message was acceptable to the Pharisees but not the Sadducees who considered such a statement an embarrassment to the temple hierarchy, The scribes, who were Pharisees said, "We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God." The dissension grew to the point that the captain had to bring Paul back to the barracks for his own safety. Paul was then told in a vision, "Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also at Rome."

When the hearing before the Sanhedrin turned out to be a fiasco, the conspiracy to kill Paul took a more serious turn. It was led by Jews who remain nameless. There were more than forty who with fanatical determination vowed not to eat or drink until the deed was done. It was a relatively small number. The rank and file of Jews had nothing against Paul as he had just brought relief funds for suffering Jews, and the Pharisees themselves had refused to condemn him. In spite of the small number, the group included prominent colleagues – the high priest, the elders and the Sanhedrin. Remember that these were primarily Sadducees who bore the responsibility for maintaining the smooth operation of the temple. It is a reminder to us that all officials need to be watched. Left to their own devices, it is easy for them to mistake their own personal gain for the general welfare of their charges. In that manner, the conservative head of the temple wanted Paul and his changes removed from the picture altogether.

The conspiracy to kill Paul was offset by a conspiracy to save him. We have no other references to Paul’s nephew but it appears he cared enough about his uncle to attempt to save him. You could say that the small and unpretentious beginning of the nephew drew the Roman tribune into the plot to save Paul. But the commander had two good reasons of his own to save Paul. First, he was charged with keeping the peace and the Christians in the city would certainly stand by Paul. There were many others who would disapprove of cold-blooded murder. Riots were likely to erupt if Paul were killed while under Roman protection.

The second reason for the tribune to save Paul is equally pressing. A few days before, he had made an embarrassing mistake about Paul. He approved torturing him to extract a confession on the assumption that he was a Jewish leader of Egyptian bandits. He failed to inquire as to whether Paul was a Roman citizen. Paul was not only a Roman citizen but he was one by birth. When the tribune endangered the life of a Roman citizen, he also endangered his own position as commander of the Roman garrison in Jerusalem. Commanders were not afforded two opportunities to make such a mistake. Thus the tribune’s self-interest coincided with the best interests of Paul.

The tribune arranged a convoy to insure Paul’s safe conduct to Felix, the governor. There is some question about the accuracy of the convoy’s makeup. Two hundred soldiers (on foot), and seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen were assigned to deliver him to Antipatris which was about forty miles away. They did not start until the third hour of the night which is about 9 to 10 pm. Two hundred soldiers and two hundred spearmen seem a little excessive to protect one man against a plot of forty men. There is also the question of making a round trip of forty miles each direction by foot in approximately twenty-four hours. When they reached Antipatris, the soldiers and spearmen returned home and the horsemen delivered Paul to the governor in Caesarea.

The tribune sent a letter to the governor explaining the situation and the reason Paul was being referred to him. Note that the letter did not mention the tribune’s authorization to have Paul tortured. The tribune only told that he rescued this Roman citizen from the plot of the Jews and that the accusers were also told to appeal to the governor if they wanted to continue their complaint.

When presented with Paul and the letter, the governor asked of what province Paul came. When he heard that he was from Celicia, he declared that he would hear his case and remanded him to custody. Roman law allowed the governor jurisdiction over the area in which the crime was committed because he was the procurator of Judea. It also allowed the governor jurisdiction over Paul’s native province of Celicia. Either way, it was clearly Felix’s job to hear the case.

Remember when Pontius Pilate referred Jesus to Herod because Jesus came from the province Herod governed? Herod sent him back to Pilate because he had no crime with which he could charge him under Roman law. Pontius Pilate was then forced to assign the punishment awarded Jesus.

It is extremely critical that Paul mentioned his Roman citizenship before the tribune. Between the Jews and the scourging, failure to do so would have almost certainly led to death. His Roman citizenship also kept the tribune from releasing him back to the Jews for fear that they would kill him and start a riot. Removing Paul to the jurisdiction of the Roman governor brought him one step closer to Rome.