having written a letter, couched in this form
Paul is on the night road to Caesarea under armed guard, and his Roman commander sits down to write a covering letter for his prisoner. Why does Scripture keep an officer's private memo — and what does God do with words a man never meant us to read?
The phrase "to this effect" (older versions read "after this manner") translates a Greek word worth a closer look. Translators render that same word in several different ways elsewhere in the New Testament:
The Greek word is τύπος, from which comes the word "type." It is translated "print," John 20:25; "figure," Acts 7:43; Rom. 5:14; "form," Rom. 6:17; "fashion," Acts 7:44; "manner," Acts 23:25; "pattern," Titus 2:7; Heb. 8:5.
So Luke is giving us the shape, the pattern, of what Lysias wrote. One commentator renders the verse as "having written a letter in this form," and then sets out the text that follows in full.
The letter's opening claim is that Lysias rescued Paul because he had learned Paul was a Roman citizen. One commentator will not let that claim pass:
The Roman never thought that you and I would read his letter. He never knew that an eye was looking right through him as he wrote. He never counted on the false and the true in it being announced from the rooftops… "I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen." He had learned nothing of the sort. He was only deceiving his superior, trying to win credit out of his own error and fault.
Luke was not in the room when Lysias wrote. The same commentator cannot explain how the letter reached Luke, and points instead to what God knows without any means:
We cannot say how the letter became known to Luke. But there it is, carrying every mark of being genuine — all the more so, because we can easily see that the commander cared little for the truth and wanted to commend his own zeal and service to the governor. God is not limited to means. He knows everything without them, and from time to time He tells us what is good for us to know, as He sees fit… In fact the commander only learned that Paul was a Roman after he had him tied up for a flogging, a serious breach of the law where a citizen was concerned. He never expected that a letter meant only for the eyes of Felix would stand for ever on the page of Holy Scripture, with the lie left plain by the history and not a word of comment on it — which is Scripture's way. The prisoner himself had not the slightest wish to expose the wrong.
A letter written to manage one governor's opinion is now public reading for every generation. One writer turns that on us:
The Roman officer Claudius Lysias never imagined that God noted his lying letter to the governor Felix about Paul, and kept it to place in His sacred Word! (Acts 23:25-30). Let us never forget this: the all-seeing God observes and records everything we say and do about people we dislike, including the things we hope they will never hear.
Self-serving as it was, the letter served God's ends. It put on official Roman record that the charges against Paul were religious, not criminal:
The letter Claudius Lysias wrote is a very typical document. In it he presented his own actions in the most favourable light. On the other hand, it completely cleared Paul of anything really evil or worthy of death. The only accusations against him were about "questions of their law." This makes it clear: the first Roman official into whose hands Paul fell was quickly convinced that the charges against him concerned his faith, and that there was no fault in him as to conduct. God clearly took care to make this entirely plain.
The letter moves Paul up the chain of Roman authority. That chain was God's own route for the gospel:
We now find the apostle in the hands of the Gentiles… the providence of God cares for him, ordering everything for the testimony he was to bear… The Jews wanted to get hold of him, but he was to stay in their power no longer. So he goes on to Lysias, to Felix, to Festus, to Agrippa, and at last to Caesar. This was God's intention… He did not raise up men of the world to do it, as many often think. God makes a prisoner His servant, so that governors and kings might come to know the gospel.
- Form. "To this effect" translates a word meaning shape or pattern, the same word behind "type" — so Luke gives us the very shape of what Lysias wrote.
- Filed. God preserved a private memo, written to impress one governor, for every age since to read.
- Falsehood. Lysias reversed the facts to cover his own breach of Roman law. Scripture records the lie and lets the history expose it, without a word of comment.
- Faultless. The same self-serving letter put on official record that Paul's only offence was a matter of faith, not of conduct.
- Forwarded. That paperwork carried Paul to Felix, Festus, Agrippa and Caesar. God made a prisoner His servant, so that governors and kings would hear the gospel.
Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor Felix, greeting.
A Roman commander has just pulled Paul out of a mob in Jerusalem. Now he writes the letter that sends him under armed guard to Felix, the governor at Caesarea. One line of polite formality opens it — and it reveals much about the man who wrote it, and about God's care of His prisoner.
The greeting opens a letter sent along with the soldiers who took Paul out of Jerusalem.
The commander, Claudius Lysias, sent a letter with the troops to Felix the governor, explaining why he was sending Paul. He knew the Jews had been about to kill Paul, not to judge him by their law, as Tertullus later claimed (ch. 24:6). It had taken an army to rescue him.
"His Excellency" was not a compliment paid to a good man. It was the standard address for a Roman provincial governor.
The word translated "most excellent" is kratistos. It is the same word used for the governors of provinces, as for Felix and Festus, who are called "most noble."
The letter ends with the word "greetings." In Greek, that is only a side-meaning of the word used.
As a secondary meaning the verb is used for "greeting," and so for "farewell." But that sense is limited to a few settings, such as Matthew 26:49; Luke 1:28; Acts 15:23; Acts 23:26; and James 1:1… Everywhere else it means "rejoice" or "be glad."
Behind the polite title stood a ruler whose record was ugly, and whose later dealings with Paul proved it.
Felix was a former slave set free by the Emperor Claudius, who then made him governor of Judea in A.D. 51… He showed his greedy and unrighteous character by keeping Paul in prison for two years, hoping for a bribe, and then leaving him in prison to please the Jews.
Yet even such a man served God's purpose, because Roman law stood in the way of Jewish hatred.
Still, he well understood how thin the grounds could be when the Jews hunted a man to death out of relentless hatred. A Roman governor would be no less firm in upholding Roman law in front of Jews who boasted of a divine revelation. God's providence used all of this in His servant's favour.
Lysias puts his own name at the head of the letter, and what follows bends the facts in his favour. He claims he rescued Paul because he had learned the man was a Roman citizen.
Little did the Roman think that his letter would be read by you and me. Little did he know that an eye looked him through and through as he wrote… He understood nothing of the sort. He was only deceiving his superior, trying to make capital out of what was in fact his own error and fault. He had bound a man who was just as much a Roman citizen as himself, and he did it in order to flog him.
Commentators differ on how harshly to judge him. Some read the letter as ordinary self-promotion rather than lying, and point out that it still cleared Paul.
The letter written by Claudius Lysias is a very typical document. In it he presented his own actions in the best possible light. On the other hand, it fully cleared Paul of anything truly evil or deserving death… God clearly took care to make this perfectly plain.
A soldier's routine memo became part of Scripture — and that fact is aimed at the reader.
The Roman officer Claudius Lysias never imagined that God noted his lying letter to the governor Felix about Paul, and kept it to place in His sacred Word! (Acts 23:25-30). Let us never forget this: everything we say and do about people we dislike, and hope they will never hear about, the all-seeing God sees and records.
The chain of officials that starts with this letter was not an accident of politics.
There may have been no free action of the Spirit in Paul himself. Even so, the providence of God cares for him and arranges everything for the testimony he was to give… So he is taken to Lysias, to Felix, to Festus, to Agrippa, and at last to Caesar. This was God's intention… God makes a prisoner His servant, so that the gospel would reach governors and kings.
- Address — "Most excellent" marks the office of a provincial governor, not the worth of the man holding it.
- Office — the man so honoured was a former slave of Claudius who later held Paul for two years hoping for a bribe.
- Author — Lysias paints himself as Paul's quick rescuer. Commentators differ on whether that is a lie or just flattering self-praise.
- Record — a private letter its writer never expected us to read now stands in Scripture. God hears every word we say behind someone's back.
- Purpose — this letter starts a chain of hearings that ends at Caesar. God moved a prisoner so that governors and kings would hear the gospel.
This man, having been taken by the Jews, and being about to be killed by them, I came up with the military and took out [of their hands], having learned that he was a Roman.
Claudius Lysias reports to Felix the governor, and quietly rewrites his own part in the story. He says he rescued Paul because he knew Paul was a Roman citizen — but the previous chapter tells it differently.
Soldiers had already tied Paul up for scourging before anyone discovered he was a citizen. One writer states the contradiction plainly:
He understood nothing of the sort. He was merely deceiving his superior, trying to turn his own error and fault into something to his credit. As we have seen, he began with a clear breach of Roman law. He had bound for scourging a man who was as much a Roman citizen as himself. He was guilty of claiming credit and zeal where he had been both careless and hasty.
Why would an officer put a lie in an official report? One writer explains the instinct behind it:
In fact the commander only learned that Paul was a Roman after he had ordered him tied up for scourging. Against a citizen that was a serious breach of the law. But it is quite natural that a pagan would do what he could to hide his past fault. He claimed zeal at the very point where he had failed. Little did he expect that a letter meant only for the eyes of Felix would stand forever on the page of Holy Scripture. There the history itself makes the falsehood plain, without a word of comment, as is the manner of Scripture. Nor did the blessed prisoner have the slightest wish to expose the wrong.
Lysias wrote for one reader alone. One writer widens the point to every private paper ever written:
How little does the world think that there is One who sees everything and forgets nothing! The secrets of the most private letter, the plans of government made behind closed doors, the movements of kings, of governors and ministers of state, of military chiefs and their men — no matter who or what — are all before Him.
The same eye was on this officer as he wrote:
How little did the Roman officer Claudius Lysias imagine that God would note his lying letter to the governor Felix about Paul, preserve it, and include it in His sacred Word! (Acts 23:25-30). Let us never forget that the all-seeing God observes and records everything we say and do about people we dislike — even the words we hope they will never hear.
The letter flatters its writer. It also clears the prisoner, and one writer sees God's hand in that:
The letter written by Claudius Lysias is quite a typical document. In it he presented his own actions in the most favourable light. But on the other hand it entirely cleared Paul of anything really evil or worthy of death. The only accusations against him were about "questions of their law." So we see that the first Roman official into whose hands he fell was soon convinced of two things. The charges against Paul concerned his faith, and there was no fault in him as to conduct. God clearly took care to make this perfectly plain.
The verdict and the action do not match:
It shows how Lysias claims the full credit of having rescued Paul, because he was a Roman. He declares him innocent, yet delivers him into the hands of the governor.
Whatever the letter claims, Lysias did step in and save Paul's life. One writer weighs what that was worth:
Paul was thus indebted to Claudius Lysias, and not Paul only, but ourselves and the whole Church of God!
Yet the man himself walks off the page unchanged:
There the curtain falls on Lysias. If only this fine, able, tender-hearted Roman soldier had looked beyond the war of words! If only he had learned the eternal truth that Paul both championed and suffered for as a witness. Heavenly light was breaking in on the darkness, and the voice of God was stirring the sleeping conscience of man. To this side of the question Lysias, sadly, was blind.
- The lie. Lysias says he rescued Paul because he knew Paul was a Roman. In fact he learned it afterwards, when he had already ordered a citizen bound for scourging.
- The motive. The false note lands exactly where he broke the law. He hides a past fault by claiming zeal at the point where he failed.
- The record. God preserved a letter meant for one governor's eyes and left the lie uncorrected. The history itself exposes it, and God watches our private words the same way.
- The verdict. Even a self-serving report clears Paul of any crime and leaves only "questions of their law." God saw to it that Paul's own captor stated his innocence plainly.
- The blind spot. Lysias did real good, and the whole church is in his debt. Yet he never looked past the dispute to the truth Paul suffered for. There the curtain falls on him.
And desiring to know the charge on which they accused him, I brought him down to their council;
This verse is one line from an official Roman letter. The commander Claudius Lysias tells the governor Felix why he took his prisoner before the Jewish council. He wanted to learn the real charge against Paul. That one line raises two questions: how truthful is this report, and why did God keep it?
Lysias is describing a real event. He had brought Paul down to the council to get at the facts, and the facts turned out to be nothing a Roman court would touch.
When later he says he brought Paul face to face with the Jewish council, he perceived that their only accusation had to do with the Jewish religious law, but of no such importance as to call for a sentence of death or even of imprisonment.
Lysias wrote for one reader. The letter ended up in Scripture, with both its self-praise and its untruth left in.
We cannot say how the letter became known to the writer of Acts. But there it is, with every mark of being genuine. It is all the more genuine because we can easily see that the commander was not careful about truth, and wanted to commend his own zeal and service to the governor... In fact he only learnt that Paul was a Roman after he had ordered him tied up for flogging, which was a serious breach of the law where a citizen was concerned. But it is quite natural that he, a pagan, should do what he could to hide his past fault by professing zeal at the very point where he had failed. He never expected that a letter meant only for the eyes of Felix would stand on the permanent page of Holy Scripture. The history itself makes the falsehood plain, and Scripture adds no comment, as is its way. Nor did the blessed prisoner have the slightest wish to expose the wrong. But God would have us learn from it what man is, and what God is.
Lysias wrote to make himself look good. The hearing he describes here still put Paul's innocence on record.
The letter written by Claudius Lysias is quite a typical document. In it he presented his own actions in the most favourable light. Yet it entirely cleared Paul of anything really evil or deserving death. The only accusations against him were about "questions of their law." So the first Roman official to handle his case was soon convinced of two things: the charges against him concerned his faith, and there was no fault in his conduct. God clearly took care to make this plain.
Lysias wanted to know the cause of the accusation. He never asked whether Paul's message was true. The record of him closes there.
He writes to Felix that Paul had done nothing deserving death or even imprisonment. True, but there the curtain falls on Lysias. If only this fine, able, tender-hearted Roman soldier had looked beyond the war of words! Then he would have learned the eternal truth that Paul both championed and suffered for as its witness: that heavenly light was breaking into the darkness, and that the voice of God was stirring the sleeping conscience of man. To this side of the question Lysias, sadly, was blind.
The hearing Lysias set up, and the letter it produced, sent Paul up the chain of Roman authority. Commentators see God's hand in that route, not just Roman procedure.
We now find the apostle in the hands of the Gentiles. There may have been no free action of the Spirit in Paul himself. Yet the providence of God cares for him, ordering everything for the testimony he was to bear... The Jews wanted to get hold of him, but he was to remain no longer in their power. So he is brought to Lysias, then to Felix, to Festus, to Agrippa, and at last to Caesar. Such was the intention of God. These were also the means He used to bring the gospel to the governors and to the great. He did not raise up men of the world to do it, as many often think. God makes a prisoner His servant, so that the gospel might reach governors and kings.
What Lysias wrote about a man he disliked is now read everywhere. That fact carries a warning.
How little the Roman officer Claudius Lysias imagined that God noticed his lying letter to the governor Felix about Paul, and preserved it for inclusion in His sacred Word! Let us never forget this: the all-seeing God observes and records everything we say and do about people we dislike, even the things we hope they will never hear.
- Question. Lysias took Paul to the council to learn the real charge. He found only disputes about Jewish law — nothing deserving death or imprisonment.
- Record. The letter was meant for one governor's eyes. It now stands in Scripture, and the history around it exposes the false parts without a word of comment.
- Verdict. A report written to flatter its author still cleared Paul. God saw to it that the first official on the case put that innocence in writing.
- Reach. That inquiry carried Paul on to Felix, Festus, Agrippa and Caesar. God made a prisoner His servant to bring the gospel to governors and kings.
- Warning. Lysias looked into the charge but never past it, to the truth Paul suffered for. What he wrote in private is now read by the world.
whom I found to be accused of questions of their law, but to have no charge laid against him [making him] worthy of death or of bonds.
A plot to murder Paul has been uncovered. So the Roman commander Claudius Lysias sends his prisoner out of Jerusalem under armed guard to Felix at Caesarea. This verse comes from the letter he sends ahead. It is an official verdict: Paul had broken no Roman law. He had only stirred an argument among Jews about their own religion.
Lysias had already brought Paul before the Jewish council to learn what crime they charged him with. He found no crime, and he put that in writing.
The letter written by Claudius Lysias is a very typical document. In it he put his own actions in the best possible light. Yet it also cleared Paul completely of anything truly evil or deserving death. The only accusations against him were about "questions of their law." So it is clear that the first Roman official to take charge of him was quickly convinced of two things: the charges against him concerned his faith, and there was no fault in his conduct. God clearly took care that this was made very plain.
The crowd had tried to kill Paul, not to put him on trial. Lysias had seen that for himself.
He knew the Jews had been on the verge of killing Paul. They were not taking him to be judged by their law, whatever Tertullus later claimed. It had taken an army to rescue him. He then says he brought Paul face to face with the Jewish council. There he saw that their only accusation had to do with the Jewish religious law. It was not serious enough to call for a sentence of death or even imprisonment.
Lysias was only the first. Every official with legal power over Paul reached the same verdict.
The apostle's innocence was established. Lysias reached that conclusion after hearing what the Jewish council had to say against him (23:29). Felix admitted it too, though he never said so openly. He ordered the centurion to keep Paul in custody until Lysias came, but he allowed him some freedom, and the right to see his friends and be looked after by them. And now Festus, Agrippa, and the governor's council all agreed in declaring him innocent. Every man with legal authority over him was convinced that the charges the Jews kept pressing had no ground at all.
Lysias judged the case correctly. But he never looked into what the argument was really about.
He writes a letter to Felix. In it he says the only visible cause of this strange hatred from the Jews was an accusation about questions of their law. That was the whole charge. Paul had done nothing deserving death or even chains. True — but there the curtain falls on Lysias. If only this fine, able, tender-hearted Roman soldier had looked beyond the war of words! Then he would have learned the eternal truth that Paul both championed and witnessed to by his suffering. Heavenly light was breaking into the darkness, and the voice of God was stirring the sleeping conscience of man. To this side of the matter Lysias, sadly, was blind.
Lysias sent a huge armed escort for one prisoner he had just cleared of any crime. The size of that guard says something about who was acting justly.
The huge guard sent to bring one prisoner through safely — a prisoner everyone agreed deserved no punishment — shows what the commander thought of Jewish treachery and violence. And he arranged it the very night he heard of their plot. How sad to see the spite and deceit of the Jews hated and blocked by pagan firmness in standing for plain earthly justice and order! Truly the foundations were shaken: not that the Romans were not evil, but that God's people, the Jews, were even more shamefully bad.
The verdict did not set Paul free. It moved him on — out of Jewish hands and into the care of rulers God meant to hear the gospel.
We now find the apostle in the hands of the Gentiles. There may have been no free action of the Spirit in Paul himself. Yet God in His providence cares for him, ordering everything for the testimony he was to bear, and His favour is with him. The relentless hatred of the Jews only brings about the fulfilment of God's purposes... God makes a prisoner His servant, so that governors and kings might come to know the gospel.
- Charge: What looked like a death-penalty case shrank to "questions of their law." The accusation touched Paul's faith, never his conduct.
- Verdict: Lysias was the first of many. Felix, Festus and Agrippa followed. No judge over Paul found any ground for the charges.
- Blindness: A man can judge a case about Christ rightly and still miss Christ. Lysias saw the legal facts and nothing more.
- Reversal: Roman soldiers guarded an innocent man while God's own people plotted his murder. The foundations were shaken.
- Purpose: The verdict did not set Paul free. It carried him on, as God made a prisoner His messenger to governors and kings.
But having received information of a plot about to be put in execution against the man [by the Jews], I have immediately sent him to thee, commanding also his accusers to say before thee the things that are against him. [Farewell.]
The commander moved Paul from Jerusalem to Caesarea in one night, and his letter explains why: someone had warned him of a plot. So a piece of routine paperwork raises two questions — why did God let a self-serving Roman report into Scripture, and where was all this taking Paul?
The commander's account of events is tidier than the facts.
The letter bears every mark of being genuine, and all the more because we can see that the commander was not careful about truth. He wanted to commend his own zeal and services to the governor. In fact the commander only learned that Paul was a Roman after he had ordered him tied up for flogging. That was a serious breach of the law where a citizen was concerned. It is natural that he, a pagan, should try to hide his earlier fault by claiming zeal at the very point where he had failed. He never expected that a letter meant only for the eyes of Felix would stand on the permanent page of Holy Scripture. The history itself makes its falsehood plain, without a word of comment, as is the way of Scripture. The blessed prisoner had no wish at all to expose the wrong.
A private letter became public record. One writer turns that into a warning.
The Roman officer Claudius Lysias never imagined that God noticed his lying letter to the governor Felix about Paul, and preserved it for His sacred Word! Let us never forget this. The all-seeing God observes and records everything we say and do about people we dislike, even the things we hope they will never hear.
Whatever the writer's motives, the letter worked in Paul's favour.
The letter completely cleared Paul of anything evil or deserving death. The only accusations against him concerned "questions of their law." So the first Roman official who had him in charge soon saw that the charges were about his faith. He found no fault in Paul's conduct. God clearly took care to make this plain.
The officer got the legal question right, and then he disappears from the account.
There the curtain falls on Lysias. If only this fine, able, tender-hearted Roman soldier had looked beyond the war of words and learned the eternal truth that Paul both championed and suffered for! That truth was this: heavenly light was breaking in on the darkness, and the voice of God was stirring the sleeping conscience of man. To this side of the question Lysias was blind.
The order to the accusers moved the case to the governor's court.
On his arrival at Caesarea he stood before Felix for the first time. It was only a short interview. The governor spent most of it reading the letter of Claudius Lysias. Felix promised to attend to the matter when Paul's accusers came. For Lysias had handed the case over to Felix, his superior, and had ordered the accusers to bring their suit before the governor at Caesarea.
Paul is now out of Jewish hands and in Roman custody. That was no accident.
We now find the apostle in the hands of the Gentiles. There may have been no free action of the Spirit in Paul himself. Yet the providence of God cares for him, and orders everything for the testimony he was to bear. His favour is with him. The relentless hatred of the Jews only brings about the fulfilment of the purposes of God. Their desire was to get hold of him, but he was to remain no longer in their power. So he is taken on to Lysias, to Felix, to Festus, to Agrippa, and at last to Caesar. God intended this. These were the means He used to bring the gospel to governors and to the great. He did not raise up men of the world to do it, as many often think. God makes a prisoner His servant, so that governors and kings might come to know the gospel.
The governor Felix knew how far such hatred could go.
He understood well how slight the grounds could be when the Jews hunted someone they hated to the death. All this God's providence used in favour of His servant. Some think that such a large escort was meant as a special honour to Christ's minister. That is a mistake. It comes from not seeing that the true glory of the Christian lies in being made like Christ in His cross.
- Recorded — Lysias wrote to flatter himself, and his letter ended up in Scripture. The history around it exposes the lie without a word of comment. God notes what we say about people we dislike.
- Cleared — The same letter admitted the charges were only about questions of law. Nothing in them deserved death or prison. God put Paul's innocence on record with the first official who handled the case.
- Blind — Lysias judged the legal question well, then vanished from the story. He never looked past the war of words to the truth Paul suffered for.
- Transferred — Ordering the accusers to Caesarea put the case in the governor's court, and Felix waited for them before hearing it.
- Overruled — The hatred meant to destroy Paul only carried God's purpose forward. A prisoner became God's way of bringing the gospel to governors and kings. His glory lay in being made like Christ in His cross, not in an armed escort.