19
The captain took him by the arm and led him aside privately. "What is it? What do you have to tell me?
20
Paul's nephew said, "The Jews have worked up a plot against Paul. They're going to ask you to bring Paul to the council first thing in the morning on the pretext that they want to investigate the charges against him in more detail.
21
But it's a trick to get him out of your safekeeping so they can murder him. Right now there are more than forty men lying in ambush for him. They've all taken a vow to neither eat nor drink until they've killed him. The ambush is set - all they're waiting for is for you to send him over.
22
The captain dismissed the nephew with a warning: "Don't breathe a word of this to a soul."
23
The captain called up two centurions. "Get two hundred soldiers ready to go immediately to Caesarea. Also seventy cavalry and two hundred light infantry. I want them ready to march by nine o'clock tonight.
24
And you'll need a couple of mules for Paul and his gear. We're going to present this man safe and sound to Governor Felix."
25
Then he wrote this letter:
26
From Claudius Lysias, to the Most Honorable Governor Felix:
27
I rescued this man from a Jewish mob. They had seized him and were about to kill him when I learned that he was a Roman citizen. So I sent in my soldiers.
28
Wanting to know what he had done wrong, I had him brought before their council.
29
It turned out to be a squabble turned vicious over some of their religious differences, but nothing remotely criminal.