Acts 23:11-35
Dear RTB’ers,
Paul’s departure from Jerusalem. Again, as we saw in Corinth and Ephesus, the political authorities rescue Paul. Clearly the Lord was watching over him as He had promised, The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about Me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” (v. 11) It’s always been strange to me that the Lord is promising Paul a trip to Rome, when that has long been Paul’s desire! (See Acts 19:21. Also, I have long maintained that it would have been Paul’s desire in Acts 17 to continue west to Rome after Thessalonica, except that for his own safety he was taken south to Berea.)
I’m impressed in verses 17-19 with the influence that Paul has with the Roman authorities. A centurion is in charge of 100 soldiers, but Paul is able to call in this centurion and tell him to take the young boy to the commander, a man in charge of 1000 soldiers. And the centurion does what Paul asks, not even knowing what the message might be. Then the tribune immediately takes Paul’s nephew aside and listens to what he has to say. Paul has the Roman authorities doing what he asks, simply by asking. Impressive!!
When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. … They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul.” (vv. 12, 14) At first glance these two verses seem to have the Jews plotting against Paul just as they had plotted against Jesus. However, there are two important differences here. First, with Jesus it was the Jewish leaders who hatched the plot to have Him killed. Here it appears to be regular Jews (maybe Zealots?) who are planning Paul’s murder. These “commoners” go to the Jewish leaders with their plan, not for approval, but to further what they have already plotted. Second, with Jesus it was the Jewish leaders’ plan to have Jesus killed legally by the Roman authorities, leaving themselves clear of any charge of murder. Here, the Jews are taking it upon themselves to murder Paul – presumably with little regard as to the consequences for any one man or for all forty conspirators. So they succeeded with Jesus and look what happened!
My Study Bible has a note that “spearmen” could also be translated “additional mounts and pack animals”. I like the second translation better. The traveling guard already contained 200 soldiers and 70 horsemen, with Paul also on a horse. Surely the 200 Roman soldiers could withstand incursions by small or even medium-size bands of attackers. And even against a large force the 70 horsemen could get Paul out of danger very quickly. By way of comparison, our Pony Express riders had stations every 10 to 15 to 20 miles, the distance a horse could reasonably run before tiring. So Paul and the 70 horsemen could be free and clear in short order.
Blessings!
See also: December 15 (2023) / Acts 21:17-24:27