Acts 23 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Paul looked straight at the council and said, "Brothers, I have lived my life with a completely clear conscience before God up to this very day."

At this, the high priest Ananias ordered the men standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.

Then Paul said to him, "God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there judging me by the law, and yet you yourself break the law by ordering them to hit me?"

The people standing nearby said, "How dare you insult God's high priest!"

Paul replied, "Brothers, I didn't realize he was the high priest. The Scripture does say, 'You must not speak against the ruler of your people.'"

Then Paul, knowing that part of the council were Sadducees and the others were Pharisees, called out to them, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee and the son of Pharisees. I'm on trial here because of my hope that the dead will be raised to life!"

The moment he said this, a fight broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the whole assembly split into two camps.

The Sadducees say there's no resurrection, no angels, and no spirits, but the Pharisees believe in all of these.

The shouting became deafening. Some of the legal experts from the Pharisee side stood up and argued fiercely, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel really did speak to him?"

The argument turned so violent that the military commander was afraid they were going to tear Paul apart. He ordered his soldiers to go down, pull Paul out of the crowd by force, and bring him back to the barracks.

That night, the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage. Just as you've testified about me in Jerusalem, you must also testify in Rome."

When morning came, a group of Jewish men formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with a solemn oath — they would not eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

There were more than forty men involved in this plot.

They went to the chief priests and elders and said, "We've put ourselves under a binding oath to eat nothing until we've killed Paul."

"So here's what we need you to do: have the council send a request to the commander to bring Paul back down to you, as if you wanted to examine his case more carefully. We'll be ready to kill him before he even gets there."

But Paul's nephew — his sister's son — heard about the ambush. He went to the barracks and told Paul.

Paul called one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the commander. He has something to report to him."

So the centurion took him to the commander and said, "The prisoner Paul asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you."

The commander took the young man by the hand, led him aside where they could speak privately, and asked, "What do you need to tell me?"

He said, "The Jewish leaders have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the council tomorrow, pretending they want to question him more thoroughly."

"Don't agree to it! More than forty of them are hiding along the route, waiting to ambush him. They've sworn an oath not to eat or drink until he's dead. They're ready right now, just waiting for you to give the order."

The commander dismissed the young man with a warning: "Don't tell anyone that you've reported this to me."

Then he called two of his centurions and ordered, "Get two hundred soldiers ready to march to Caesarea by nine tonight, along with seventy cavalry and two hundred spearmen."

"Also, provide horses for Paul to ride, and get him safely to Governor Felix."

He wrote a letter that went something like this:

"Claudius Lysias, to His Excellency Governor Felix: Greetings."

"This man was seized by the Jewish crowd and they were about to kill him. I intervened with my troops and rescued him because I learned he was a Roman citizen."

"I wanted to find out what they were charging him with, so I brought him before their council."

"I found that the accusations were about disputes in their own religious law. There was nothing he'd done that deserved death or imprisonment."

"When I was informed of a plot to assassinate him, I immediately sent him to you. I've also instructed his accusers to bring their case against him before you."

So the soldiers carried out their orders. They took Paul during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris.

The next day, the cavalry continued on with Paul while the rest of the soldiers returned to the barracks in Jerusalem.

When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him.

The governor read the letter and asked Paul what province he was from. When he learned he was from Cilicia, he said,

"I'll hear your case in full when your accusers arrive." Then he ordered Paul to be kept under guard in Herod's palace.