Acts 23:22-30 :

So the commanding officer let the young man go, charging him, “Tell no one that you have revealed these things to me.” He called to himself two of the centurions, and said, “Prepare two hundred soldiers to go as far as Caesarea, with seventy horsemen, and two hundred men armed with spears, at the third hour of the night.” He asked them to provide animals, that they might set Paul on one, and bring him safely to Felix the governor. He wrote a letter like this:

“Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor Felix: Greetings.

“This man was seized by the Jews, and was about to be killed by them, when I came with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman. Desiring to know the cause why they accused him, I brought him down to their council. I found him to be accused about questions of their law, but not to be charged with anything worthy of death or of imprisonment. When I was told that the Jews lay in wait for the man, I sent him to you immediately, charging his accusers also to bring their accusations against him before you. Farewell.”

Now we learn what the officer thinks by reading the contents of the letter he wrote to Governor Felix. We also find out that the officer’s name is Claudius Lysias. Here we see that, once again, Luke gives us specific names which indicate that he had nothing to hide as he wrote these records for us. These names and places are also helpful to historians today and help them get a better picture of Rome during that time.

To those of us who believe that the Bible is inspired by God Himself, this is not surprising at all.

I was glad to see that the officer told the young man to not tell anyone that he told him about their plans. Clearly, the men that were trying to kill Paul were bad enough to kill Paul’s Nephew as well. Now, the commanding officer challenged the will of those who had taken the oath. In order to kill Paul they would now have to travel, and because they weren’t eating or drinking anymore, that would be quite a challenge. Since a person dies after about three days without water, I would guess that these men ended up breaking their oath.