23 Then summoning two of the centurions, he said, Have two hundred footmen ready by the third hour of the night (about 9:00 p.m.) to go as far as Caesarea, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen. 24 Also provide beasts for mounts for Paul to ride, and bring him in safety to Felix the governor. 25 And he wrote a letter having this message:
26 Claudius Lysias sends greetings to His Excellency Felix the governor. 27 This man was seized [as prisoner] by the Jews, and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the troops and rescued him, because I learned that he is a Roman citizen. 28 And wishing to know the exact accusation which they were making against him, I brought him down before their council (Sanhedrin), 29 [Where] I found that he was charged in regard to questions of their own law, but he was accused of nothing that would call for death or [even] for imprisonment. 30 [However] when it was pointed out to me that there would be a conspiracy against the man, I sent him to you immediately, directing his accusers also to present before you their charge against him.
31 So the soldiers, in compliance with their instructions, took Paul and conducted him during the night to Antipatris. 32 And the next day they returned to the barracks, leaving the mounted men to proceed with him. 33 When these came to Caesarea and gave the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul before him. 34 Having read the letter, he asked to what province [Paul] belonged. When he discovered that he was from Cilicia [an imperial province], 35 He said, I will hear your case 1 fully when your accusers also have come. And he ordered that an eye be kept on him in Herod's palace (the Praetorium).