The life and work of St. Paul

THE LAST JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM. 545
to him, "Lead this youth to the commandant, for he has something to tell
him. " l The centurion went immediately to Lysias, and said, " The prisoner
Paul called me to him, and asked me to lead this youth to you, as he has some-
thing to say to you." There is a touch of very natural kindness in the way in
which the Roman officer received the Jewish boy. Seeing, perhaps, that he
was nervous and flustered, both from the peril to which he was subjecting
himself by revealing this secret since suspicion would naturally fall on him
and also by finding himself in the presence of the most powerful person in
Jerusalem, the military delegate of the dreaded Procurator Lysias took him
by the hand, and walking with him to a place where they were out of earshot,
began to ask him what his message was. The youth told him that he would
immediately receive a request from the Sanhedrin to summon a meeting next
day, and bring Paul once more before them to arrive at some more definite
result ; and that more than forty sicarii had agreed on time and place to
murder his prisoner, so that the only way to defeat the plot was to refuse the
request of the Sanhedrin. Lysias saw the importance of the secret, and
instantly formed his plans. He told the youth not to mention to any one that
he had given him information of the conspiracy, and, summoning two cen-
turions, ordered them to equip two hundred legionaries, seventy cavalry
soldiers, two hundred lancers, 2 with two spare horses, to be ready to escort Paul
safely to Csesarea that very evening at nine o'clock. He was extremely glad
to get rid of a prisoner who created such excitement, and who was the object
of an animosity so keen that it might at any moment lead to a riot. At that
day, too, charges of bribery flew about in the most dangerous manner. Celer,
a Roman knight of far higher rank than himself, had actually been dragged
by Jews round the walls of Jerusalem, and finally beheaded, for receiving a bribe
from the Samaritans. 3 Agrippa I. had been dismissed from Antioch ; and no
less a person than the Procurator Cumanus had been imprisoned and dis-
graced. So corrupt was the Roman administration in the hands of even the
highest officials, that if Paul were murdered Lysias might easily have been
charged with having accepted a bribe to induce him to connive at this
1 nefarious conspiracy. There was now sufficient pretext to send Paul away
swiftly and secretly, and so get rid of an embarrassing responsibility. At
nine that evening, when it was dark and when the streets would be deserted,
the largo escort of four hundred and seventy soldiers an escort the necessity
of which shows the dangerous condition of the country, and the extent of
Lysias's alarm stood ready at the gate of the barracks ; and before the tramp
of horse and foot began to startle the silent city, the commandant handed to
1 The minuteness of the narrative, perhaps, indicates that St. Luke, who sought for
information from all sources, had received the story from the youth himself.
2 itfi'oAafloi, Vulg. lancearii. The only passage to throw light on the word is one
adduced by Meyer from Constantino the Porphyrogenete, which proves nothing. A reads
5*fidfioXoi. One explanation is gens du train men who held a second horse by the right
hand.
3 Jos. Antt. xx. 6, 3 ; B. J. ii. 12, 7.
4 One of the cursives (137) actually adds o/3ij0>j yip fuprgrt opiriaflrrtj ivrcx w TovJotot
rt