The Jews say bad things about Paul
1 Five days after that, Ananias, the leader of the priests, went to Caesarea. Some important Jews went with him. A man called Tertullus also went with them. He was a lawyer. All these people went to meet with Felix, the ruler. They told Felix what Paul had done. Felix would judge who was right. 2 Felix told a soldier to bring Paul to the meeting. Then Tertullus began to speak against Paul. He said, ‘Sir, you have ruled us well for many years. Because of you, our country has had no wars for a long time. You have made new laws that are good for our country. You have thought well about how you should lead us. 3 Everywhere, the people are happy about what you have done. So we want to thank you very much for all these good things. 4 I do not want you to sit here for a long time. So I will speak for a short time about our problem. Please be kind to us and listen to me.
5 We know that this man brings trouble everywhere. Anywhere in the world that Jewish people live, he makes them angry. Then they all fight each other. He is the leader of a group called the Nazarenes.’
24:5Tertullus wanted Felix to think that Paul was a problem to the Roman authority.
6 ‘He also did bad things in the temple that are against our laws. So we took hold of him. [We wanted to judge him by what our own law says. 7 But Lysias, the leader of the soldiers, came to us. He attacked us and he took Paul away from us. 8 Then he told us to come and to speak to you about it.] You should ask this man some questions about what he has done. You will find out that what we say against him is true.’
24:6Part of verses 6, 7 and 8 are not in all copies of the Bible.
9 The other Jews that were there also spoke against Paul. They said, ‘All these things that Tertullus has said are true.’
