The Bible Says
Acts 23:11-15 Meaning

In Acts 23:11-15, Paul sees the Lord Jesus, who encourages him that he will not die, but will go to Rome to preach the gospel there. A plot to assassinate Paul is formed.

Paul had been arrested the day before by the Romans, to prevent a mob of Jews from killing him. The following day after the arrest, Paul was taken before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish Council of priests and elders).

We saw in the previous section that during the trial, Paul recognized that he was not going to get a fair hearing. So he stoked a theological debate at his own trial before the Sanhedrin, turning the Pharisees against the Sadducees over the question of whether God will resurrect the dead. When the priests tried to attack Paul, the Romans intervened and returned him to the barracks.

His future is both certain and uncertain; Paul had been prophesied over that bonds awaited him in Jerusalem (Acts 21:11). Paul has expressed that he is willing to suffer and die for Jesus if God wills it (Acts 21:13), but he still lives day by day with the intention to preach the gospel as long as he is able. Now that he is currently in bondage and has been afflicted, he may have wondered what was to happen next.

The night after his trial before the Jewish priests and rabbis, Paul is visited by Jesus Christ: But on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, “Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also” (v. 11).

This seems to be a vision, but Luke does not use the word “vision” (Greek, “horama”) or “trance” (Greek, “ekstasis”) as he has in other instances of direct communication from God (Acts 9:10 18:9). Luke simply states that Jesus the Lord appears to Paul; He stood at Paul’s side. Perhaps Luke thought it unnecessary to note that this was a vision, as it is implied. But another distinction in this vision/visitation is that the Lord stood at his side, while in most of the other visions Paul experiences in Acts, up to this point, he is only described as hearing the Lord’s voice (Acts 9:4, 18:9-11).

The only other “trance” where it is stated that Paul saw Jesus (“and I saw Him”) was years earlier, when Jesus warned him to leave Jerusalem, and that Paul will be a witness to the Gentiles (Acts 22:17-21). There is an obvious parallel to that trance and this visitation; in both situations Paul is in Jerusalem and others are seeking to kill him, and Jesus appears visibly to tell him he will leave Israel to speak the gospel “far away to the Gentiles”/Rome.

It may be that Jesus appeared visibly as well as audibly, to give Paul an extra boost of courage to see his Lord standing at his side while speaking hopeful words of His plans for him.

Jesus explains to Paul exactly what is going to happen to him. He will not die in Jerusalem, as so many believers feared. Weeks earlier, on his journey to Jerusalem, some believers (including Luke, the author of Acts) tried to dissuade Paul from visiting the holy city in the first place, to save his life (Acts 21:4, 12). But though bonds and affliction were forewarned to Paul by the Spirit (Acts 20:23), and have come to pass, he will not suffer death here or now.

Jesus tells Paul that just as he has solemnly witnessed to His cause at Jerusalem, so Paul must witness at Rome also. Paul had solemnly witnessed to the cause of the Lord to the crowd of Jews who wished to kill him two days ago (Acts 22:1-22).

The phrase cause of the Lord Jesus is another way of saying “the gospel,” the “good news”-that God sent His Son to earth to die for the sins of the world, that those who put their trust in Him will be forgiven and raised to new life, reconciled to their Creator, freed from the power of sin, and assured of a future eternity with God (John 3:14-17, Galatians 2:20, Romans 5:10, 6:6, 8:38-39).

This appearance and word from the Lord surely gave Paul hope, purpose, and direction. Now Paul can see God’s plan laid out to him by the mouth of the Son of God Himself.

The purpose of Jesus’s appearance to Paul is to both inform him of the plans God has for him, and for Paul to Take courage. Paul can have confidence that God is sovereign and has another gospel mission for him. His life and ministry are not yet over. Jesus used the same word translated Take courage in the Gospel of John when He said to His disciples:

"These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
(John 16:33)

We can take from these two verses that for any believer, at any time, the Lord is always at our side and we can Take courage to walk in obedience to Him, for He cares for us. It is interesting to note that “cowardly” is the first characteristic mentioned in Revelation 21:8 as behaviors that lead to people having a “part in the lake which burns with fire.” The reader can visit the commentary on Revelation 21:8 for further investigation, but it seems clear at a glance that courage is a character trait that is a) highly regarded by Jesus and b) rooted in faith that He is with us and will reward all we do for Him (Hebrews 11:6).

This visit from Christ promised Paul that he would leave Jerusalem alive, and that he would finally get to go teach the gospel where he had long hoped to: Rome. At that time in history Rome was the commercial, political, and cultural center of the developed world.

His letter to the church in Rome is believed to have been written while he was in Corinth during his third missionary journey (Acts 20:2-3). In it, Paul stressed how much he wanted to visit Rome and the believers there (Romans 1:8-13). He had been prevented from making this trip so far in his ministry (Romans 15:22-33).

When he wrote to the Romans, it was Paul’s plan to preach the gospel in Spain after he had visited Jerusalem; he intended to stop in Rome on the journey to Spain. But as Paul made his way to Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit warned him that “bonds and afflictions” awaited him there (Acts 20:22-23), which resulted in this present imprisonment. But now Jesus brings the good news that Paul will get to go to Rome anyway, albeit as a prisoner, but for the same purpose of preaching the gospel, as he had hoped to do.

This long-term Roman imprisonment will provide an array of opportunities for Paul to continue to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, including to some of the top leaders in Rome, the center of world government at the time (Philippians 1:13).

Since Paul had escaped their clutches from what appears to have been a rigged trial intended to condemn him, the following morning, Paul’s enemies get to work to dispense with him:

When it was day, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who formed this plot (v. 12-13).

When it was day refers to the dawn, when the sun rose, as soon as the night ended, the Jews formed a conspiracy. The New Testament often refers to the Jews to mean Jewish opinion leaders who opposed Jesus or anyone who followed Him. The term does not refer to all Jews. Jesus was Jewish, His twelve apostles were Jewish, Paul was Jewish, the majority of the early church was Jewish.

But the Jews as a category occurs in many places to refer to Jewish leadership who oppose the preaching of the gospel of Jesus (Acts 13:45, 50, 14:2, 17:5). We see this here in Acts 23, that a group of more than forty Jews formed a conspiracy; they met together and formulated a plan to destroy Paul. They bound themselves under an oath to show how serious they were about their conspiracy; the oath was that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.

To neither eat nor drink until their goal was reached provided intense motivation for them to fulfill the oath as soon as possible. The human body needs to eat and drink on a regular basis to stay healthy and ultimately to stay alive. We start to feel physical pain and weakness the longer we go without food or water. While the human body is capable of fasting from food for a few weeks or longer, we cannot go more than three to five days without water before we die.

So this dramatic oath provided a very strict timeline in which it could be carried out. These men were giving themselves a deadline to kill Paul as soon as possible. Luke provides the detail that There were more than forty who formed this plot. That is a significant number of people dedicating themselves to the death of one man.

What is striking about this plot which was formed by more than forty men is that the conspirators do not keep it secret amongst themselves. They go to the highest Jewish authorities and tell them about their plan and oath. This further confirms that many in Israel’s top leadership fully intended to kill Paul prior to his trial on the previous day.

They came to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have bound ourselves under a solemn oath to taste nothing until we have killed Paul (v. 14).

We can note that these men conferred with the chief priests and the elders but not the Pharisees. The Pharisees had 24 of 70 seats on the Sanhedrin. As we saw the day before during the trial, Paul was able to persuade some of the Pharisees to his side (Acts 23:6-9). This group of chief priests and the elders most likely included Ananias the high priest and his inner circle.

The conspirators went to those members of the Sanhedrin who they knew wanted Paul dead. The conspirators tell them that they have bound themselves under a solemn oath to taste nothing, neither food nor drink of any kind, until they have killed Paul. Their oath is described as solemn, serious; they are wholly dedicated to it and nothing else until the deed is done.

Not only do these forty-plus Jewish conspirators tell their chief priests and their elders about their oath, they also ask the Jewish leaders to play a role in the plot,

Now therefore, you and the Council notify the commander to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case by a more thorough investigation; and we for our part are ready to slay him before he comes near the place” (v. 15).

The plan is simple. Now therefore, say the conspirators, ‘this is how we will kill Paul.’ It is likely that these forty-plus conspirators are from among the mob that had attempted to kill Paul two days before when they seized him in the temple courtyard (Acts 21:27, 30).

Since the Romans arrested/rescued Paul, he has been under their care and protection inside the barracks. His only appearance was at the Sanhedrin trial the day before, where his enemies seemed to think Paul would receive a death sentence from the Council. But since Paul threw the Council into disarray by cleverly turning the Pharisees against the Sadducees, he eluded any further examination or sentencing and was whisked back to the safety of the Roman barracks (Acts 23:10).

This time, therefore, the conspirators will be ready to assassinate Paul the moment he is in the open and vulnerable. The chief priests and the elders will play a critical role in this plot: you and the Council notify the commander to bring him down to you. Tell Claudius Lysias (v. 26), the Roman commander who has Paul in his custody, to bring Paul down to the Hall of Hewn Stones again for another trial, as though you were going to determine his case by a more thorough investigation.

The trial the day before almost instantly went sideways and was incomplete, so the chief priests have a believable pretense for claiming the Council wants to conduct a more thorough investigation into Paul. Essentially, lie to the Roman commander that you’re ready to determine his case again. This is all a ruse to bring Paul out of the protection of the barracks: and we for our part are ready to slay him before he comes near the place.

The forty-plus conspirators will be ready to slay Paul as he is escorted to the place of his trial-the Hall of Hewn Stones where the Sanhedrin meets. The assassins will ambush him before he comes near to the courtroom. By confirming that they will slay Paul before he comes near to the council chambers, they seem to be telling the leaders “We will protect you from being suspected by the Romans as co-conspirators.”

This plot is similar to the tactics of the Sicarii, the “dagger-men” who would carry out assassinations in first-century Judea. Sicarii would carry a weapon known as a “sica,” a small dagger, hidden under their cloaks, and would kill their targets in cities among crowds, and then disappear into the crowd to elude notice.

The conspirators against Paul are more than forty men, so they could form a thick mob and overwhelm and confuse the Roman guard, stabbing Paul, and then disappear into the streets of Jerusalem. They will be ready to slay him since they are the ones who have arranged this circumstance to ensure Paul is murdered.

The text does not explicitly say so, but the chief priests and the elders must have agreed to participate in this plot, because somehow Paul’s nephew caught wind of what was going to happen, as will be detailed in the following passage.