Acts 23:26-30

Verses 26-30: This text demonstrates what can be considered a standard epistolary style of letter from a captain of troops writing to a provincial governor.

• Sender:            Claudius Lysias
• Epithet:           most excellent governor
• Receiver:        Felix
• Salutation:      greeting
• Details:           This man was taken of the Jews…
• Purpose:          [for] his accusers also to say before thee                                    what they had against him
• Closing:          Farewell

Though the chief captain is mentioned a number of times previously (21:31-37; 22:24-29; 23:10-22), verse 26 is the first time Luke mentions his name (cf. 24:7, 22).[1] “most excellent” is the same designation Luke uses for Theophilus (Luke 1:3). “greeting” and “Farewell” is the same formula used in the letter from. the church at Jerusalem (Acts 15:23, 29).[2]

In the letter Lysias included his own judgment that Paul was not guilty of any crime based on Roman law, but that the dispute concerned Jewish religion and law. Cf. Acts 18:14-15.

F. F. Bruce suggests Lysias’s “letter to Felix about Paul subtly rearranges the facts so as to place his own behaviour in the most favourable light.”[3] Perhaps this is most readily seen in his explanation of “having understood that [Paul] was a Roman.” Though he came to understand he was a Roman citizen, initially Lysias thought Paul was “that Egyptian…” (21:28)

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[1] John Gill says that “Claudius” was a Roman name and “Lysias” a Greek name; Lysias is probably his given name and that he was born Greek rather than Roman – since he had to purchase his freedom (22:28). Claudius could have been chosen to honor the Emperor Claudius. Additionally, he is simply referred to as “Lysias” in Acts 24, verses 7 and 22.
[2] Though with the difference between plural and singular regarding “farewell.” ρωννυμι. (Farewell) is missing from the Greek texts of Nestle-Aland and United Bible Society.
[3] “Claudius Lysias,” F. F. Bruce, The New Bible Dictionary, page 238.