How Christians Should Respond When Falsely Accused

When we concluded our previous lesson from the Book of Acts, Paul had been rescued from a forty-man assassination plot by the commander of the Roman garrison at Jerusalem and transported for 470 Roman soldiers to Caesarea where he was handed over to Governor Felix who ordered him to be held under guard until he could be tried in the Roman court over which he presided. Luke wrote, “When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they…handed Paul over to him [Felix]…he said, ‘I will hear your case when your accusers get here.’ Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s palace” (Acts 23:33a…33c…35, NIV). After a delay of five days Paul’s accusers arrived from Jerusalem and his trial before Governor Felix began. Luke wrote, “Five days later the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor” (Acts 24:1, NIV). “Tertullus” was a Hellenistic Jew who served as the Sanhedrin's expert legal counsel in Roman affairs. As a Hellenistic Jew, reared outside Judea in one of the many gentile provinces of the Roman Empire, “Tertullus” was a lawyer who would have been more expert in Roman law than a Hebraic Jew reared in the Jewish province of Judea. It is likely that he served as chief counsellor to the Jewish court in matters related to Roman law. When the Roman guards escorted Paul to the courtroom, “Tertullus” presented his legal case against him. Luke wrote, “When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented his case before Felix” (Acts 24:2a, NIV).