Acts 24


Acts 24 is the twenty-fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the period of Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 27 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
The events in this chapter took place in Caesarea.

The speech for the prosecution (24:1–9)

The Sanhedrin promptly sent a delegation, bringing a professional rhetor to make a formal rhetorical presentation on their behalf. The venue of the hearing has changed to be 'much more in the Roman sphere than the Jewish'.

Verse 1

In his turn to speak, Paul, like Tertullus, focuses his self-defence on events in Jerusalem, that he has not been involved in disputes or riots in synagogue or temple, and, 'as Luke takes pains to show, no offence against the law can be proved against him'.

Felix defers judgement (24:22–27)

When prosecution and defense have presented their cases, Felix the procurator 'refuses to be drawn into making a judgement', first 'on the pretext of waiting for the tribune's report', but then 'no more is heard of this'. According to custom at that time, Paul could be released at the end of Felix's term of office, yet 'Felix deliberately leaves the case for his successor'.

Verse 27