Acts 23:23-35

Then summoning two of the centurions, he said, “Have two hundred soldiers ready by the third hour of the night (9:00 p.m.) to go as far as Caesarea, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen; also provide mounts for Paul to ride, and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” And [after instructing the centurions] he wrote a letter to this effect: “Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent governor Felix, greetings. This man was seized [as a prisoner] by the Jews and was about to be killed by them, when I came upon him with the troops and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. And wanting to know the exact charge which they were making against him, I brought him down to their Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court); and I discovered that he was accused in regard to questions and issues in their Law, but [he was] under no accusation that would call for the penalty of death or [even] for imprisonment. When I was told that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you immediately, also directing his accusers to bring their charges against him before you.” So the soldiers, in compliance with their orders, took Paul and brought him to Antipatris during the night. And the next day, leaving the horsemen to go on with him, they returned to the barracks. When these [horsemen] reached Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor, and also presented Paul to him. After reading the letter, he asked which province Paul was from, and when he learned that he was from Cilicia [an imperial province], he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers have arrived,” giving orders that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s Praetorium (the governor’s official residence).