Arrest and Imprisonment

Paul and his party presented the collection they had gathered to James and the elders of the church in the Holy City. To counter the rumor that he had rejected Judaism, Paul underwrote the sacrifices of four Jewish Christians at the temple, where he was discovered by the Jews from Ephesus and denounced as their antagonist. During the ensuing riot in the temple courtyard, Paul's life was saved by the Roman cohort stationed at the Tower Antonia, whose commander, Lysias, would have scourged Paul but for his Roman citizenship. When the Jerusalem Sanhedrin also rejected Paul's claims and his nephew alerted Lysias to a plot against his uncle's life, the commander ordered Paul taken under guard to Caesarea, where the Roman governor, Felix, was in charge. Five days later, a priestly prosecution arrived from Jerusalem and presented their case against Paul as an agitator, a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, and a profaner of the temple. Paul countered all three charges effectively.