Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday, four hundred delivered Paul to Governor Felix in Caesarea.

Today we pick up five days later when some of the authorities from Jerusalem have come to talk to Felix about Paul. They brought a spokesman

slash lawyer named Tertullus with them. Tertullus starts off by flattering Felix, then

launches into accusing Paul of starting riots and defiling the temple, neither of which he's done.

Paul defends himself with the truth.

He says he goes to great lengths to live with integrity and that he has honored the ways of

Yahweh, including everything written in the law and the prophets, which is the shorthand way of saying all the Hebrew scriptures, i.e. the Old Testament.

Felix is pretty familiar with First Century Christianity, or The Way, as Paul calls it it possibly because he lives in

Caesaria among prominent evangelists like Philip. He wants to hear more from

Paul so he tells the people who came down from Jerusalem that he'll make a decision

later and sends them back home.

In the meantime, he tells the soldiers to keep Paul in prison but to be nice to him.

Remember, in this day, prisons aren't required to care for you.

Your friends have to do that.

And sometimes prison guards even prevent the friends from doing that.

Felix keeps calling Paul up to talk to him about the way, but it's never enough for him.

He's also kind of hoping Paul is going to pay him a bribe so he can get out of prison, but even here Paul maintains his integrity, sharing the gospel and obeying the rules.

After two years, Felix leaves office unexpectedly. History tells us he was kicked out of office because he couldn't keep peace between the Jews and the Gentiles.

So in order to make things less awkward with the Jews, he leaves Paul in prison.

Vestus takes over after Felix, but even after two years the issue with Paul has not cooled off at all.

In fact, this is one of the first things that gets addressed when Festus comes into office.

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