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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJames Hastings Dictionary of the Bible: Lysias, Claudius
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LYSIAS, CLAUDIUS.—A chiliarch of a cohort in Jerusalem who rescued St. Paul from the Jews in the Temple and took him to the ‘Castle,’—the fortress Antonia which commanded the Temple. His second name shows him to have been a Greek, but he had bought the Roman citizenship (Act_22:28) and taken the name Claudius. On account of a plot he sent St. Paul guarded to Felix at Cæsarea, and wrote a letter of which the version in Act_23:26, although doubtless only a paraphrase, yet clearly represents the true sense. It is just what we should expect from Lysias, being much more favourable to his course of action than the real facts warranted. (See art. Egyptian [The]).
A. J. Maclean.