Bible Strands
Acts 23:31
So the soldiers followed their orders and brought Paul by night to Antipatris.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records the execution of Claudius Lysias’s command to transfer Paul from Jerusalem to Caesarea. This action follows the commander’s written report to Felix and the immediate dispatch of the escort.
The words — The phrase κατὰ τὸ διατεταγμένον αὐτοῖς (kata to diatetagmenon autois) literally means “according to the thing having been ordered to them.” It highlights the soldiers’ strict adherence to the written military directive.
The thread — This compliance with superior orders parallels the authority structure described in Luke 7:8 and the troop preparation outlined in Acts 23:23. The disciplined movement of the escort also aligns with the metaphorical soldier imagery in 2 Timothy 2:3.
Why it lands — The text states that an escorted prisoner was moved by night to Antipatris under military orders. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine preservation functions through routine administrative channels and demands recognition of that mechanism without embellishment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Then the soldiers, as it was commanded them, took Paul, and brought him by night to Antipatris.
Cross-references
- Luke 7:8 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell one to go, and he goes, and another to come, and he comes. I tell my servant to do something, and he does it.”
- Acts 23:23 Then he called two of his centurions and said, “Prepare two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea in the third hour of the night.
- 2 Timothy 2:3 Join me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.