• “I Appeal to Caesar!”
    The Watchtower—2001 | December 15

    • High Priest Ananias, older men of the Jews, and Tertullus formally charged Paul before Felix of being ‘a pest who stirred up seditions among the Jews.’ They claimed that he was a ringleader of “the sect of the Nazarenes” and that he tried to profane the temple.​—Acts 24:1-6.

      Paul’s original assailants imagined that he had led the Gentile named Trophimus into the courtyard reserved for Jews only.* (Acts 21:28, 29) Strictly speaking, the alleged trespasser was Trophimus. But if the Jews interpreted Paul’s supposed action as aiding and abetting trespass, it too could be construed as a capital offense. And Rome seems to have made the concession of recognizing the death sentence for this crime. So had Paul been arrested by the Jewish temple police instead of by Lysias, the Sanhedrin could have tried and sentenced him without a problem.

  • “I Appeal to Caesar!”
    The Watchtower—2001 | December 15

    • An elaborate stone balustrade, three cubits high, divided the Court of the Gentiles from the inner courtyard. At regular intervals in this wall stood warnings, some in Greek and some in Latin: “Let no foreigner enter inside of the barrier and the fence around the sanctuary. Whosoever is caught will be responsible for his death which will ensue.”