Acts 23:16

But Paul's sister's son heard of their lying in wait, and he came and entered into the castle and told Paul.

Paul's sister's son ... This is all that is known of this "young man," as Paul called him, and all that is known of Paul's sister; and we shall refrain from indulging speculative guesses concerning them. It seems proper, however, to receive the deduction of Conybeare to the effect that "The whole narrative gives the impression that he was a very young man."[18] This is justified by the chiliarch's taking him "by the hand" (Acts 23:19).

It would be interesting to know just how this lad learned so much about that conspiracy, and if his mother was a Christian, and why, if they were living in Jerusalem, Paul would have been staying with Mnason instead of his sister, etc. Root's suggestion that "the young man" might have been "a rabbinical student in Jerusalem as Paul himself had been a generation before"[19] is an example of the guessing which scholars like to indulge.

[18] W. J. Conybeare, op. cit., p. 594.

[19] Orrin Root, Acts (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1966), p. 177.