‘And they said to him, “We have neither received letters from Judaea concerning you, nor did any of the brethren come here and report or speak any harm of you.” '
They then informed him that no letters had arrived at the synagogues concerning him, nor had any visitors come and reported anything or in any way spoken evil of him. As far as they were concerned he was in the clear. Their words seem to suggest that that would be how they would like it to remain. They did not want any more trouble with the Roman authorities. They had had enough under Claudius. We should note that they are being wary and giving him the benefit of the doubt. They are only claiming not to have had any official complaints. They are not talking of private ‘rumours'. With regard to those they were ready to wait and see.
The news that no charges had come through must have quite surprised him, for he would have expected the Jews in Jerusalem to have made some efforts to bring charges against him in Rome. They had had sufficient time. Were they not to do so within eighteen months the charge against him would probably be dropped for lack of evidence.
Had we only had this to go by we may have surmised that there had simply been a delay in messengers getting through. After all it had taken him and his fellow travellers a good while to make the journey, although any accusations could have left Caesarea earlier than he did. But Luke then describes the passage of two years, and the impression we are given is that there were still no charges against him.
However, that should not necessarily surprise us. They had got rid of him from Palestine, and it was one thing to bring charges not backed by evidence to a provincial governor whom they could lean on, it was quite another to bring them before Caesar. That could bring them into disrepute where it mattered.