Verses 1-27
Chapter 25
25:1-12 Three days
after he had entered into his province, Festus went up to Jerusalem. The
chief priests and the chief men of the Jews laid information before him
against Paul. They urged him, asking a favour against Paul, to send for
him to be brought to Jerusalem, for they were hatching a plot to murder
him on the way. But Festus replied that Paul was under guard at
Caesarea and that he himself would soon be leaving. "So," he said, "let
your men of power come down with me, and, if there is anything amiss
with the man, let them make their accusations." After spending no more
than eight or ten days amongst them, when he had gone down to Caesarea,
he took his place on his judgment seat and ordered Paul to be brought
in. When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem
surrounded him; they levelled many serious accusations against him which
they were unable to prove, while Paul said in his defence, "I have
committed no crime either against the Laws of the Jews, or against the
Temple, or against Caesar." But Festus, with the desire to ingratiate
himself with the Jews, replied to Paul, "Are you willing to go to
Jerusalem and in my presence to be tried on these charges?" But Paul
said, "I am standing at Caesar's judgment seat where I ought to be
tried. I have committed no crime against the Jews as you very well know;
but if I have committed some crime and if I have done something which
merits death, I am not trying to beg myself off dying. But if there is
nothing in the charges of which they accuse me, no one can hand me over
as a favour to them. I appeal to Caesar." After Festus had conferred
with his assessors, he said, "You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you
will go."
Festus (Greek #5347)
was a different type from Felix; we know very little about him but what
we do know proves that he was a just and upright man. He died after
only two years in office but he died with an untainted name. The Jews
tried to take advantage of him; they tried to persuade him to send for
Paul to come to Jerusalem; for once again they had formed a plot to
assassinate Paul on the way. But Festus was a Roman, with the Roman
instinct for justice; and he told them to come to Caesarea and plead
their case there. From Paul's answer we can deduce the malicious charges
which they levelled against him. They accused him of heresy, of
sacrilege and of sedition. No doubt from their point of view the first
charge was true, irrelevant as it was to Roman law; but the second two
were deliberate lies.
Festus had no desire to get up against the Jews in the first
days of his governorship and he offered a compromise. Was Paul, he
asked, prepared to go to Jerusalem and stand his trial there while he
stood by to see fair play? But Paul knew that for him there could be no
such thing as fair play at Jerusalem and he took his great decision. If a
Roman citizen felt he was not getting justice in a provincial court, he
could appeal direct to the Emperor. Only if the man was a murderer, a
pirate, or a bandit caught in the act, was the appeal invalid. In all
other cases the local procedure had to be sisted and the claimant had to
be despatched to Rome for the personal decision of the Emperor. When
Paul uttered the fateful words, "I appeal to Caesar," Festus had no
choice; and so Paul, in very different circumstances from those of which
he had dreamed, had set his foot upon the first step of the road that
led to Rome.
25:13-21 When some
days had elapsed, Agrippa, the king, and Bernice came to Caesarea to
welcome Festus. As they were staying there for some time, Festus
referred Paul's case to the king. "There is a man"," he said, "who was
left behind by Felix, a prisoner. When I was in Jerusalem the chief
priests and the elders of the Jews laid information before me concerning
him and asked for his condemnation. I replied to them that it is not
the custom of the Romans to grant any man's life as a favour before the
accused meets his accusers face to face and receives an opportunity to
make his defence against their charge. So when they came down here I
made no delay, but on the next day I took my seat on my judgment seat
and ordered the man to be brought in. The accusers rose and brought
against him none of the accusations of crime which I was expecting; but
they had an argument with him about their own religion and about someone
called Jesus who was dead and whom Paul insists to be alive. I did not
know what to make of the dispute about these matters so I asked him if
he was willing to go to Jerusalem and to be tried there on these
charges; but Paul appealed and demanded to be held for His Majesty's
investigation and decision; so I ordered him to be held until I should
remand him to Caesar."
Agrippa (Greek #67)
was still king of a quite small part of Palestine, which included
Galilee and Peraea; but he knew quite well that he held even that
limited realm by grace of the Romans. They had put him there and they
could just as easily remove him. It was therefore his custom to pay a
courtesy visit to the Roman governor when he entered his province.
Bernice was a sister of Drusilla, the wife of Felix, and she was also a
sister of Agrippa himself. Festus, knowing that Agrippa had the most
intimate knowledge of Jewish faith and practice, proposed to discuss
Paul's case with him. He gave Agrippa a characteristically impartial
review of the situation as it existed at that moment; and now the stage
was set for Paul to plead his case and bear his witness before a king.
Jesus had said, "You will be dragged before governors and kings for my
sake" (Matthew 10:18). The hard prophecy had come true; but the promise of help (Matthew 10:19) was also to come abundantly true.
25:22-27 Agrippa said
to Festus, "I, too, would like to hear the man." "Tomorrow," he said,
"you will hear him." So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with
much pomp; and when they had come into the audience-chamber with the
captains and the leading men of the city Paul was brought in. So Festus
said, "King Agrippa and all who are here present with us, you see this
man, concerning whom the whole community of the Jews kept petitioning me
both in Jerusalem and here, crying out that he ought not to be allowed
to live any longer. I understood that he had done nothing to merit
death. But when this man himself appealed to His Majesty, I gave
judgment to send him. I have nothing definite to write to my lord about
him. So I have brought him in before you, and especially before you,
King Agrippa, so that, when investigation has been made, I may have
something to write. For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner
and not to send the charges against him."
Festus had got himself into a difficulty. It was Roman law that
if a man appealed to Caesar and was sent to Rome there must be sent
with him a written account of the case and of the charges against him.
Festus' problem was that, as far as he could see, there was no charge to
send. That is why this meeting had been convened.
There is no more dramatic scene in all the New Testament. It was
with pomp that Agrippa and Bernice had come. They would have on their
purple robes of royalty and the gold circlet of the crown on their
brows. Doubtless Festus had donned the scarlet robe which a governor
wore on state occasions. Close at hand there must have stood Agrippa's
suite and also in attendance were the most influential figures of the
Jews. Close by Festus there would stand the captains in command of the
five cohorts which were stationed at Caesarea; and in the background
there would be a solid phalanx of the tall Roman legionaries on
ceremonial guard.
Into such a scene came Paul, the little Jewish tent-maker, with
his hands in chains; and yet from the moment he speaks, it is Paul who
holds the stage. There are some men who have an element of power. Julian
Duguid tells how he once crossed the Atlantic in the same ship as Sir
Wilfred Grenfell. Grenfell was not a particularly imposing figure to
look at; but Duguid tells that, whenever Grenfell entered one of the
ship's rooms, he could tell he was there without looking round, because a
wave of power emanated from the man. When a man has Christ in his heart
and God at his right hand he has the secret of power. Of whom then
shall he be afraid?
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)