Acts 25:9

9 But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Yehudim, answered Sha'ul and said, "Will you go up to Yerushalayim, and there be judged of these things before me?"

Acts 25:9 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 25:9

But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure
As did his predecessor Felix, ( Acts 24:27 ) he being just entered upon his new government, and having met with some caresses and civilities from the Jews at Jerusalem, by whom he had been much pressed and urged about the affair of the apostle:

answered Paul, and said, wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be
judged of these things before me?
meaning by the Jewish sanhedrim, he Festus being present: this was what the Jews had requested of him when he was at Jerusalem, that he would send for Paul thither, and there let him be judged, and which request he had denied; but having been solicited and importuned by the Jews, perhaps as, they came down together, he was inclined to gratify them, and to admit of it that he should be tried at Jerusalem, before the sanhedrim, he being present; and yet he was unwilling to do this without the prisoner's consent, he being a freeman of a Roman city; fearing he should be charged with delivering up a Roman into the hands of the Jews, which might be resented by the emperor and the Roman senate, should it come to their knowledge.

Acts 25:9 In-Context

7 When he had come, the Yehudim who had come down from Yerushalayim stood around him, bringing against him many and grievous charges which they could not prove,

8 while he said in his defense, "Neither against the law of the Yehudim, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar, have I sinned at all."

9 But Festus, desiring to gain favor with the Yehudim, answered Sha'ul and said, "Will you go up to Yerushalayim, and there be judged of these things before me?"

10 But Sha'ul said, "I am standing before Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Yehudim, as you also know very well.

11 For if I have done wrong, and have committed anything worthy of death, I don't refuse to die; but if none of those things is true that these accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!"