Acts 25
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CHAPTER 25
The Trial Before Festus (25:1-12)
1-3 Shortly after Festus, the new governor, arrived in Caesarea, he went up to Jerusalem to meet the chief citizens of the province of Judea. The Jews there, seizing the opportunity, immediately began to accuse Paul before the new and inexperienced governor. Then they requested that Festus send Paul back to Jerusalem to stand trial. Their intention was to ambush and kill Paul on the road. Two years earlier a similar plot of the Jews had been unsuccessful (Acts 23:12-15). They hoped that, this time, their plot would succeed.
4-5 But even though Festus was new, he realized that he shouldn’t put a Roman citizen into the hands of these angry Jews. Instead, he decided to hear Paul’s case in Caesarea.
6-8 When the court was convened, the Jews again repeated their various charges against Paul. But they couldn’t prove any of them. They could produce no witnesses. It is easy to make charges, but it is not so easy to prove them. If we have no proof, no witnesses, we have no business making accusations (see Matthew 18:15-16 and comment).
Again Paul denied all the charges against him. In particular, Paul denied that he had ever done anything wrong against Caesar (the Roman emperor). This was to refute one of the charges the Jews had brought against him—that of stirring up riots all over the Roman Empire (Acts 17:5-7; 24:5).
9 Festus wanted to gain the good will of the Jews in Judea, the province over which he was governor. The Jews had strongly opposed Felix, the previous governor, and Festus didn’t want the Jews opposing him in the same way. Therefore, seeing a chance to make the Jews happy, Festus suggested to Paul that his trial be moved to Jerusalem in accordance with the Jews’ request.
10-11 But Paul did not agree to the suggestion. Paul said, “I am now standing before Caesar’s court. A Roman citizen should be tried before Caesar’s court—not in Jerusalem.” Paul called Festus’ court “Caesar’s court,” because Festus was the official representative of Caesar in the province of Judea.
Paul knew that the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. Paul feared that, even if they didn’t kill him, they would probably be successful in persuading this new governor Festus to pronounce him guilty. Therefore, for Paul to go to Jerusalem was very dangerous. If Festus was so willing to make the Jews happy by sending him to Jerusalem, Paul wondered what else Festus might do to him just to keep the Jews happy! Perhaps Festus might eventually hand him over to the Jews completely.
As a Roman citizen, Paul had the right to appeal directly to Caesar. Knowing that he was more likely to get a fair trial in Rome than in Jerusalem, Paul decided to appeal to the emperor, thus forcing Festus to move his trial to Rome.
At that time, 59 A.D., Nero107 was the Roman emperor. In the beginning of his reign, Nero did not appear to be such an evil ruler. Therefore, it was reasonable to hope that he would judge Paul’s case fairly. But after 62 A.D., Nero began to severely persecute the Christians throughout the empire.108 He had them seized and fed to lions. For entertainment, Nero and his courtiers used to go and watch the lions devour the Christians in a large coliseum—a coliseum which still stands in Rome today. From other history books we know that Nero was the most cruel and wicked of all the Roman emperors. But when Paul made his appeal to Nero, he couldn’t have known that.
12 Festus was surely happy that Paul had appealed to Caesar, because now he would no longer have to trouble himselfwith such a difficult case.
Festus Consults King Agrippa (25:13-27)
13 King Agrippa was the son of the King Herod mentioned in Acts Chapter 12. He was also the brother of Drusilla, the wife of Felix (Acts 24:24). The Roman emperor had given Agrippa a small kingdom109 north of the province of Judea, and Agrippa ruled there under the emperor’s authority.
Soon after the new Roman governor of Judea, Festus, had arrived at his residence in Caesarea, King Agrippa, along with his sister Bernice, went to Caesarea to welcome him.
14-21 Being a Jew himself, Agrippa knew much more about Jewish customs than Festus did. Therefore, Festus took the opportunity to discuss Paul’s case with Agrippa.
In this section, Festus recounts to Agrippa all that had happened concerning Paul up until that time.
The Jews had spoken such evil things about Paul that Festus supposed he must be guilty of some great crime. But when Festus examined Paul’s case, he could not find any crime that Paul had committed. So he concluded that Paul’s case involved only a dispute over Jewish religious matters (see Acts 18:14-16).
22 When Agrippa heard what Festus had to say, he asked to see Paul himself. Agrippa had undoubtedly heard something about this “dead man named Jesus whom Paul claimed was alive” (verse 19). Now Agrippa wanted to hear more.
23 The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp. We can imagine the scene in that audience room. On one side was King Agrippa, Governor Festus, and the high ranking officers and leading men—all very important people. On the other side was a single Jewish prisoner bound with chains. Yet who in that audience room, we should ask, was most important in God’s sight?
Today, Paul alone is famous. The only reason we remember Agrippa and Festus at all is because for a few short moments they were together with Paul; otherwise we wouldn’t even recognize their names! God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him (1 Corinthians 1:2729).
24-25 Here again we see that the Roman authorities could find no crime that Paul had committed (see Acts 26:30-32).
26-27 Festus had not been able to understand the charges brought against Paul by the Jews. He needed to send a report of those charges to Rome along with Paul, but he didn’t know what to write. Therefore, Festus asked Agrippa to question Paul, so that he might have something to write to the emperor in Rome.