Acts 25:12

When he had conferred with the council (sunlalhsa meta tou sumbouliou). The word sumboulion in the N.T. usually means "counsel" as in Matthew 12:14 , but here alone as an assembly of counsellors or council. But the papyri (Milligan and Moulton's Vocabulary) furnish a number of instances of this sense of the word as "council." Here it apparently means the chief officers and personal retinue of the procurator, his assessors (assessore consiliarii). These local advisers were a necessity. Some discretion was allowed the governor about granting the appeal. If the prisoner were a well-known robber or pirate, it could be refused. Thou hast appealed unto Caesar (Kaisara epikeklhsai). The same technical word, but the perfect tense of the indicative. Unto Caesar thou shalt go (epi Kaisara poreush). Perhaps the volitive future (Robertson, Grammar, p. 874). Bengel thinks that Festus sought to frighten Paul with these words. Knowling suggests that "they may have been uttered, if not with a sneer, yet with the implication 'thou little knowest what an appeal to Caesar means.'" But embarrassment will come to Festus. He has refused to acquit this prisoner. Hence he must formulate charges against him to go before Caesar.