Acts 25:21

21 But [when] Paul appealed [that] he be kept under guard for the decision of His Majesty the Emperor, I gave orders [for] him to be kept under guard until I could send him to Caesar."

Acts 25:21 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 25:21

But when Paul had appealed to be reserved
In custody at Caesarea:

unto the hearing of Augustus;
to have his cause heard, tried, and judged of, by the Roman Emperor Nero, here called Augustus; for as it was usual for a Roman emperor to be called Caesar, from Julius Caesar, the first of them, so to be called Augustus, from Octavius Augustus, the second emperor: his original surname was Thurinus, but this being objected to him as a reproachful one, he afterwards took the name of Caesar, and then of Augustus; the one by the will of his great uncle, the other by the advice of Munatius Plancus; when some thought he ought to be called Romulus, as if he was the founder of the city, it prevailed that he should rather be called Augustus; not only this surname being new, but more grand, seeing religious places, and in which anything was consecrated by soothsaying, were called "Augusta, ab auctu, vel ab avium gestu, gustuve", according to Ennius F20: in the Greek text the name is Sebastos, which signifies venerable and worshipful.

I commanded him to be kept;
in Caesarea, by a centurion, and not sent to Jerusalem:

till I might send him to Caesar:
till he could have an opportunity of sending him to Rome, to take his trial before the emperor.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 Suetonius in Vit. Octav. c. 7.

Acts 25:21 In-Context

19 but they had some issues with him concerning their own religion, and concerning a certain Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul claimed to be alive.
20 And [because] I was at a loss with regard to the investigation concerning these [things], I asked if he was willing to go to Jerusalem and to be judged there concerning these [things].
21 But [when] Paul appealed [that] he be kept under guard for the decision of His Majesty the Emperor, I gave orders [for] him to be kept under guard until I could send him to Caesar."
22 So Agrippa [said] to Festus, "I want to hear the man myself also." "Tomorrow," he said, "you will hear him."
23 So on the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pageantry and entered into the audience hall, along with military tribunes and the most prominent men of the city. And [when] Festus gave the order, Paul was brought in.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. *Here "[when]" is supplied as a component of the temporal genitive absolute participle ("appealed")
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