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<span class="ital">after three days he ascended from Cesarea</span> — The usual residence of the Roman governors; <span class="ital">to Jerusalem </span>— The capital city; probably, both that he might gratify his curiosity in the sight of so celebrated a place, and also that he might there, as at the fountain-head, inform himself of the present state of their public affairs. <span class="ital">Then the high- priest, &c., informed him against Paul </span>— In so long a time their rage was nothing cooled: so much louder a call had Paul to the Gentiles. <span class="ital">And besought him — </span>That he would not (as, it is probable, they pretended Lysias and Felix had done) obstruct the course of public justice against one whom they knew to be so notorious an offender; <span class="ital">and desired favour against him </span>— Requested of him, as a peculiar favour; <span class="ital">that he would send for him to Jerusalem </span>— To be judged there; <span class="ital">laying wait, </span>&c. — Secretly purposing to lay an ambush of desperate wretches for him, who they knew would readily undertake to intercept and <span class="ital">kill him by the way. </span>“The high- priests, about this time, were, according to the account Josephus gives of them, such monsters of rapine, tyranny, and cruelty, that it is not to be wondered such a design should have been favoured by him who now bore the office. Josephus also mentions a great number of assassins at this time, called <span class="ital">sicarii, </span>or <span class="ital">poniarders, </span>from the weapons they carried, by whom many innocent persons were murdered.”<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="2"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-2.htm">Acts 25:2</a></div><div class="verse">Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him,</div><A name="3"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-3.htm">Acts 25:3</a></div><div class="verse">And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him.</div><A name="4"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-4.htm">Acts 25:4</a></div><div class="verse">But Festus answered, that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly <i>thither</i>.</div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/25-4.htm" title="But Festus answered, that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself would depart shortly thither....">Acts 25:4-5</a></span>. <span class="ital">But Festus </span>— Knowing their design; <span class="ital">answered, that Paul should be kept at Cesarea — </span>So Festus’s care to preserve the imperial privileges was the means of preserving Paul’s life! By what invisible springs does God govern the world! With what silence, and yet with what wisdom and energy! Nevertheless, Festus was willing to do them the justice of hearing what they had to say against Paul, if they would go down with him to Cesarea, and appear against him there. <span class="ital">Let them, said he, which among you are able </span>— Who are best able to undertake the journey, and to manage the cause; <span class="ital">go down with me, and accuse this man </span>— In my hearing: or, let those go and give in their evidence that are competent witnesses, and are able to prove any thing criminal upon him; <span class="ital">if there be any wickedness in him </span>— For which he ought to be punished according to the Roman laws. So he does not pass sentence before he hears the cause, nor take it for granted that there was wickedness in him till it should be proved upon him, and he had been heard in his own defence.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="5"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-5.htm">Acts 25:5</a></div><div class="verse">Let them therefore, said he, which among you are able, go down with <i>me</i>, and accuse this man, if there be any wickedness in him.</div><A name="6"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-6.htm">Acts 25:6</a></div><div class="verse">And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down unto Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought.</div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/25-6.htm" title="And when he had tarried among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea; and the next day sitting on the judgment seat commanded Paul to be brought....">Acts 25:6-8</a></span>. <span class="ital">And when he had tarried there more than ten days </span>— A short time for a new governor to stay at such a city as Jerusalem; <span class="ital">he went down to Cesarea </span>— As he had said, several of the Jews attending him, as being determined to lose no time, but to prosecute the affair in the most strenuous manner they possibly could; <span class="ital">and the next day sitting in the judgment-seat </span>— As the governor used to do, when any cause of consequence was brought before him; <span class="ital">commanded Paul to be brought </span>— And make his appearance. <span class="ital">And the Jews, </span>standing <span class="ital">round about </span>— An expression which intimates that there were many of them; <span class="ital">laid many and grievous complaints against Paul </span>— Doubtless like those which Tertullus had formerly advanced before Felix; <span class="ital">which they could not prove </span>— By proper witnesses. When many accusations against any one are heaped, frequently not one of them is true. <span class="ital">While he answered, Neither against the law of the Jews, </span>&c. — I openly deny their charge in every branch of it, and challenge them to make it out by proper evidence in any instance, or in any degree. To a general charge a general answer was sufficient.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="7"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-7.htm">Acts 25:7</a></div><div class="verse">And when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood round about, and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul, which they could not prove.</div><A name="8"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-8.htm">Acts 25:8</a></div><div class="verse">While he answered for himself, Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.</div><A name="9"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-9.htm">Acts 25:9</a></div><div class="verse">But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me?</div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/25-9.htm" title="But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Will you go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me?...">Acts 25:9-12</a></span>. <span class="ital">But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure </span>— To ingratiate himself with them by a popular action, at the beginning of his government; to gratify the prosecutors rather than the prisoner, as far as he could go with safety against one that was a citizen of Rome; <span class="ital">answered Paul, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem and there be judged? </span>— Festus could have ordered this without asking Paul. But God secretly overruled the whole, that he might have an occasion of appealing to Rome. In suffering times the prudence of the Lord’s people is tried as well as their patience. Being sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, they have need to be wise as serpents. <span class="ital">Then said Paul </span>— Apprehensive of the attempt which might be made upon his life in his journey, or in the city itself; <span class="ital">I stand at Cesar’s judgment-seat </span>— For all the courts of the Roman governors were held in the name of the emperor, and by commission from him; <span class="ital">where </span>— As a Roman citizen; <span class="ital">I ought to be judged </span>— And I insist upon my privilege of having my cause decided there; <span class="ital">to the Jews have I done no wrong </span>— In any respect whatever; <span class="ital">as thou very well knowest </span>— As thou must have perceived clearly by what has this day been examined before thee. Or, Festus might know that Paul had done the Jews no wrong, from the relation Felix had made unto him, as also from such as were present with Felix when Paul’s cause was heard. Thus it very well becomes those that are innocent to plead their innocence, and to insist upon it; it is a debt we owe to our own good name, not only not to bear false witness against ourselves, but to maintain our own integrity against those who bear false witness against us. <span class="ital">For if I be an offender, </span>&c. — If I have injured the Jews, and my fault be such as by law deserves death, I ask no favour; <span class="ital">I refuse not to die </span>— But will willingly accept the punishment of mine iniquity. <span class="ital">But if </span>— As I know in my own conscience, and as thou, from the course of this trial, hast the greatest reason to believe; <span class="ital">there be none of these things </span>— That is, that these things, <span class="ital">whereof </span>they <span class="ital">accuse me </span>— Have had no existence, and that their accusations proceed from malice, and are founded on falsehood; <span class="ital">no man may deliver me unto them </span>— Nor can, without palpable injustice. He expresses himself modestly, but his meaning is, Thou canst not deliver me to them; it being a governor’s business, as much to protect the innocent, as to punish the guilty. <span class="ital">I appeal unto Cesar</span> — Which any Roman citizen might do before sentence was passed. <span class="ital">Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council </span>— It was customary for a considerable number of persons of distinction to attend the Roman governors into the provinces. These constituted a kind of council, with whom they frequently advised; <span class="ital">answered </span>— Having called in the prisoner; <span class="ital">Hast thou appealed unto Cesar? unto Cesar shalt thou go </span>— For how desirous soever I am to oblige the people of my province, I will never allow myself, upon any occasion, to violate the privileges of a Roman citizen. Festus, therefore, gave proper orders for conveying him to Rome as soon as possible, that he might be there presented before the emperor himself; and, in the mean time, Paul was remanded to his confinement, and his accusers returned to Jerusalem a second time, with the mortification of not having been able to accomplish their purpose against him. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="10"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-10.htm">Acts 25:10</a></div><div class="verse">Then said Paul, I stand at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged: to the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest.</div><A name="11"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-11.htm">Acts 25:11</a></div><div class="verse">For if I be an offender, or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die: but if there be none of these things whereof these accuse me, no man may deliver me unto them. I appeal unto Caesar.</div><A name="12"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-12.htm">Acts 25:12</a></div><div class="verse">Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go.</div><A name="13"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-13.htm">Acts 25:13</a></div><div class="verse">And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus.</div><span class="bld"><a href="/acts/25-13.htm" title="And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to salute Festus.">Acts 25:13</a>. </span><span class="ital">And after certain days, </span>&c. — We have here the preparation that was made for another hearing of Paul before King Agrippa, not in order to his giving judgment upon him, but in order to his giving advice concerning him, or rather, only to gratify his curiosity. Christ had said concerning his disciples, and particularly concerning his apostles, that they should be brought before governors and kings, and here we find his prediction accomplished. The preceding verses inform us of Paul’s being brought before Festus the governor, and the following of his being brought before Agrippa the king, for a testimony to both. <span class="ital">King Agrippa and Bernice </span>— His sister, with whom he lived in a scandalous familiarity; <span class="ital">came to Cesarea to salute Festus </span>— To congratulate him on his arrival in the province. The prince, here mentioned, was the son of Herod Agrippa, mentioned <a href="/acts/12-1.htm" title="Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.">Acts 12:1</a>, (where see the note,) and grandson of Aristobulus, the son of Herod the Great. As he was but seventeen years of age when his father died, the Emperor Claudius did not think proper to appoint him king of Judea in the room of his father, but made it a Roman province; however, on the death of his uncle, Herod Antipas, (of whom see note on <a href="/matthew/14-1.htm" title="At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus,">Matthew 14:1</a>,) he made him king of Chalcis, which, after he had governed it four years, he exchanged for a greater kingdom, and gave him the tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias, to which Nero afterward added part of Galilee, with several towns in Peræa. Of Bernice’s incestuous commerce with this Agrippa, Juvenal speaks, <span class="ital">Sat. 6. </span>ver. 155, as well as Josephus, <span class="ital">Antiq., </span>lib. 20. cap. 7. It is certain this lady had first been married to her own uncle, Herod, king of Chalcis; after whose death, on the report of her scandalous familiarity with her brother Agrippa, she married Polemon, king of Cilicia, whom she soon forsook, though he had submitted to circumcision to obtain the alliance. This was also the person whom Titus Vespasian so passionately loved, and whom he would have made empress, had not the clamours of the Roman people prevented it.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="14"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-14.htm">Acts 25:14</a></div><div class="verse">And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix:</div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/25-14.htm" title="And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause to the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix:...">Acts 25:14-16</a></span>. <span class="ital">When they had been there many days </span>— Among other subjects of discourse which occurred, <span class="ital">Festus declared Paul’s cause unto the king </span>— For, as the crime of which he was accused related wholly to the Jewish religion, in which the king was very knowing, Festus wished to have his opinion upon it; and for that purpose began telling him that Felix had left Paul in bonds, and that the chief priests and elders at Jerusalem had applied to him, desiring <span class="ital">judgment against him </span>— As upon a previous conviction falsely pretended. <span class="ital">To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans </span>— When a crime is charged upon a person; <span class="ital">to deliver any man</span> <span class="ital">to </span>be put to death before <span class="ital">he who is accused have the accusers </span>— Openly produced to give their evidence against him; <span class="ital">face to face, and </span>he <span class="ital">have </span>also <span class="ital">license to answer for himself </span>— To make his defence; <span class="ital">concerning the crime laid against him </span>— How excellent a rule, to condemn no one unheard! A rule which, as it is common to all nations, (courts of inquisition only excepted,) so it ought to direct our proceedings in all affairs, not only in public but private life.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="15"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-15.htm">Acts 25:15</a></div><div class="verse">About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed <i>me</i>, desiring <i>to have</i> judgment against him.</div><A name="16"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-16.htm">Acts 25:16</a></div><div class="verse">To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.</div><A name="17"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-17.htm">Acts 25:17</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment seat, and commanded the man to be brought forth.</div><A name="18"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-18.htm">Acts 25:18</a></div><div class="verse">Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed:</div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/25-18.htm" title="Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed:...">Acts 25:18-19</a></span>. <span class="ital">Against whom, when the accusers stood up </span>— And offered what they had to say; <span class="ital">they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed </span>— From the general clamour they had made against him, as a seditious and dangerous person, they would have done. He had inferred, from the eagerness of their prosecution, and their urging the matter thus upon the Roman governors, one after another, 1st, That they had something to accuse him of, which was dangerous either to private property or to the public peace. Such were the outcries against the primitive Christians: so loud, so fierce, that the standers by, who judged of them by those outcries, could not but conclude that they were the worst of men; and, indeed, to represent them as such was the design of that clamour, as it was of that against our Saviour. 2d, That they had something to accuse him of that was cognizable in the Roman courts, and of which the governor was properly the judge; as Gallio expected, <a href="/acts/18-14.htm" title="And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O you Jews, reason would that I should bear with you:">Acts 18:14</a>. Otherwise it was absurd and ridiculous to trouble him with it. <span class="ital">But had certain questions </span>— Disputable matters; <span class="ital">against him of their own superstition </span>— Or <span class="ital">religion </span>rather; for, as Agrippa was a Jew, and now came to pay a visit of respect to Festus on his arrival at his province, it is improbable that he would use so rude a word as one that properly signified superstition: so that this text affords a further argument that the word <span class="greekheb">δεισιδαιμονια </span>will admit a milder interpretation, as has been observed on <a href="/acts/17-22.htm" title="Then Paul stood in the middle of Mars' hill, and said, You men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious.">Acts 17:22</a>; <span class="ital">and of one Jesus </span>— Thus does Festus speak of him to whom every knee shall bow; <span class="ital">which was dead </span>— Or had been dead; <span class="ital">whom Paul </span>— Unaccountably; <span class="ital">affirmed to be alive </span>— Though, at the same time, he acknowledged that he had been crucified at Jerusalem, and expired on the cross. And was this a doubtful question? But why, O Festus, didst thou doubt concerning it? Only because thou didst not search into the evidence of it. Otherwise that evidence might have opened to thee till it had grown up into full conviction; and thy illustrious prisoner had led thee into the glorious liberty of the children of God! <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="19"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-19.htm">Acts 25:19</a></div><div class="verse">But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.</div><A name="20"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-20.htm">Acts 25:20</a></div><div class="verse">And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked <i>him</i> whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters.</div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/25-20.htm" title="And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters....">Acts 25:20-21</a>. </span><span class="ital">And because I doubted of such manner of questions </span>— Whether they were dangerous to the state and punishable, and whether I was a competent judge of them; <span class="ital">I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem </span>— I proposed that the cause should be adjourned to the Jewish courts, as best able to take cognizance of an affair of this nature. <span class="ital">But when Paul appealed to Augustus </span>— Being apprehensive, as I plainly perceived, of some clandestine attempt upon his life; <span class="ital">I commanded him to be kept </span>— Under confinement as before; <span class="ital">till I might send him to Cesar </span>— By some convenient opportunity.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="21"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-21.htm">Acts 25:21</a></div><div class="verse">But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar.</div><A name="22"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-22.htm">Acts 25:22</a></div><div class="verse">Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To morrow, said he, thou shalt hear him.</div><span class="bld"><a href="/acts/25-22.htm" title="Then Agrippa said to Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To morrow, said he, you shall hear him.">Acts 25:22</a></span>. <span class="ital">Then Agrippa said, I would also hear the man myself </span>— That I may learn from his own mouth what it is that he maintains, and on what principles he proceeds. This demand the king made because he was well acquainted with the religious tenets, disputes, and expectations of the Jews, and because many wonderful things had been reported to him concerning Jesus and his disciples, and he had heard of Paul, and knew of what vast concern this question was which Festus made so light of; namely, whether Jesus was alive or not. Many great men think it below them to take cognizance of the matters of religion, except they can hear of them while they sit in judgment with authority, and act in character, like themselves. Agrippa would not, on any account, have gone to a synagogue, or religious meeting, to hear Paul preach, no more than Herod to hear Jesus; and yet they were both glad to have these persons brought before them, but only to satisfy their curiosity. <span class="ital">To-morrow, said he, thou shalt hear him </span>— There was a gracious providence in this for the encouragement of Paul, who seemed buried alive in his imprisonment, and deprived of almost all opportunities of doing good. We know not that any of his epistles were written during his confinement at Cesarea. What opportunity he had of doing good to his friends that visited him, or perhaps to a little congregation of them, that might assemble to hear him every Lord’s day, was but a low and narrow sphere of usefulness: so that he seemed to be thrown by as a broken vessel, in which there was no pleasure; but he has now an opportunity of preaching Christ to a great congregation, and that of great ones. Felix heard him in private concerning the faith in Christ; but Agrippa and Festus agree that he shall be heard in public. And we have reason to think that his sermon, contained in the next chapter, though it might not be so instrumental as some other of his sermons for the conversion of individual persons, yet redounded as much to the honour of Christ and Christianity as any sermon he ever preached. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="23"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-23.htm">Acts 25:23</a></div><div class="verse">And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus' commandment Paul was brought forth.</div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/25-23.htm" title="And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus' commandment Paul was brought forth....">Acts 25:23-27</a>. </span><span class="ital">On the morrow, </span>&c. — Festus, accordingly, performed his promise to the king; <span class="ital">and when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp </span>— Of apparel, attendants, guards, &c.; Greek, <span class="greekheb">μετα πολλης φαντασιας</span>, <span class="ital">with great show, </span>or <span class="ital">splendour. </span>But all this pomp and show was far outshone by the real glory of the poor prisoner at the bar. What was the honour of their fine clothes, compared with his wisdom, grace, and holiness; his courage and constancy in suffering for Christ? His bonds in so good a cause were more glorious than their chains of gold, and his guards than their equipage. Who would be fond of worldly pomp, that here sees so bad a woman loaded with it, and so good a man loaded with the reverse of it? <span class="ital">And was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, </span><span class="greekheb">χιλιαρχοις</span>, <span class="ital">the tribunes, and principal men of the city </span>— Men of the greatest note and eminence, that is, the chief officers, both military and civil; <span class="ital">at Festus’s commandment Paul was brought forth — </span>Before this splendid audience. Then <span class="ital">Festus said — </span>Festus, rising up, made an elegant speech to the assembly, in which he declared that at the former trial no crime had been proved against the prisoner; but that as he had appealed to Cesar, he had brought him forth, that, after a second examination, he might have something more certain to write to the emperor concerning the crimes laid to the prisoner’s charge. <span class="ital">For, </span>says he, <span class="ital">it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner </span>— Especially so far as Rome; <span class="ital">and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him </span>— That the matter may be prepared as much as possible, and put in readiness, for the emperor’s determination. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><A name="24"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-24.htm">Acts 25:24</a></div><div class="verse">And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and <i>also</i> here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.</div><A name="25"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-25.htm">Acts 25:25</a></div><div class="verse">But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him.</div><A name="26"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-26.htm">Acts 25:26</a></div><div class="verse">Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that, after examination had, I might have somewhat to write.</div><A name="27"></a> <div class="versenum"><a href="/acts/25-27.htm">Acts 25:27</a></div><div class="verse">For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes <i>laid</i> against him.</div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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