Acts 25:18

FESTUS is giving to King Agrippa a brief account of the matter between Paul and the Jews. It may not be a very accurate account. For Festus did not profess to understand the business. He was a Roman governor newly come to Judea. He had no acquaintance whatever with Jewish Scriptures nor with Jewish laws. He is, therefore, merely giving to King Agrippa a rough and ready outline of the affair as it struck him.

FESTUS is giving to King Agrippa a brief account of the matter between Paul and the Jews. It may not be a very accurate account. For Festus did not profess to understand the business. He was a Roman governor newly come to Judea. He had no acquaintance whatever with Jewish Scriptures nor with Jewish laws. He is, therefore, merely giving to King Agrippa a rough and ready outline of the affair as it struck him. He had never thought it worth his special attention but he was a little puzzled how he should represent the matter to Caesar, to whom Paul had appealed. Festus is represented by our translators as calling the Jewish religion a "superstition." I hardly think he would have used so harsh a term before Agrippa who professed to be of the Jewish faith. But yet, as he probably knew that Agrippa's religion did not lie very deep and was the mere appendage of a man of fashion, Festus was not very particular about the word which he used. And he lighted upon one which may mean "superstition" as the Authorized Version has it, or "religion" as the Revised Version has it. "Well, well," he seems to say to Agrippa, "I do not know much about it. I supposed, when the Jews brought this man before me, that he would be charged with a breach of the Roman Law and I was prepared, of course, to deal with the prisoner. But when I listened to their accusation and found that there was nothing in it but some disputes about their religion, I hardly knew what to say. Their controversy is important to them, I dare say. But it can be of no consequence either to you or to me, for it turned very much upon a person of the name of Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." I want you to notice that, rough and ready as this description is, and neither full nor deep, yet on the surface we see that in the controversy we have the same condition of things as we usually see in such conflicts.

None accusation ... - No charge as I expected of a breach of the peace; of a violation of the Roman law; of atrocious crime. It was natural that Festus should suppose that they would accuse Paul of some such offence. He had been arraigned before Felix; had been two years in custody; and the Jews were exceedingly violent against him. All this, Festus would presume, must have arisen from some flagrant and open violation of the laws.