Why does Paul appeal and why does Festus seek an examination before Agrippa?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Paul rejects delivery on unproven charges and appeals; Festus seeks information for dispatch.

Chapter breakdown

Three days after entering the province Festus goes from Cæsarea to Jerusalem. The chief priests and principal Jews petition against Paul and request his transfer, while laying an ambush to kill him on the way. Festus says Paul is kept at Cæsarea and he will soon return; those able to accuse should accompany him and allege any crime. After no more than eight or ten days he returns and summons Paul before the judgment seat the next day. Jerusalem’s accusers surround him with grave charges they cannot prove. Paul denies offence against Jewish law, the temple or Caesar.

Wishing to please the Jews, Festus asks whether Paul will go to Jerusalem for judgment before him. Paul says Caesar’s judgment seat is the proper place and that, as Festus knows, he has not injured the Jews. If he committed anything deserving death, he does not refuse to die, but if the allegations are false no one may deliver him to them. He appeals to Caesar. After consulting his council, Festus declares that he shall go to Caesar.

Agrippa and Bernice later greet Festus and stay many days. Festus recounts the prisoner left by Felix and the Jerusalem requests for condemnation. He says Roman custom requires the accusers’ presence and an opportunity to answer before condemnation. At the hearing he found unexpected disputes about their own superstition and a dead Jesus whom Paul affirmed alive. In doubt, he offered Jerusalem, but Paul appealed to Augustus’s hearing and is held until sent. Agrippa wishes to hear Paul, and Festus promises the next day.

Agrippa and Bernice enter the audience hall with great pomp, tribunes and principal city men. Paul is brought by command. Festus describes the demands for Paul’s death and says he found no act deserving it, but resolved to send him because of the appeal. Having nothing certain to write to his lord, he seeks examination, especially before Agrippa, to learn what to write. Sending a prisoner without charges seems unreasonable to him. These are Festus’s assessments, without a announced acquittal.

The story inside

Narrator’s pleasure motive and Festus’s later uncertainty account remain distinct. A plot described to readers is not automatically information known to Paul.

Lessons worth keeping

1
The eight-or-ten-day wording retains uncertainty.
2
Festus calls disputes superstition in his own speech.
3
Appeal leads to planned sending, not a survival guarantee.

Test your recall

What does Festus lack for his dispatch?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 126873–126880
25:10. Then Paul said: I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no injury, as thou very well knowest. 25:11. For if I have injured them or have committed any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die. But if there be none of these things whereof they accuse me, no man may deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.
Lines 126882–126883
25:12. Then Festus, having conferred with the council, answered: Hast thou appealed to Caesar? To Caesar shalt thou go.
Lines 126937–126938
25:27. For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to signify the things laid to his charge.