THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ACTS ~ Chapter 25
Three days after Festus had come into his
province, he went from Caesarea to Jerusalem. The chief priests and chief men
of the Jews brought charges against Paul with petitions. They asked as a
special favor that he would summon Paul to Jerusalem, with the intention of
lying in wait for him and killing him on the way. But Festus replied that Paul
should be kept at Caesarea and that he himself was soon to go there. ‘But, he
said, ‘if there is anything wicked about the man, let the men of authority
among you go with me to bring a charge against him.’
When he had spent not more than 8 or 10 days
there, he went back to Caesarea. The next day he sat on the judgment seat and
gave orders that Paul should be brought in. When Paul came in, the Jews who had
come down from Jerusalem stood about him, charging him with many and serious
offences, none of which they could prove.
In his defense, Paul said, “I have not sinned
against any Law of the Jews, nor against the Temple, nor against the emperor.”
Then Festus, in hope of winning the favor of the Jews, asked Paul, ‘Are you
willing to go to Jerusalem and to stand trial before me there in regard to
these things?’ Paul answered, “I am now being tried in the emperor’s court, the
very place where I ought to be tried. I never did the Jews any wrong, as you
know very well. Indeed, if I am guilty of wrongdoing and have done something
deserving of death, I do not refuse to die; but if what they say against me is
not true, I will let no man turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.”
Then Festus, after having conferred with his council, answered, ‘You have
appealed to the emperor – to the emperor you shall go.’
Some days later, king Agrippa and Bernice
came down to Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus.
As they stayed there for several days, Festus
related to the king the story of Paul. ‘There is a man here,’ he said, ‘who was
left in prison by Felix. When I was at Jerusalem, the chief priest and elders
of the Jews presented their case against him and demanded a judgment against
him. I replied that it was not the Raman custom to give any man up to
destruction before he had a chance to defend himself against their charges. So
they came here with me, and without delay I took my seat in the courtroom and
ordered the man to be brought in. But when his accusers took their stand, they
brought forward no charge whatever of crimes such as I had in mind. Rather,
their dispute with him was in regard to their system of religion and someone
named Yeshua, Who was dead but Who was declared by Paul to be alive again. I
was perplexed as to how to deal with these issues, so I asked him if he was
willing to go to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges there. At this, Paul
appealed to have his case reserved for the emperor’s decision, and so I gave
orders that he should be kept in prison until I could send him to the emperor.’
Then Agrippa said to Festus, ‘I, too, would
like to hear this man myself.’ He answered, ‘Tomorrow you will hear him.’
The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with
great pomp and entered the courtroom, together with the army heads and
principal men of the city. Festus then gave orders that Paul be brought in.
Then Festus said, ‘King Agrippa, and all the
rest of you who are here with us, you see this man against whom all the Jews,
both here and at Jerusalem, have been clamoring that he does not deserve to
live any longer. As for myself, I have not noted anything in his record
deserving of death; but since he, himself, has asked for a hearing before the
emperor, I have decided to send him on to him. Yet when I write to the
sovereign, I have nothing definite to say against him. It is for that reason
that have brought him before you all, and before you especially, king Agrippa,
in order that the examination may give me something definite to write about. To
me it seems absurd to send a prisoner up for trial without stating what charges
are made against him.’
**********
During his administration, Jewish hostility to Rome was greatly inflamed by the civic privileges issue. Feelings were aroused which played an important part in the closely following Jewish War of AD 66.
In the New Covenant (New Testament), the Apostle Paul (Saul) had his final hearing before Festus. In Acts 25:12, Festus sought to induce Paul to go to Jerusalem for trial; Paul appealed to the Emperor. The appeal resulted in Paul being deported to Rome in the autumn of AD 58. Acts 25-26 http://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?vpar=934
==King Agrippa, who comes to pay his respects to Festus was Marcus Julius Agrippa II (A.D. 27-100), son of Agrippa I (Acts 12:1-25) and great-grandson of Herod the Great (Mt 2:1-23). Brought up in Rome in the court of Claudius, he was a favorite of the emperor, though too young to immediately succeed his father at his death in A.D. 44. In A.D. 50, following the death of his uncle (Herod of Chalcis, A.D. 48) he was granted the petty kingdom of Chalcis, northeast of Judea. He later exchanged it for the tetrarchy of Philip, Abilene (or Abila), Trachonitis and Acra (the tetrarchy of Varus) in A.D. 53. In A.D. 56 Nero added to his kingdom the Galilean cities of Tarichea and Tiberias with their surrounding lands and the Perean city of Julias (or Betharamphta) with fourteen villages belonging to it (compare Josephus Jewish Wars 2.220-23, 247, 252; Jewish Antiquities 20.104, 138, 159; Longenecker 1981:547). He had supreme power in Jewish religious life, for the Romans gave him the right to appoint the high priest and custodianship of the temple treasure and the high priest's vestments (Josephus Jewish Antiquities 20.213, 222). He was the last of the Herodian line.
Accompanying him was his sister Bernice, a year younger than he.
She had been engaged to Marcus, a nephew of the philosopher Philo of
Alexandria. Then she married her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis. At his death she
returned to live with her brother Agrippa II and engaged in an incestuous
relationship with him. This gained her notoriety both in Palestine and in Rome
(Josephus Jewish Antiquities 20.145-46; Juvenal Satires 6.156-60). http://www.livius.org/articles/person/herod-agrippa-ii/
==Bernice
was a law unto herself. Totally wicked and unrepentant. http://www.womeninthebible.net/women-bible-old-new-testaments/bernice-berenice/
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