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appeal against the judgment of the court, for no sentence had been passed; he merely
demanded that his case should be transferred from the provincial court to that of Rome
itself. He had already been tried four times, and detained for two years, so that no one
could deny the rightness of his plea.
About this time Agrippa II and his sister Berenice came to Cęsarea to pay their
respects to the new Procurator. Agrippa's royal title depended solely upon the will of the
Emperor, and it was therefore good policy to pay respects to his new representative.
Agrippa II was not only King, but was also the guardian of the sacred robes of the
High Priest, and had the right to nominate the successor to the High Priesthood. Festus
seized upon Agrippa's presence as a means of getting a little more information about
Paul, for, he said:
"It seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes
against him" (Acts 25: 27).
And Agrippa, as we learn from Acts 26: 3, was "an expert". Festus makes it clear
that, so far as he can understand, Paul had committed no offence against Roman law:
"Against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusations of such
things as I supposed; but had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and
of one Jesus, Which was dead, Whom Paul affirmed to be alive" (Acts 25: 18, 19).
Agrippa agrees to hear the man for himself, and the hearing is arranged for the
following day. This was not, of course, a new trial. Agrippa had no judicial authority,
and the authority of Festus had become inoperative on account of Paul's appeal. The
hearing was arranged partly to humour the royal visitors, and partly to discover
something tangible in the way of evidence.
Commenting on the "great pomp" of Agrippa's entry into the court, Farrar writes:
"He would doubtless appear in his scarlet paludamentum, with his full attendance of
lectors and body guard, who would stand at arms behind the gilded chairs which had been
placed for himself and his distinguished visitors. We are expressly told that Agrippa and
Berenice went in state to the Prętorium, she, doubtless, blazing with all her jewels, and
he in his purple robes and both with the golden circlets around their foreheads . . . . . Did
Agrippa think of his great grandfather Herod, and the massacre of the innocents? of his
great uncle Antipas, and the murder of John the Baptist? of his father Agrippa I, and the
execution of James the Elder? . . . . . Did he realize how closely, but unwittingly, the faith
in that "one, Jesus", had been linked with the destinies of his house? . . . . . as he glanced
with cold curiosity on the poor, worn, shackled prisoner--pale with sickness and long
imprisonment--who was led in at his command."
We pass over the narrative of Acts 26:, as this belongs to the exposition of the Acts
rather than to the present series, which is concerned with Roman laws and customs. Paul
was under no obligation to speak before Agrippa, but he gladly seized the opportunity of
witnessing for his Lord. As a result of the hearing it was decided that Paul had done
nothing worthy of death or bonds, and might have been set at liberty had he not appealed
unto Cęsar. Festus could now write up his relatio, and we can well believe that the letter
sent by the hand of Julian made an acquittal practically certain, for even Nero at that time