Acts 25:12

Acts 25:12

10 So Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you very well know.

11 ^aFor if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. ^bI appeal to Caesar.”

12 Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, “You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!”

Paul Before Agrippa

13 And after some days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus.

14 When they had been there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying: ^a“There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix,

15 ^aabout whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, when I was in Jerusalem, asking for a judgment against him.

16 ^aTo them I answered, ‘It is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man¹ to destruction before the accused meets the accusers face to face, and has opportunity to answer for himself concerning the charge against him.’

Commentaries:

Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)

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When he had conferred with the council (sunlalhsav meta tou sumbouliou). The word sumboulion in the N.T. usually means "counsel" as in Matthew 12:14, but here alone as an assembly of counsellors or council. But the papyri (Milligan and Moulton's Vocabulary) furnish a number of instances of this sense of the word as "council." Here it apparently means the chief officers and personal retinue of the procurator, his assessors (assessorev consiliarii). These local advisers were a necessity. Some discretion was allowed the governor about granting the appeal. If the prisoner were a well-known robber or pirate, it could be refused.

Thou hast appealed unto Caesar (Kaisara epikeklhsai). The same technical word, but the perfect tense of the indicative.

Unto Caesar thou shalt go (epi Kaisara poreush). Perhaps the volitive future (Robertson, Grammar, p. 874). Bengel thinks that Festus sought to frighten Paul with these words. Knowling suggests that "they may have been uttered, if not with a sneer, yet with the implication 'thou little knowest what an appeal to Caesar means.'" But embarrassment will come to Festus. He has refused to acquit this prisoner. Hence he must formulate charges against him to go before Caesar.

**Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Acts 25:12:**

Acts 25:21
Acts 28:19

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Acts 25:13 >>

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