Acts 25:16

Acts 25:16

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.’

17 Therefore when they had come together, ^awithout any delay, the next day I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought in.

18 When the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against him of such things as I¹ supposed,

19 ^abut had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

20 And because I was uncertain of such questions, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there be judged concerning these matters.

21 But when Paul ^aappealed to be reserved for the decision of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I could send him to Caesar.”

Commentaries:

Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)

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It is not the custom of the Romans (oti ouk estin eqov Rwmaioiv). If a direct quotation, oti is recitative as in Authorized Version. Canterbury Revision takes it as indirect discourse after apekriqhn (I answered), itself in a relative clause (prov ouv) with the present tense (estin, is) preserved as is usual. There is a touch of disdain (Furneaux) in the tone of Festus. He may refer to a demand of the Jews before they asked that Paul be brought to Jerusalem (Acts 25:3). At any rate there is a tone of scorn towards the Jews.

Before that the accused have (prin h o kathgoroumenov exoi). This use of the optative in this temporal clause with prin h instead of the subjunctive an exh is in conformity with literary Greek and occurs only in Luke's writings in the N.T. (Robertson, Grammar, p. 970). This sequence of modes is a mark of the literary style occasionally seen in Luke. It is interesting here to note the succession of dependent clauses in verses Acts 25:14-16.

The accusers face to face (kata proswpon touv kathgorouv). Same word kathgorov as in Acts 23:30, Acts 23:35; Acts 25:18. This all sounds fair enough.

And have had opportunity to make his defence concerning the matter laid against him (topon te apologiav laboi peri tou egklhmatov). Literally, "And should receive (laboi optative for same reason as exoi above, second aorist active of lambanw) opportunity for defence (objective genitive) concerning the charge" (egklhmatov in N.T. only here and Acts 23:19 which see).

**Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Acts 25:16:**

Matthew 14:22
Luke 2:26
Acts 16:37
Acts 22:1
Acts 23:29
Acts 25:16
1 Corinthians 9:3
Philippians 1:7
Revelation 12:10

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