The Bible Says
Acts 25:1-6 Meaning

In Acts 25:1-6, a new Roman official, Festus, has received the governorship of Judea. The high priests and elders will take this opportunity to instigate another prosecution against Paul.

Paul has been a prisoner in the city of Caesarea, Judea, for two years. The events leading to this imprisonment are told in great detail by Luke, the author of Acts, in Acts 21-25. Paul, while visiting Jerusalem during Pentecost, was attacked by Jews from the Roman province of Asia (modern-day western Turkey). He was falsely accused of bringing a Gentile into the inner court of the temple. Since then, the High Priest and other leading Jews have tried many times to bring about Paul’s death. The Romans have kept Paul alive and in their custody, but have not released him.

The previous governor of Judea, Antonius Felix, made sure Paul was well taken care of in Caesarea, but kept him imprisoned for the past two years, hoping to receive a bribe from Paul. When Felix was dismissed from his position, he left Paul a prisoner to curry favor with the Jewish leadership.

The new governor, Porcius Festus, now finds himself in charge of this political prisoner.

Luke informs us that Festus went to Jerusalem soon after taking over as governor of Judea:

Festus then, having arrived in the province, three days later went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea (v. 1).

The Romans made Caesarea the seat of power while ruling over Judea, preferring its position on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. While Jerusalem was the true capital of the Jews, it was several days journey from the sea, high in the Judean hills, where the Jewish elite ruled over their religious affairs and practiced worship and sacrifice in their temple.

Caesarea, on the other hand, was a city rebuilt by Herod the Great, which he dedicated to Julius Caesar. There was a beautiful palace there where each governor resided, with its own Olympic-sized pool overlooking the sea.

The city also had a hippodrome (a racetrack) and arena for sporting events and entertainment. It was a fast getaway back to Rome via ship, if necessary. Given all its amenities and Roman-style architecture, Caesarea would have been a much more familiar and comfortable location for a Roman governor compared to Jerusalem.

However, Jerusalem was the most important city for the Jewish people, and the governor was required to go there at intervals. The former governor Pontius Pilate was in Jerusalem when Jesus was arrested and tried (Matthew 27:1-2).

As the new governor, Porcius Festus made the journey up to Jerusalem from Caesarea only three days after having arrived in the province which he was assigned to manage. He probably went to establish his authority and meet with the leading Jews. During this time of introduction, the Jewish leadership made sure to petition him regarding Paul:

And the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews brought charges against Paul (v. 2).

The chief priests were Sadducees and were members of the Sanhedrin, which was the court of the leading men of the Jews who directed the Jewish people and judged cultural and religious matters.

The chief priests oversaw a market within the temple, where money was changed to specially purchase overpriced animals for sacrifice (Matthew 21:12, John 2:13-22). They also belonged to the Sanhedrin, which was composed of the priests (Sadducees), the rabbis (Pharisees), and the scribes.

The Sanhedrin was the most powerful council of Jews under Roman rule, but was not permitted to pass a death sentence. Only Rome could make such judgments. This is what caused the Sanhedrin of Jesus’s day to appeal to Pilate for his approval to execute Jesus (John 18:31). In the years since, the Sanhedrin has operated outside of Rome’s approval and has put various Christians to death, beginning with Stephen (Acts 7:57-58, 9:1, 26:10).

However, Rome is still in charge. The Sanhedrin cannot take Paul back by force or by secret. Thus, while Festus was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and leading men of the Jews met with Festus to petition him to transport Paul back to Jerusalem. They brought charges against Paul to Festus’s attention. It is unclear what their charges were at this point, because Festus seems surprised later when their prosecution against Paul only entails religious disagreement (Acts 25:18-19).

But at this first meeting with Festus, the chief priests and leading men were, “asking for a sentence of condemnation against [Paul]” (Acts 25:15), and were insistent that Festus deliver Paul back to their custody in Jerusalem:

and they were urging him, requesting a concession against Paul, that he might have him brought to Jerusalem (at the same time, setting an ambush to kill him on the way) (vs. 2-3).

That they were urging Festus on this point shows how important it was to them to deal with Paul. Although two years had gone by, the chief priests had not given up on putting Paul to death. They were requesting that Festus make a concession against Paul, meaning that he would concede Paul’s imprisonment and hand him back over to the Jewish elite to judge. This would require Paul’s relocation, so that he would be brought to Jerusalem where the Sanhedrin convened and had more influence.

Their true intention was that at the same time they were setting an ambush to kill Paul on the way to Jerusalem. This was essentially the same plan they had hoped to carry out two years before, where some collaborators intended to kill Paul while he was being brought from the Roman barracks to attend a trial before the Sanhedrin (Acts 23:14-15). Paul’s nephew caught wind of the plot and informed to the Roman commander who was safeguarding Paul, which is what led to Paul being spirited out of Jerusalem to the safety of Caesarea, away from the schemes of his enemies (Acts 23:30).

The high priests had not abandoned this plan, though it was delayed, now intending to carry it out on the road from Caesarea up to Jerusalem. If carried out, it would serve to bypass any need for a trial or for Roman approval to put him to death. Paul would be assassinated and his threat to their political power would end instantly.

This assassination would also happen under circumstances which would not necessarily implicate the high priests. Paul’s murder would occur outside of their city and their sphere of influence. Highway banditry, riots, and zealot incursions were common in Judea in that time period. Josephus, the Jewish historian, describes the escalation of crime during the early period of Festus’s rule:

“Upon Festus’s coming into Judea, it happened, that Judea was afflicted by the robbers: while all the villages were set on fire, and plundered by them. And then it was that the Sicarii, as they were called, who were robbers, grew numerous.”
(Josephus, Antiquities, Book XX, Chapter 8.10)

If ambushed and assassinated on the road, Paul would seemingly be just another victim of the rising violence in the province, and the Sanhedrin’s hands would appear to be clean in the matter.

Festus’s response indicates that he is trying to start out on the right foot with the local leadership. This will make his time as governor go smoothly by working with the elders of his subjects. He proposes another hearing in Caesarea, so that he could then legitimately yield custody of Paul to the high priests:

Festus then answered that Paul was being kept in custody at Caesarea and that he himself was about to leave shortly.

“Therefore,” he said, “let the influential men among you go there with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them prosecute him” (vs. 4-5).

He tells the Jewish leadership that Paul was being kept in custody at Caesarea. They may not have known whether Paul was still in Caesarea. Festus informs them that Paul is still there. During the transition of power from Felix to Festus, Festus had apparently been informed of Paul’s imprisonment prior to his visit to Jerusalem (Acts 25:14). And now he is preparing to depart from Jerusalem and return to Caesarea.

He does not want to make a decision that day, because he himself was about to leave Jerusalem shortly (v. 4). We also learn something else Festus told the priests from a conversation later in this chapter between Festus and King Agrippa II. Festus explains that he informed (or reminded) the Jewish authorities that he could not just hand over a prisoner upon demand. There must be a trial:

“I answered them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over any man before the accused meets his accusers face to face and has an opportunity to make his defense against the charges”
(Acts 25:16).

But since he is going to leave shortly for Caesarea, where Paul is kept, Festus arranges for the priests to charge him there.

“Therefore,” Festus tells the high priests, “let the influential men among you go there with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them prosecute him”

Festus offers the Jewish leadership the chance to prosecute their case against Paul. He invites the influential men among the priests and elders to go there to Caesarea with the governor. The previous governor, Felix, also held a trial for Paul in Caesarea, attended by the then-high priest Ananias, his lawyer, and some of the Jewish elders (Acts 24:1).

Felix delayed any judgment, content to keep Paul a prisoner in hopes of receiving bribe money (Acts 24:26). The new governor, Festus is allowing the influential Jewish leaders to prosecute Paul again, before a new judge (himself, Festus), to prove if there is anything wrong about the man (Paul).

The Jewish leadership apparently agreed to this offer.

Luke reports that Festus spent not more than eight or ten days among them before he went down to his headquarters in Caesarea (v. 6). Apparently Festus considered eight to ten days to be a brief stay, since earlier in verse four he told the Jewish leaders he was about to leave Jerusalem shortly. This gave the Jewish leaders time to decide who would accompany the governor to Caesarea and prepare their strategy to prosecute their case against Paul and prove the wrong he had done.

Upon returning to Caesarea, the trial is held the following day: and on the next day Festus took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought (v. 6).

The tribunal was the judge’s seat. Festus is personally overseeing this trial as judge. Paul has been ordered out of his cell to be brought for another hearing where the influential Jewish leadership will attempt to take him back into their custody. They do not need to prove Paul is a vicious criminal, only that his wrongdoing was an offense to Jewish Law.

If Paul’s crimes are simply religious in nature, the Roman governor may see no need to continue housing this man. Their goal is to have Festus relinquish Paul to their custody. Then, on the return journey to Jerusalem, Paul will be killed in an ambush.

But as Luke reports in the following section, Paul has a trump card to play, allowing him to avoid being handed over to his enemies and fulfilling God’s will at the same time (Acts 23:11).