Acts 25 explained: Paul Appeals to the Emperor

A new governor, an old plot (vv. 1-5)

Festus replaced Felix as Rome's governor, and the temple leaders quickly asked him to move Paul's trial to Jerusalem, secretly planning to ambush and kill him on the road. Festus refused and kept the case in Caesarea, the Roman headquarters on the coast.

Charges without proof (vv. 6-8)

The accusers from Jerusalem made many serious charges but could not prove any of them. Paul denied wronging Jewish law, the temple, or the emperor, answering both the religious and the political accusations at once.

Paul appeals to Caesar (vv. 9-12)

Festus, wanting to stay on good terms with the local leaders, offered a trial in Jerusalem, the very place where Paul's life had been threatened. Roman citizens had the right to have a serious case heard by the emperor, and once Paul claimed it, Festus had to send him to Rome.

Festus consults a king (vv. 13-22)

King Agrippa, a descendant of Herod who ruled lands near Judea, arrived with his sister Bernice to welcome the new governor. Festus admitted he was puzzled, because the dispute was not about any crime but about religion and a dead man named Jesus whom Paul kept saying was alive.

A grand hearing (vv. 23-27)

With army officers and city leaders gathered in full ceremony, Festus brought Paul out so Agrippa could help him decide what to report. He had found nothing deserving death, yet he could not send a prisoner to the emperor, Nero at the time, without naming a charge.

Key verse: Acts 25:11

Something to think about

Festus found the claim that a dead man was alive too strange even to judge; how do you tend to respond when someone's deepest conviction sounds strange to you?