Acts 25:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

When the Jews arrived in Caesarea, they shamelessly brought even greater accusations against him. Since they could not accuse him of acts against the law, they again resorted to their usual device. They pointed to Caesar, as they had done in relation to Christ. This is clear from the fact that Paul defends himself against the charges brought against him concerning Caesar, as the writer explains in what follows. Immediately, at the very beginning, the priests approached him. They would not have been too lazy to go to Caesarea if he had not first gone up to Jerusalem. There, as soon as he arrived, they appeared.

When Festus, soon after assuming office, came to Jerusalem, the high priest and the most prominent of the Jews appeared before him with complaints against Paul. They asked him to summon the apostle for trial before them in Jerusalem, plotting to kill him on the road. But the procurator did not grant their request. He proposed that they appear for trial in Caesarea, where Paul was being kept under guard and where he himself intended shortly to return. Consequently, when he returned to Caesarea, Paul’s accusers also came there.

One of the first questions he had to face was the case of the Apostle Paul. Two years of imprisonment had prevented the Jews’ evil design from being carried out.

Yet it could not suppress their deadly hatred for the man who, by freely offering the Gospel to the Gentiles, gave in their eyes one of the most fatal signs of their threatening fall.

The terrible massacre in the marketplace between Jews and Syrian Greeks, which caused Felix’s dismissal, left behind an ineradicable enmity. The Caesarean Jews unanimously demanded the immediate punishment of the Apostle Paul.

When Festus arrived in Jerusalem, he was met with an outcry about the same matter. Paul’s death was demanded not only by the rabble, but also by delegations of the chief representatives of Jerusalem.

“The high priest and the chief men.” More exactly, the chief priests; cf. the note on Mt 2:4; and the first men.

The acting high priest at that time was Ishmael, son of Phiabi. Felix had appointed him in place of Ananias, whom he had removed (Acts 22:2; Flavius, Antiquities 20, 8.8 and 11).

Together with him came the elder priests and the first men, that is, the most notable and distinguished men. Among these first men, most were probably members of the Sanhedrin.

Yet there were also probably laymen prominent in their official and public position. The opposition to Paul, the supposed enemy of the national religion, had now broadened and spread to influential laymen.

The Jews' hatred against the Apostle Paul did not die out during the years Felix kept him languishing under guard in Caesarea. As soon as a new procurator appeared in place of Felix, on his first journey from Caesarea to Jerusalem they asked him to summon Paul, ostensibly to examine his case. In reality, they meant to kill him on the road.

So great was the hatred for him among the high priest, who was then Ishmael, and the most notable Jews. Clearly the successes of Christianity, both in Judea and everywhere, were very great. Therefore the enemies of Christianity wished to pour out their malice by murdering one of its most zealous spreaders.