Acts 25:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See how he too seeks to please the Jews, the whole people, and the city. While he did not yet know the Jews and had not received honors from them, he answered justly. But after he had been in Jerusalem, he also began to please them.

He does not merely please them, but does so with deceit. Listen how: "Do you wish," he says, "to go up to Jerusalem, so that I may judge you there concerning this matter?"

It is as though he says: I am not handing you over to them, but I myself will be judge. By saying this, he makes Paul master of the case, so as to incline him by such honor.

For if he had issued an order, it would have been shameless to lead there a man who had been convicted of nothing here.

Paul had long cherished the thought of preaching the Gospel in the capital of the world. The circumstances in Jerusalem seemed to obscure this thought. But on the very night after his explanation before the Sanhedrin, where he bore witness to his faith, the Lord Himself appeared to him. He assured him that, as he had testified concerning Christ in Jerusalem, so he must also testify concerning Him in Rome. Of course, this vision moved him to appeal his case to the emperor when he noticed that the procurator wished to sacrifice him in order to please the people.

The trial of Paul opened again, and the Jews who had come from Jerusalem again began accusing him before the procurator. But the many grave charges they brought against Paul remained unproved. Festus could have released Paul, but since the Jews objected (Acts 28:19), he wished to please them. He asked the apostle whether he wanted his trial transferred to Jerusalem and handed over to the Sanhedrin. But Paul did not wish to be delivered to the Jews, and demanded Caesar’s judgment.

Wishing to put an end to this scene, for nothing could have been more repugnant to the dignity of a well-bred Roman than these howling faces, flashing eyes, and malicious cries of the despised Jews, Festus asked the Apostle Paul whether he wished to go to Jerusalem and stand trial before the Sanhedrin under his protection. In practice, this was a proposal to transfer the case from Roman jurisdiction to Jewish jurisdiction.

Wishing to gratify the Jews: see the note on Acts 24:27.

"Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem, that I may judge you there?" The last expression seems deliberately chosen. It has a double meaning, or may be interpreted in two ways.

It may mean either that he, as judge, would judge Paul there in the presence of the Sanhedrin. Or it may mean that the Sanhedrin would judge Paul there in his presence.

In the first sense, Paul would be tried as a Roman citizen according to Roman laws, with only some application of Jewish national law. In the latter sense, the trial would be according to Jewish national laws, with only some application of Roman law.

Festus' proposal that the apostle be tried in Jerusalem was apparently an attempt to fulfill the Jews' desire. The writer of Acts also notes this.

The commentators, however, see in this proposal a change in Festus himself. Thus Saint John Chrysostom says: "While Festus did not yet know the Jews and had not received honors from them, he answered justly. But when he had been in Jerusalem, he likewise began to please them. He does not simply please them, but does so with servility. Listen how: Do you wish, he says, to go up to Jerusalem, that I may judge you there concerning this matter?