St Paul in the presence of Agrippa

  [The posts which follow make extensive use of The Acts of the Apostles, by Madame Cecilia, (Religious of St Andrew's Convent, Streatham), with an Imprimi potest dated 16 October 1907 (Westminster); Burns, Oates & Washbourne Ltd. (London). With grateful prayers for the author and her team: 

REQUIEM æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen.

ETERNAL rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.]

 

Acts XXV :  23-27

[23] And on the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice were come with great pomp, and had entered into the hall of audience, with the tribunes, and principal men of the city, at Festus' commandment, Paul was brought forth. 

[24] And Festus saith: King Agrippa, and all ye men who are here present with us, you see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews dealt with me at Jerusalem, requesting and crying out that he ought not to live any longer. 

[25] Yet have I found nothing that he hath committed worthy of death. But forasmuch as he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him.

[26] Of whom I have nothing certain to write to my lord. For which cause I have brought him forth before you, and especially before thee, O king Agrippa, that examination being made, I may have what to write.

[27] For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not to signify the things laid to his charge.

[23] Altera autem die cum venisset Agrippa, et Bernice cum multa ambitione, et introissent in auditorium cum tribunis, et viris principalibus civitatis, jubente Festo, adductus est Paulus. [24] Et dicit Festus : Agrippa rex, et omnes qui simul adestis nobiscum viri, videtis hunc de quo omnis multitudo Judaeorum interpellavit me Jerosolymis, petentes et acclamantes non oportere eum vivere amplius. [25] Ego vere comperi nihil dignum morte eum admisisse. Ipso autem hoc appellante ad Augustum, judicavi mittere. [26] De quo quid certum scribam domino, non habeo. Propter quod produxi eum ad vos, et maxime ad te, rex Agrippa, ut interrogatione facta habeam quid scribam. [27] Sine ratione enim mihi videtur mittere vinctum, et causas ejus non significare.

Notes

    23. with great pomp. With great display or parade. Thus Agrippa’s father had sat in royal pomp in the theatre of that same town when the angel of God struck him for his pride.

    hall of audience. As this was not a trial, but an informal examination, it was conducted in some public hall set apart for such purposes. The word in classical Greek signifies a lecture hall.

    tribunes. The prefects of the five cohorts stationed at Cesarea.

    On this occasion our Lord’s prophetic words were fulfilled : And you shall be brought before governors and before kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles (St Matt. X. 18).

    24. all the multitude. The two great parties, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, had doubtless united and stirred up the people in Jerusalem to clamour for St Paul’s execution.

    at Jerusalem. Some MSS. add ‘‘and also here” (και ἐνθάδε), and the translators of the A.V. and R.V. retain these words. If genuine, they shew that not only the people in Jerusalem were incensed against St Paul, but that he had many enemies in Cesarea.

    “The Jews of Cæsarea were as bigoted and turbulent as those in Jerusalem. See Josephus, Bell. Jud,, ii., xiii. 7 and xiv. At the outbreak of the war 20,000 were massacred by the Syrian inhabitants (xviM. 1).”

    25. I found nothing, etc. This is a formal declaration of St Paul’s innocence.

    Lysias had pronounced the same acquittal when sending St Paul to Felix. The words of Festus recall those of Pilate, who also found nothing “ worthy of death ” in the Divine Prisoner who stood at his tribunal. (See St Luke xxiii. 14-15.)

    to my lord. (τῷ Κυρίῳ) As this word was used of the relationship of a master to his slave, neither Augustus nor Tiberius would allow it to be applied to him. It afterwards became the ordinary designation for the emperor.

examination. St Lukti uses the technical tei‘in for a preliminary examination made to decide whether a cause would lie.

    27. For it seemeth, etc. Festus evidently hoped that this examination made in presence of Agrippa might bring to light some serious ground of complaint.

Totus tuus ego sum 
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum tutus semper sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam