Acts 25

vs 1

Doing a bit of a tour of the provinces I guess.

vs 2

Oh, come on. Paul's been incarcerated for 2 years, and yet they're still pressing against him. Perhaps they haven't eaten or drunk for two years, and they're really hungry? I think people who made that oath are either dead, or rescinded it. But their anger against Paul hasn't receded at all. Paul may well have still been fairly active while under house arrest in Caesarea.

vs 3

The bit about preparing an ambush to kill him really should be in brackets, as I assume they didn't reveal that part of their plan to Festus.

vs 4-5

It's a fairly reasonable judgement to make. Why move him to Jerusalem, when Festus is going back to Caesarea anyway? Who better to make a judgement than the governor? Even if Felix never did make one. That two years must have been one of great patience stretching for Paul.

vs 6

Only fair, too - if Paul's been languishing for two years, he may as well be one of the first orders of business to take care of. But I'm guessing the pestering of the Jews actually worked against them here. Festus probably would have done a few things himself first, and would have gotten around to Paul in the end, if the Jews hadn't pestered him about it.

vs 7

Charges without proof are not of much use. Just making lots of them, or having lots of people do it, or repeating them over and over, doesn't make them any more true.

vs 8

I am assuming his defense was a little more bolstered than "No I Didn't". But Luke, for the sake of what was probably repetition and unecessary, just summarises the three points - Paul hasn't broken Jewish Law, desecrated the temple, or broken Caesar's law.

vs 9

Paul still realises how dangerous this is, I am sure. Perhaps Festus doesn't - he probably thinks that the Jews just want him before the entire Sanhedrin. Or perhaps the Jews really did say they wanted to kill Paul, and Festus is thinking "What's one person to placate these people in the province I have newly acquired?"

vs 10

Dictating to Festus what he does and doesn't know is a bit rich.

vs 11

Paul, perhaps after languishing for 2 years, is just wanting to speed up the process of heading to Rome as God told him he would. He makes a valid point though - that if the charges against him can't be proved, it is unjust to hand him over to the Jews.

vs 12

I guess this gets Paul out of Festus' hair. And Festus probably thinks Paul isn't really his problem - it was Felix's problem.

vs 13

How nice of them. Who's King Agrippa? He is actually the son of Herod Agrippa I. So? Basically, he's a king of a small kingdom, and he's come to pay his respects to the new Imperial governor.

vs 14

So now Festus says "Aha, I can talk out this problem with this King, and get his opinion, and perhaps blame anything that goes wrong on him when I send him to Caesar." Also, King Agrippa had recently changed the name of his capital to Neronias, so he was probably in good with the Emperor at the time.