Acts chapter 25

vs 15

Well, brought charges is a bit of a rich term... I mean, what charges have they actually brought? Really, what they did was ask for him to be condemned without actually bringing any charges.

vs 16

Which, of course, Paul had over the 2 years he was held in custody by Felix. And has now had again with Festus.

vs 17

That makes Festus sound very nice and just and fair, but remember he wanted to do the Jews a favour.

vs 18

That's true enough. For a Roman governor, it must be quite weird to have some Jews come and bring a person to you, looking for judgement, when he hasn't broken any roman laws. Can you hear the echo of Jesus and Pilate?

vs 19

That is one of the best, most succinct wrap ups of the lunacy of this debate in the eyes of a non-Jew. So feel free to laugh, but then remember what it looks like to non-Christians when Christian denominations get all sectarian and argue about points of doctrine. Not so funny now, is it.

vs 20

Festus may be putting in a grain of truth in what he says here - after all, it would be much more difficult to chase up witnesses and stuff from Caesarea. But don't forget that Luke has stated already that Festus offered a trial in Jerusalem in order to do a favour for the Jews. Perhaps he didn't know that it would mean Paul would be ambushed and killed. But regardless, there are mixed motives here.

vs 21

Which is, of course, good for Paul - because it means that he doesn't get killed, but he does get to go to Rome as God had told him he would. And it's good for Festus, because it gets him out of his hair.

vs 22

Agrippa is probably nothing more than interested in this unique case. So why not listen? It's a day's entertainment at least.

vs 23

Well, Agrippa knows how to make an entrance. You might think that Agrippa outranks Festus with an entrance like that, but really, I don't think he does. He just likes to have important looking entrances. I think Rome's official still has the muscle.

vs 24

That's a bit harsh. I mean, the Jewish Christians in both cities aren't asking for Paul to be killed. But then, perhaps they aren't speaking very loudly, and aren't prepared to cause riots over it and murder people, so they don't get listened to. Always the squeaky wheel.

vs 25

Festus didn't find anything - well, not in any final findings. He was going to keep the whole thing going and take it to Jerusalem.

vs 26

And now we get the low down on why Festus has thought this is a good idea - he can get something firm to put in a report to Caesar, so that he's not just seen as passing off some crazy person to Rome because he couldn't be bothered dealing with it.

vs 27

And I'm sure Caesar, who I think at this time is Nero, would think it unreasonable too. And Nero had the nasty habit of chopping bits off people who did unreasonable things. Or worse.