The Early Church · c. AD 59
Chapter 29
Before Agrippa
Agrippa said to Paul, “With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Christian?”Paul said, “I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me today, might become such as I am, except for these bonds.”
For parents
In Jerusalem the high priest and the leading men plot to kill Paul on his way there (Acts 25:3), and Festus says crowds of the Jews cried out that Paul ought not to live any longer (25:24). In his defense Paul tells how he once shut believers away in prison, gave his vote against them when they were put to death, and punished them in the synagogues (26:9–11), and how the Jews seized him in the temple and tried to kill him (26:21). None of it is told in detail.
Two years had gone by, and had taken ’s place. Felix wanted to win favor with the Jews, so he had left in chains.
Festus had been in the three days when he went up to from .
There the and the leading men of the Jews told him what they had against Paul. They begged Festus to do them a favor and send for Paul to come to Jerusalem. It was a favor against Paul: they were plotting to kill him on the way.
But Festus answered that Paul was to be kept under guard at Caesarea, and that he himself would be leaving soon. “So let your leaders come down with me,” he said, “and if the man has done anything wrong, let them accuse him.”
Festus stayed among them more than ten days and then went down to Caesarea. The next day he sat on the judgment seat and ordered Paul to be brought in.
When Paul appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood all around him and accused him of many serious things. But they could not prove any of them.
Paul answered in his own defense, “I haven’t sinned at all, not against the law of the Jews, not against the temple, and not against .”
But Festus wanted to win favor with the Jews. “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem,” he asked Paul, “and be judged by me there about these things?”
“I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat,” said Paul, “and that is where I ought to be tried. I haven’t done anything wrong to the Jews, as you know very well yourself. If I have done wrong and committed anything that deserves death, I don’t refuse to die. But if none of the things these men accuse me of is true, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”
Festus talked it over with his council and answered, “You have appealed to Caesar. You will go to Caesar.”
After some days, King and arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus.
Agrippa stayed there many days, and Festus told the king about Paul’s case. “Felix left a man here as a prisoner,” he said. “The and the of the Jews came to me about him while I was at Jerusalem, and they asked me to sentence him. I told them it is not the ’ custom to hand anyone over to be destroyed until the accused has met his accusers face to face and has had a chance to defend himself against the charge.
“So when they came here together, I didn’t delay. The next day I sat on the judgment seat and ordered the man to be brought in. His accusers stood up, but the charges they brought were nothing like what I had supposed. They only had some arguments with him over their own religion, and over someone called , who was dead, but who Paul said was alive. I didn’t know how to look into such things, so I asked if he was willing to go to Jerusalem and have these matters judged there. But Paul appealed to be kept for the emperor to decide his case, so I ordered him to be kept until I could send him to Caesar.”
Agrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.”
“Tomorrow,” said Festus, “you will hear him.”
So the next day Agrippa and Bernice arrived in grand style. Along with the army commanders and the leading men of the city, they went into the hall where hearings were held. Paul was brought in at Festus’ command.
“King Agrippa,” said Festus, “and all you men here with us, you see this man. All the crowds of the Jews have pleaded with me about him, at Jerusalem and here too. They cried out that he ought not to live any longer. Yet I found he had done nothing that deserves death. And since he himself appealed to the emperor, I made up my mind to send him.
“But I have nothing certain to write to my lord about him. That is why I have brought him out before you all, and above all before you, King Agrippa: so that after he has been questioned, I may have something to write. It doesn’t seem reasonable to me to send a prisoner on without also saying what he is charged with.”
Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense.
“King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that today I will make my defense before you against all the things the Jews accuse me of. I am especially fortunate because you are an expert in all the customs of the Jews and the questions they argue about. So I beg you to hear me patiently.
“All the Jews know the life I have led since I was young. From the start I lived it among my own nation and in Jerusalem. They have known me from the first, and if they are willing to testify, they can tell you that I lived as a , in the strictest group of our religion.
“Now I am standing here to be judged for the hope of the promise God made to our ancestors. Our twelve worship with all their hearts night and day, hoping to reach it. And the Jews accuse me over this hope, King Agrippa! Why do you find it unbelievable that God raises the dead?
“I myself was sure it was my duty to do much against the name of Jesus of . And I did just that in Jerusalem. The chief priests gave me authority, and I shut many of the away in prisons, and when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them. Often I punished them in all the , trying to make them . In my great rage against them, I persecuted them even in foreign cities.
“That is what I was doing when I traveled to , with the chief priests’ authority and orders. At noon on the road, Your Majesty, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun. It shone all around me and those who traveled with me. When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the .’
“I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Now rise and stand on your feet, because I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness, both of the things you have seen and of the things I will reveal to you. I will rescue you from the people and from the , to whom I send you. I send you to open their eyes, so they will turn from darkness to light and from the power of to God, and so they will receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are made holy by faith in me.’
“So, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. I told the people of Damascus first, and those in Jerusalem and all through the country of , and the Gentiles too. I told them to and turn to God, and to do deeds that show they have repented.
“This is why the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.
“So, with God’s help, I still stand to this day, testifying to people both small and great. I say nothing but what the and said would happen: how the must suffer, and how, by the of the dead, he would be first to proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles.”
As Paul made his defense this way, Festus shouted, “Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!”
But Paul said, “I am not crazy, most excellent Festus. I am boldly speaking words that are true and sensible. The king knows about these things, and I speak to him freely. I am sure that none of this is hidden from him, because it was not done off in some corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”
Agrippa said to Paul, “With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a ?”
“I pray to God,” said Paul, “that whether it takes a little or a lot, not only you but everyone who hears me today might become like me, except for these chains.”
The king stood up, and so did the governor, Bernice, and those who sat with them. When they had gone out, they said to one another, “Nothing this man does deserves death or chains.”
Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”