Acts 26:30-32 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And when he had thus spoken That the impression Paul began to make upon the court might reach no further; the king rose up Thus neglecting to yield to conviction, and losing, perhaps for ever, an unspeakably precious moment. Whether the good impressions made were ever afterward laid to heart and improved, we shall see in the day of final accounts. And the governor, and Bernice, &c. On none of whom, it seems, Paul's discourse had much, if any, effect. They ought, in justice, to have asked the prisoner whether he had any more to say for himself; but, it seems, they thought he had said enough to make his case clear, and with that they contented themselves. And when they were gone aside Had withdrawn, to consult and know one another's minds on the matter, they spoke one with another, all to the same purpose; saying, This man As is evident by his discourse, which has all imaginable marks of candour and sincerity; doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds They appear to speak of his whole life, and not of what happened at Jerusalem only. And could ye learn nothing more than this from his discourse? A favourable judgment of such a preacher is not all that God requires. Then Agrippa Not in the least offended with Paul for having spoken to him so freely; said to Festus In the hearing of the whole assembly; This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Cesar Paul's appeal, however, was perfectly proper at the time he made it, seeing Festus had shown an inclination to gratify the Jews by proposing to judge him in Jerusalem. And now, although Agrippa, with the consent of Festus, had declared that Paul might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Cesar, Paul very prudently did not withdraw his appeal, because he fore- saw that, by the solicitations and threatenings of the chief priests and elders, Festus might be constrained, contrary to his inclination, to put him to death, even as Pilate formerly had been constrained, contrary to his conscience, to put Jesus to death. He might probably foresee, too, that his visiting Rome under the character of a prisoner, would be overruled by Providence to answer some important purposes, as is evident from Philippians 1:12-20, it was. We may add further here, though this declaration of Agrippa could not obtain Paul's deliverance, yet it might do him some service, that a testimony to his innocence was pronounced by so learned and honourable a person of the Jewish nation and religion. Festus would probably entertain a better opinion of him on this account, and would give directions to the officer who attended him to treat him with so much the greater regard. “Thus it appears that, besides the defence which Paul made from the top of the stairs to the multitude in Jerusalem, he at four different times, before the highest courts of judicature in Judea, defended the gospel, and his own conduct in preaching it, in the most public manner; namely, 1st, Before the Jewish council, consisting of the high-priests, the chief priests, the whole estate of the elders, and the scribes; who all sat as his accusers. 2d, Before Felix the Roman governor, at whose tribunal the high-priest Ananias, and the elders from Jerusalem, were likewise his accusers, and employed a Roman orator to plead against him. 3d, Before Festus, the governor, on which occasion the Jews from Jerusalem stood forth, a third time, as his accusers. 4th, Before King Agrippa, Bernice, the tribunes, and the principal persons of Cesarea, with many others, in whose presence Paul boldly asserted his own innocence, with such strength of evidence that both Agrippa and Festus declared he might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to the emperor.” Macknight.