CRITICAL REMARKS
Acts 25:1. Having come into the province, or having entered upon his province—i.e., his procuratorship (see on Acts 23:18)—Festus, after three days, ascended, or went up (contrast the reverse, “went down,” in Acts 24:1), from Cæsarea to Jerusalem, the metropolis of the dominion over which he had been appointed ruler.
Acts 25:2. The renewal of the complaints against Paul, which were made by the high priest, or, according to the best MSS., the chief priests and the chief, or the principal (R.V.)—lit., “the first” of the Jews, showed that the Sanhedrim had been greatly dissatisfied with the result of Paul’s trial before Felix. Their present movement was probably dictated by the hope of succeeding better with a new procurator, who, knowing their power as it had been displayed in procuring the recall of his predecessor, might naturally be disposed to exhibit towards them a greater degree of complaisance. The high priest at this time was Ismael, the son of Phabi, who succeeded Ananias (Jos., Ant., XX. viii. 8).
Acts 25:3. Their proposal that Festus should send for Paul to Jerusalem was, like the proposal of the forty (Acts 23:15), designed to afford them an opportunity of cutting him off by secret assassination on the road from Cæsarea.
Acts 25:5. Festus, however, whether he had heard from Felix or Lysias, or others of the former plot, refused their request, and invited those amongst them who were able—i.e., not physically able (Bengel), or to whom it was convenient (Grotius, Calvin) or talented, but powerful, δυνατοί, clothed with official authority, i.e., their rulers (Meyer, Alford, Holtzmann, Zöckler) to go down with him to Cæsarea, whither he was shortly to proceed, and accuse him if there was any wickedness, better anything amiss, or out of place, in his behaviour. The best MSS. omit τούτῳ, this.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Acts 25:1-5
The Succession of a New Governor; or, the Revival and Defeat of an Old Plot
I. The old plot revived.—
1. What the plot was. To effect Paul’s removal by assassination. Nothing could more convincingly have attested the success of the apostle in establishing Christianity among his countrymen than this unappeasable thirst of the leaders of the Jewish people for his removal. So long as he was alive and at liberty to continue an active propaganda, it seemed to them there could be no security against the overthrow of their national faith. They had the sagacity to perceive that a death-struggle had commenced between the Old Faith and the New, in which one or other must go down. Their implacable hostility was also a gruesome revelation of the malignity of their hearts as well as of the secret conviction they entertained that victory was inclining to the side of “the Way.”
2. Why the plot was revived. Because of the failure of the first attempt to carry it out, through the midnight withdrawal of Paul to Cæsarea by Lysias’s soldiers (Acts 23:31-35), and because of the collapse of the subsequent proceedings against Paul before Felix at Cæsarea (Acts 24:22-23). The enemies of Paul and the instigators of the present conspiracy had hoped by fair means or foul to effect their murderous design, but thus far Providence had thwarted its execution. For two years they had brooded over their disappointment, but had not departed from their purpose. “Travailing with iniquity and conceiving mischief” (Psalms 7:14) all that time, they lay in readiness at the proper moment to bring it forth anew.
3. When the plot was resuscitated. On the occasion of Festus’s visit to Jerusalem. Festus, the new procurator, had just entered upon his duties, and come into his province in succession to Felix, who had lately been recalled. Festus, being a new governor, would naturally feel disposed, so Paul’s enemies reasoned, to ingratiate himself with his Judæan subjects, and all the more that he probably knew both how troublesome these were to rule, and how powerful they had shown themselves in being able to bring about the deposition of his predecessor. Besides, from Festus’s inexperience they most likely anticipated better results, than they had obtained from Felix’s longer and wider knowledge of themselves and their craft. Accordingly, no sooner had Festus paid his inaugural visit to the capital, than the Sanhedrists embraced the opportunity of reviving the old charges against their arch-enemy, the apostate. Rabbi then in captivity at Cæsarea.
4. How the plot was designed to be carried out. Under the pretext of wishing to have the apostle brought to a fresh trial, it was arranged that a deputation from the Sanhedrim should wait upon the governor and ask him to send for Paul from Cæsarea, that the charges standing against him might be re-examined in the metropolis, and, in the event of this request being complied with, that they should have a band of hired assassins lying in wait to despatch him while on the way. By no means a clever trick, it was merely the old scheme of the forty Sicarii revived. It was another proof that villains have not always at command sagacity or genius equal to their ferocity. Neither much insight nor much foresight was required to defeat the plot. How it prospered the next paragraph will show.
II. The old plot defeated.—
1. By a simple statement. That Paul was a prisoner at Cæsarea, whither he himself, Festus, was about to depart; which meant that as Paul was under military custody there was no danger of him escaping, and that as he himself (Festus) was about to proceed northwards to Cæsarea, there was no need to be at either the trouble or expense of fetching Paul to Jerusalem. Whether Festus had got an inkling from Lysias, the commandant of the castle, of the previous conspiracy against Paul by these venerable fathers of the people, and stood upon his guard against another stratagem, can only be conjectured; but his answer was a death-blow to their device.
2. By a fair proposal. That a number of themselves, the rulers, clothed with official power should return with him to Cæsarea, and prefer their indictment against the apostle there—if indeed there was anything wrong about either the man or his conduct, which (one almost reads between the lines) he hardly believed there was. How they relished the new governor’s proposal can only be imagined. Clearly it was not the answer they expected to their innocent suggestion. Unless they were either fools or blind, they must have seen that their secret machinations were understood. Concealing their chagrin as best they could, they retired from the governor’s presence, and began their preparations for a second journey to Cæsarea and a third attack upon Paul.
Learn.—
1. How hard it is for evil thoughts and purposes to die within the heart.
2. How difficult it is to kill those whom God wants to keep alive.
3. How easy it is to see through and thwart the designs of the wicked when God is against them.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Acts 25:1. Changes in Government.
I. Occur mostly at unexpected times.—Felix hardly dreamed, when desiring to gain favour with the Jews he left Paul bound, that within two years his term of office would be finished.
II. Always entail new responsibilities upon the new governors.—Festus, on assuming the reins of government, had to make himself acquainted with his new dominions and their peoples.
III. Commonly bring new experiences to the governed.—Hardly any rule could have been worse than that of Felix; and Festus’s was for the Jews a happy exchange. But sometimes the change is from good to bad or from bad to worse.
IV. Unconsciously advance the purposes of Heaven.—He who is higher than the highest, whose kingdom ruleth over all, and who holds the hearts of kings as well as common men in His hand, worketh out the counsel of His own will by all the governments that rise and fall. Festus’s accession to the procuratorship, and coming into Judæa, was the opening of a new chapter in the history of Paul.
Acts 25:2-3. Wickedness in high places; or, the horrible iniquities of those who were, or should have been, good men—exemplified in the conduct of the chief priests and principal men of the Jews.
I. Malignity.—For two whole years they had nursed their wrath against Paul. Thus showed they themselves to be little else than human sleuth hounds.
II. Deception.—They pretended to Festus that they only wished to have the apostle brought to a fresh trial. Thus they attested themselves to be double-dyed hypocrites.
III. Assassination.—Their secret purpose was not to try the apostle but to kill him. They were black-hearted if not red-handed murderers.
Lesson.—The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
Acts 25:5-6. The Lord reigns! let the earth be glad and let His people rejoice. God appears here:
I. As the providential governor of the world.
II. As the adversary and counter-worker of the wicked.
III. As the friend and protector of His people.