For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.
For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him, [mee (G3361) kai (G2532) tas (G3588 ) kat' ( G2596) autou (G846) aitias (G156) seemanei (G4591)] - 'without also stating the charges against him.'
Remark: If Felix cuts a sorry figure in the preceding chapter, Festus in this one shows not much better. No doubt he was perplexed in consequence of his ignorance of the Jewish Religion, the parties it created, and the questions which it raised. So that though he at first declined to try the cause of Paul at Jerusalem, and intimated his intention to take it up at Caesarea, he might, without inconsistency, have been anxious to transfer it to Jerusalem, on finding the means of getting to the bottom of it could best be had there. But when the charges brought against the prisoner by Tertullus at Caesarea, and assented to by his Jewish accusers, so completely broke down-since of crime against the State there was none, and even their charges of sacrilege in religious matters proved baseless-it was the duty of an upright judge at once to acquit the prisoner. If there had existed evidence against him, his accusers ought to have had it ready when formally summoned to appear in the cause at Caesarea.
Failing that, there was no pretext for delay in the acquittal of the prisoner; and it was a cruel alternative to shut him up to-either to have his cause transferred to Jerusalem, where his life, already attempted, would be at the mercy of his enemies, or to make his appeal to the emperor. The keen sense of this wrong appears in the apostle's reply to the proposal of Festus that be should go to Jerusalem; and for all the injustice, and hardship, and danger involved in that proposal Festus was alone to blame. Nor did he commit this wrong under any misapprehension. The explanation given of it by the historian-that he was "willing to do the Jews a pleasure" - is one that would naturally suggest itself even though had not been expressed; and it leaves a foul blot upon his administration. But "it was of the Lord," that He might fulfill the word which He spake in the night season to His servant, when shut up in the castle at Jerusalem from the fury of his enemies, "Be of good cheer, for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome" (Acts 23:11).