Acts 22

Acts 22:13-27

1 Chap. xxii. 2 & xxiii. 4 Rev. i. 18. 5 Or cognizant. 6 Exchl. i. 4. 7 Cor. xx. 28. 8 Chap. xxii. 10 Chap. xxii. 11 & xxiii. 12. 13 Or. The Land. Job xxiii. 11. 14 Chap. xxii. 15.

to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. 17. Therefore when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment-deat, and I commanded the man to be brought forth. 18. Against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed: 19. But had certain questions against him of their own Superfiction, and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. 20. And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters. 21. But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Cefar. 22. Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said he, thou shalt hear him. 23. And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, and principal men of the city, at Festus commandment Paul was brought forth. 24. And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer. 25. But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him. 26. Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto I my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and especially before thee, O king Agrippa, that after examination had I might have something to write. 27. For it decreeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.

As Christ had told his disciples that they should be brought before governors and kings, so doth he order it in his procedures, that their persecutors are made the instruments of leading those great men to hear the gospel, who perhaps otherwise never would have heard it. We have here,

1. The visit of Agrippa to Festus, to congratulate him on his coming to his government. He was the son of that Herod who slew the apostle James: Claudius, the Roman emperor, had given him the tile of king, and the tetrachy which belonged to his uncle Philip. Bernice, who accompanied him, was his sister; but was accused of too great familiarity with her brother: such were the great folks of those times; when viewing them the present corruptions of the age, say an old former days were better, the world was always the same.

2. As Agrippa and Bernice were both brought up in the Jewish religion, after they had been at Cefares some time, in conversation one day Paul’s case happened to be the subject, which Festus related to the king, either to entertain him with the story, or to have his advice how to act, as better acquainted with the Jewish rites and customs, than he, a stranger, could be supposed to be. He had found Paul in bonds, when Felix resigned the government to him, and had no sooner come to Jerusalem, to take possession of his province, than the chief priests and elders clamoured for judgment against him; but he excused himself from a holy decision of the matter, alleging the constant custom of the Romans to adjudge no man to death, nor to confess him to destruction, through any favour or partiality; but first to have the person accused, and his accusers, face to face, that he might have liberty to exculpate himself from any crime laid to his charge. And to dispatch the matter without delay, the next day after his arrival, the prisoner was brought to the bar; when, to his surprise, he found no one accusation of a criminal nature could be proved, such as came under his cognizance as a magistrate; but that the charge turned upon certain questions of a religious nature, respecting the tenets he held, contrary to their law, and about one Jesus, who was crucified, whom Paul affirmed to be alive again: counting himself an incompetent judge of such superfluous controversies, as he regarded them, he proposed to Paul to have the matter cancelled before the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem; but the prisoner objecting to them, had pleaded his privilege, and appealed unto Cefar; he was therefore still in custody, till an opportunity offered to send him to Rome. Note, (1.) Every man has a natural right to be heard before he is condemned. To determine a case where only one side of the question is told, in the sure way to err, and may be the means of irreparable injury to the paced innocence. (2.) They who know our Jesus, speak slightly of him; but to those who feel their guilt, and need of a Saviour, whether he be alive again or not, is a matter of infinite importance, on which their excruciating hopes depend.

3. Agrippa, curious to know what Paul had to say for himself, intimated a desire to hear him; Festus gladly confronted to it, and appointed the next day. On the morrow Agrippa and Bernice as vast pomp, arrayed in gorgeous apparel, attended by their royal resimes, entered the judgment-hall, where all the chief captains and principal men of the city attended, drawn by curiosity, or so pay their respects to the noble personages who were present: when being feared, the prisoner, at the commandment of Festus, is brought forth, more adorned with his prison garments and glorious bonds, than they in all their vain splendor and empty magnificence.

4. Festus with respect hereupon addered himself to King Agrippa, and the principal men who were present, and opened the occasion of their meeting with an account of the prisoner before them, concerning whom he had been solicited with great importunity by all the Jews, both at Jerusalem and Cefares, to pass sentence of death upon him, as a misrevent unworthy to live. But when on a fair trial nothing criminal could be proved against him, and Paul had appealed to Augustus for the final decision of his cause, he was refused to send him; and as it looked ablud and unreasonable to send a prisoner, without signifying what crimes he stood accused of, he had therefore brought Paul forth before that honourable assembly, especially before King Agrippa, who was most acquainted with the Jewish laws and customs, that after a full discussion of the case, he might have something determinate to write to his imperial master, concerning the prisoner who had appealed to his judgment.