Chapter XC: Section 6

TRIAL V. AND LAST.--PLACE, STILL CÆSAREA.

This requires some previous explanation.

A few days after the last preceding trial, came to Cæsarea, says verse 13, _Agrippa and Bernice_: Festus being still there: Agrippa, sub-king of the Jews under the Romans: Bernice, it may be presumed, his queen: saluting this their superior, their only business mentioned. Follows thereupon a conversation, of which Defendant is the subject, and which continues the length of fourteen verses. Defendant having appealed to Caesar, judge has determined to send him to Caesar accordingly. But, considering that, by the emperor, on the arrival of a man sent to him in the character of a prisoner, some assigned cause, for his having been put into that condition, will naturally be looked for; and, as the only offences, the Jew stands charged with, are of a sort, which, while to the heathen emperor they would not be intelligible, would to a Jew sub-king, if to any one, be sufficiently so;--thereupon it is, that he desires his sub-majesty to join with him in the hearing of the cause, and by that means put him in a way to report upon it.

Speaking of the accusers, "they brought," says Festus to Agrippa in verse 18, "none accusation of such things as I supposed.--But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.--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.--But Paul...had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus..." Such, as above noticed, is the declaration which the historian puts into the mouth of Festus: and this, after having so recently made Paul tell Festus, that his, Paul's, having done no wrong to the Jews, was to him, Festus, matter of such perfect knowledge.[82]

Now then comes the trial, Acts 26:1. Scene, at Cæsarea, the Emperor's Bench. Lord chief justice, Roman governor Festus; Puisne judge, Jew sub-king Agrippa. Present, "Bernice...chief captains and principal men of the city." Special accusers, none. Sole speaker, whose speech is reported, the Defendant.

Points in Defendant's speech, these:

1. Verses 2 and 3. Patient hearing requested, acknowledgment of Agrippa's special confidence.

2. Verses 4 and 5. Protestation of Phariseeism.

3. Verses 6, 7, 8. Same false insinuation as before,--Phariseeism the sole crime imputed to him.

4. Verses 9, 10, 11. Confession or avowal, whichever it is to be called, of his proceedings six-and-twenty years before, against the Christianized Jews, shutting them up in prison, in pursuance of authority from "the chief priests," down to the time of his conversion-vision. See Table I. Conversion Table.

5. Verses 12 to 20. Account of this same vision. See that same Table.

6. Declaration. "For _these_ causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me."--For these causes? For what causes? If for being a Pharisee, or preaching the general resurrection, or even the particular one,--assuredly no. But, if for the breach of trust, in joining with the state offenders, the Christianized Jews, whom he was commissioned to apprehend;--joining with those state offenders, and then bringing out the vision-story for an excuse;--if telling everybody that would hear him, that the law of the land was a dead letter;--and, if the denying he had ever done so; and, for giving himself the benefit of such mendacious denial, rendering the temple an instrument of notorious perjury;--if it was for all this, that they "went about" indeed "to kill him,"--but to kill him no otherwise than in the manner prescribed by that same law,--Jewishly speaking, they were not to blame in what they did,--humanly speaking, nothing can be seen that is not altogether natural in it.

7. Conclusion: namely, if not of what he would have said,--at any rate, of what, according to the reporter, he was permitted to say:--it is formed by a passage, in which, in continuance of his plan for keeping up his interest with the Pharisee part of the council, his ingenuity employs itself in strengthening the connection between the particular resurrection of Jesus, and the general resurrection maintained by the Pharisees.

"Having therefore," says verse 22, "obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, _witnessing_ both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:--That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles."--Lord Chief Justice Festus, "with a loud voice, as he," the Defendant, "thus spake for himself--Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning hath made thee mad." In the mouth of a Roman, and that Roman so high in rank, the notion thus expressed had nothing in it but what was natural enough. As to the _general_ resurrection, _that_ was one of the above-mentioned "questions about their own superstition," which he therefore left to the Jewish judges: as to the _particular_ resurrection, of this he had heard no better evidence than the defendant's: and what, in discriminating eyes, _that_ was likely to be worth, the reader has by this time judged.

8. Defendant in reply, ver. 25: Not mad, but sober:--for confirmation, appeal to the Jewish sub-monarch, then and there present. "I am not mad, most noble Festus; but speak for the words of truth and soberness.--For the King knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely; for I am persuaded, that none of these things are hidden from him; for this was not done in a corner." Here would have been a place for the five hundred, by whom, after his resurrection, Jesus was seen at once--see above chapter--but, upon the present occasion, the general expression, here employed, was deemed preferable. "King Agrippa," continues verse 27, "believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest."

King Agrippa to Paul, ver. 28. "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian."

Paul to Agrippa: "I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, _except these bonds_." No bad trait of polite oratory this exception.

Assembly breaks up.--"And when he had thus spoken, the King rose up, and the governor and Bernice, and they that sat with them. And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar." Observation. In this observation, something of the obscure seems to present itself. For, Paul himself being the appellant, and _that_ for no other purpose than the saving himself from death or bonds, he had but to withdraw the appeal, and, supposing a judgment pronounced to the effect thus mentioned, this was everything he could have wished from it. But, Paul having already, to judge from his Epistle to the Romans, laid the foundation of a spiritual kingdom in the metropolis of the civilized world,--it looks as if he had no objection to figure there, as we shall find him figuring accordingly, in the character of a state-prisoner, for the purpose of displaying, and in the eye of the Caesar of that day, a sample of his eloquence, in a cause so much greater than any in which that of the first Caesar could ever have displayed itself. Reason is not wanting for the supposition, that it was by what passed at the council, that the idea was first suggested to him: for "the night following, the Lord," says 23:11, "stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome." The Lord has commanded me so and so, is the sort of language in which he would naturally make communication of this idea to his attendants.

The circumstantiated and dramatic style of this part of the narrative, seems to add to the probability, that, on this occasion, the historian himself was present. On this supposition, though in the Greek as well as in the English, they are represented as if they had quitted the justice-room,--any conversation, that took place among them immediately after, in the street, might not unnaturally have been overheard by him. In chapter 24, ver. 23, stands Felix's order of admittance, as above, for Paul's acquaintance, to minister or come to him. One other attendant has appeared, in the character of his sister's son, Acts 23:16; by whom information was given to Felix, that the men there spoken of were lying in wait for him to kill him. On the occasion of this invasion of his, it would have been interesting enough to have had a complete list of his staff.

Here ends trial fifth and last: and in the next verse it is, that, together with other prisoners, and the historian at least for his free attendant, he is dispatched on his voyage. Acts 27:1. "And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band.--And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, _we_ launched..."

FOOTNOTES:

[81] If in any former part of this work, in speaking of this scene, the persons in question have been spoken of as having actually proceeded to acts of manual violence, it was an oversight.

As to the examination by scourging,--singular enough will naturally appear this mode of collecting evidence: declared purpose of it, "that he," the captain, "might know wherefore _they_," the Jews, "cried out against him," meaning the defendant. A simpler way would have been to have asked _them_; and, as to the scourge, what use it could have been of is not altogether obvious. To begin with torturing a man, and proceed by questioning him, was, however, among the Romans a well-known mode of obtaining evidence. But, then and there, as now and everywhere, unless the United States form an exception, "whatever is--is right," provided always that it is by power that it is done.

[82] Acts 25:12-27.

"Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go.--And after certain days king Agrippa and Bernice came unto Cæsarea to salute Festus.--And when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in bonds by Felix:--About whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to have judgment against him.--To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.--Therefore, when they were come hither, without any delay on the morrow I sat on the judgment-seat, and commanded the man to be brought forth:--Against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed:--But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.--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.--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 Caesar.--Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. To-morrow, said he, thou shalt hear him.--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.--And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are 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.--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.--Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord, wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O, King Agrippa, that after examination had, I might have somewhat to write.--For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him."

CHAPTER XVI.

_Paul's Doctrines Anti-apostolic_.--_Was he not Anti-Christ?_