The Ad hoc King

Acts 25:13-27

It has been my experience that the new person in charge has many folks that want to meet them, and it matters not where they are in business, politics, or church life.  The reasons I’m sure run the gambit, but for many it is to find favor, to let the person know they have some importance and that they may be of some help to them.  We see Agrippa the king and his sister Bernice playing nice to Festus by coming to Caesarea to greet him.  It appears that the three of them hit it off because we are told they stayed there for many days.  So it may help us to have a better understanding of who Agrippa is: “The King Agrippa who comes to pay his respects to Festus was Marcus Julius Agrippa II (A.D. 27-100), son of Agrippa I (Acts 12:1-25) and great-grandson of Herod the Great (Mt 2:1-23). Brought up in Rome in the court of Claudius, he was a favorite of the emperor, though too young to immediately succeed his father at his death in A.D. 44. In A.D. 50, following the death of his uncle (Herod of Chalcis, A.D. 48) he was granted the petty kingdom of Chalcis, northeast of Judea. He had supreme power in Jewish religious life, for the Romans gave him the right to appoint the high priest and custodianship of the temple treasure and the high priest's vestments (Josephus Jewish Antiquities 20.213, 222). He was the last of the Herodian line.”  (Source is: IVP New Testament Commentaries)

With that background it is easy to understand that Agrippa had a good understanding of Jewish life and control over the high priest gave him unbelievable power.  This is the account of how Paul’s name came up in one of their conversations: “And as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, “There is a man left prisoner by Felix, and when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid out their case against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him. I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him. So when they came together here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought. When the accusers stood up, they brought no charge in his case of such evils as I supposed. Rather they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them. But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.” Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” said he, “you will hear him.”  (Acts 25:14-22 ESV)

It is the next day and it time for this Ad hoc king and his sister to come before the prominent men of the city, and they enter with much pomp, with the military tribunes, and then Paul is brought in.  Festus lays out what the Jewish leaders have done to Paul, and because by Roman law he has wronged no one, and in that Festus needs to write a letter to the emperor about what Paul is being charged with, he is very happy to place the ball in Agrippa’s court. 

What kind of letter would you write to the emperor about Paul?

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice