Act 25:12-14 | PNT | STEP | When he had conferred with the council . Festus' own counselors, men called "assessors", whose duty it was to advise the governor. He then announces the decision, I suppose, in the legal language used in such cases, "Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar thou shalt go".

Acts 25:12-14

When he had conferred with the council. Festus' own counselors, men called "assessors", whose duty it was to advise the governor. He then announces the decision, I suppose, in the legal language used in such cases, "Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar thou shalt go". Agrippa and Bernice came. King Agrippa II, the son of Herod Agrippa, whose death is told in Ac 12:23. Drusilla and Bernice were his sisters. He was the last of the Herodian kings, and was at this time king of Calchis. Bernice, his beautiful sister, was one of the fairest and most dissolute women of her time. She was married several times, had been twice married before Paul saw her, and is discreditably associated with both Vespasian and Titus. The latter took her to Rome, and would have married her had it not been for the storm of public disapproval.

To salute Festus. To pay their respects to the new Roman official. Festus declared Paul's cause unto the king. He did this for advice. He was really perplexed. He had just come into the province of Judea, and was not acquainted with Jewish customs. He could see nothing wrong in Paul, but the Jewish rulers accused him so vehemently that he was not sure that he understood the case. King Agrippa was a Jew by birth, would understand the real difference between Paul and the Sanhedrin, and could aid Festus to formulate the charges that must be sent to Rome when Paul was sent to appear before Caesar's tribunal.