Porcius Festus and King Agrippa

Simon Attwood

It was pomp and circumstance on a small scale but anyone who was anyone in first century Judaea was there. The difficulties of life outside the walls of the Roman headquarters in Caesarea must have faded from the minds of those inside as they watched the procurator and his royal guests enter the hall. Festus had been entertaining Agrippa[1] and Bernice for several days and now the king was about to return the favour by helping him decide what to do about Paul. 

When Festus took over as procurator the Jews were quick to ask him to punish the apostle. Apparently, he had been very firm in his response to them: ‘It is not the custom of the Romans to give up any man before that the accused have the accusers face to face, and he have got opportunity of defence touching the charge’ (Acts 25:16). So far so good, but when he discovered that they ‘brought no such accusation of guilt as [he had] supposed’ (v. 18), he did not release Paul. Rather, ‘desirous of obliging the Jews, to acquire their favour’, he asked him, ‘Art thou willing to go up to Jerusalem, there to be judged before me concerning these things?’ (v. 9). The apostle saw this for what it was — blatant politics. Festus was learning ‘statecraft’ quickly, and there was no other course for Paul but to appeal to Caesar (v. 11). Festus could not deny him this right as a Roman citizen, but it would not have been wise to send an innocent man to the emperor for judgment. Agrippa, with his knowledge of the Jews and their unique religion (26:26), was the man to concoct a charge.

It seems that Festus was a self-serving man who lived for the moment. He wanted to avoid difficulty from others, be they Jews or Caesar, and disturbing subjects like death. It sounds bizarre to us but the meaning of his full name, Porcius Festus — ‘swinish festival’ — sums him up well. He would have been at home in our 21st century western world. He said to Agrippa about the Jews’ dispute with Paul, ‘I myself was at a loss as to an inquiry into these things’ (25:20). Evidently, he had heard the gospel from the apostle’s lips but all he recalled of it was that it involved ‘a certain Jesus who is dead, whom Paul affirmed to be living’ (v. 19). When Agrippa invited Paul to speak for himself (26:1) he soon started speaking about Jesus again (v. 9). What an example to us. Festus wanted to learn what charges he could level at Paul before Caesar, but Paul convicted him before God (v. 20). He might be sitting on a gilded chair but really he was in the dock. He could not bear the weight of God’s words on his conscience, and he shouted out in frustration: ‘Thou art mad, Paul; much learning turns thee to madness’ (v. 24). In doing so he validated the apostle’s words in 1 Corinthians: ‘we preach Christ crucified, … to nations foolishness’ (1:23).

Paul knew what it was to be mad. He had just said to Agrippa that he had once been ‘exceedingly furious [mad] against’ Christians (Acts 26:11). But now he was a changed man. Speaking to Festus with the respect due to his position — his manner of speech commended the content of his words, a lesson for us all — he assured him, ‘I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but utter words of truth and soberness’ (v. 25). A mad man is neither truthful nor self-controlled. Paul was both. Now he knew that his opportunity to speak personally to the king had come and would not last long. He took it, speaking as respectfully as he had to Festus: ‘the king is informed about these things, to whom also I speak with all freedom. For I am persuaded that of these things nothing is hidden from him; for this was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.’ (vs. 26–27). The man was not a Jew by birth, but he appreciated the religious heritage, and as the Lord Jesus had said to the woman at the well, ‘salvation is of the Jews’ (John 4:22). In this sense Agrippa was not far from the kingdom of God (cf. Mark 12:34) so Paul focused on the fact that Jesus is the key to all that the prophets had said (Rev. 19:10). He put this key in Agrippa’s hand; all he had to do was turn it in faith and enter into God’s blessing. But he did nothing with it. If Festus was hot and bothered, the king turned ice cold at Paul’s challenge: ‘In a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian’ (Acts 26:28). Oh, to be like Paul in his zeal to persuade the sinner, not like the king who despised the idea that a man with a chain on his hand could persuade him in such a short but personal appeal to become a ‘Christman’ (i.e. a Christian). It was offensive to him (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23) and he rejected it out of hand.

God is gracious but it seems the eternal destinies of the Gentile and the Jewish sympathiser were settled there and then, and in a terrible direction. We hear nothing more of them in Scripture. Despite the undoubted power with which Paul had spoken, Satan’s birds soon swooped down and took the seed of the Word from the wayside path (Luke 8:5): ‘the king stood up, and the governor and Bernice, and those who sat with them, and having gone apart, they spoke to one another saying, This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds. And Agrippa said to Festus, This man might have been let go if he had not appealed to Caesar’ (Acts 26:30–32). That was all their meeting with Paul meant to them just a short time later. He was the loser as far as they were concerned; they had no idea that they had missed out on eternal blessing. If history is right, Festus died shortly after his brief spell as procurator (so he need not have worried what Caesar thought of him). As for Agrippa it seems that he lived for 30 more years — a survivor of the crisis about to engulf that part of the world. He might even have had an opportunity to read Luke’s account of his meeting with Paul as it is likely the doctor wrote Acts less than five years later.

Although we are considering the sad histories of Festus and Agrippa, one cannot help but pause and reflect on Paul’s words to Agrippa in Acts 26:29: ‘I would to God, both in little’ — the brief opportunity he had to persuade him — ‘and in much’ — the great truth that had convicted him and which he had brought to bear on Festus — ‘that not only thou, but all who have heard me this day’ — he was also speaking to the throng of people in the hall, and who knows how many of them brought forth fruit a hundredfold as a result of believing his words (cf. Luke 8:8) — ‘should become such as I also am’ — what he was by God’s marvellous grace (1 Cor. 15:10) — ‘except these bonds’ — he would not wish them on anyone. Having said that, he was enabled as the ‘prisoner of the Christ Jesus’ (Eph. 3:1) to minister heavenly truth in his Ephesian and Colossian epistles far and wide, and even to us today. May we learn like him to lean on Christ so the Spirit can lead us for God’s glory (cf. Rom. 8:14). So it is that in the very first verse of the next chapter he sets sail for Rome to begin the next instalment of his wonderful service for Christ. 

In contrast Festus and Agrippa were on a downward trajectory. Their treatment of Paul reminds us how Pilate and Herod had behaved towards his Lord some 30 years earlier (Acts 4:27). Festus said Paul was talking nonsense; Pilate, his famous predecessor, had tried to parry the words of Christ by asking Him, ‘What is truth?’ (John 18:38). As for Herod Antipas, he had rejoiced to see Jesus (Luke 23:8) as his grand-nephew, Herod Agrippa was curious to meet His servant (Acts 25:22), but both gained nothing from their encounters. But in his meeting with these apparently powerful men, as in other episodes in his service, Paul was happy to know ‘the fellowship of [Christ’s] sufferings’ (Phil. 3:10) while on his way to glory. In less than six years Judaea would be swept up in a rebellion against Rome that would lead to the temple’s destruction and the expulsion of the Jews from the land. Morally speaking, the world has not changed; it is still heading for judgment because of the unbelief of men like Festus and Agrippa. The challenge for me is: Am I like Paul, not making my home here but living for and serving Christ until He comes?
 

[1] There are two men in the New Testament known to history as Herod Agrippa. We read about Herod Agrippa I in Acts 12 and 13:1 and his son in Acts 25 and 26.

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From: Truth and Testimony, 2022