Acts 25:23

‘So on the next day, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, and they were entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of the city, at the command of Festus Paul was brought in.'

Festus was no doubt pleased to have a ‘Jewish expert' look at the case who was not prejudiced against the prisoner, and decided to do the whole thing on the proper scale so that the prisoner would be overawed and would thus be more submissive. At the same time it would show full courtesy to the king for his visit. So he called together the principal men of the city, (a mixture of Syrians and Jews, with the Syrians more prominent as we have seen) and the leading military men, including the five chiliarchs (chief captains), and Agrippa and Bernice, all in great state. The examination of Paul was going to be somewhat of a spectacle. Then before that important assembly, in ‘the place of hearing' (be it noted ostensibly to hear questions of Jewish law), he had Paul brought in. Surely, he must have thought, this would make the man think.

It would seem clear, however, that his concern here was firstly in order to determine on what charges Paul could be sent to Caesar, and secondly in order to demonstrate his own fairness in dealing with the case so that when Paul went to Caesar he would not be able to say that he had not had a fair deal. It may well, of course, be that the case had become something of a cause celebre, especially as local Christians may well have been presenting their own view of things.

We may note that since his first arrest not one word has been said about what the church had done. It is not fair to assume that they had done nothing. It is one of Luke's silences. While Luke does not mention it, the reason for this may firstly have been because he knows that God's will is going forward, and secondly possibly because he had had to recognise that it had achieved nothing except possibly better treatment for Paul and a recognition that not all were against him.

So Paul, came in, the chains still on his hands and feet, and stood before that august assembly. The representative of the King stood there a captive in chains, those who were the slaves of sin and under Satan sat in their splendour and caroused. And yet there was only one man in control.