Acts 25:10

Acts 25:10. Then said Paul, I stand at Cæsar's judgment seat. And the prisoner's reply was decisive. Paul felt that there was no hope of justice for him if he pleaded before the Sanhedrim. Perhaps he was conscious that, if he yielded, he would never stand before that august council at all; for, remembering the murderous plot he had escaped two years before, he feared the Jews, who hated him with so fierce a hate, would never suffer him to reach Jerusalem in safety. It is not improbable that he had even received warnings of the lying in wait mentioned in Acts 25:3. The procurator was the representative of the Cæsar at Rome, and the eagle of Rome was engraved on the judge's tribunal, who pronounced sentence in the name of the reigning emperor. Syria, of which great government Judæa was a subdivision, was an imperial province, under the direct rule of the emperor. There were two kinds of provinces in the Empire some under the nominal rule of the consuls: these were termed senatorial; some under the direct military supervision of the Cæsar: these were termed imperial. Syria, and therefore Judæa, belonged to this latter class. Tacitus, in is Annals, tells us how Nero, who was then on the throne, had published an edict which directed that Italy and the public (senatorial) provinces should address themselves to the tribunal of the consuls, and have access to the senate, but that he himself would provide for the provinces and the armies committed to the emperor.

To the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou very well knowest. Literally, ‘as thou knowest too well,' or ‘as thou knowest better' (the Greek word in the original is a comparative) ‘than thou allowest' The apostle's meaning was: ‘My offence, if I have committed an offence, is against the Majesty of the Cæsar. Let him judge me, and punish me if I am really guilty. As regards the Jews, you know too well I am perfectly innocent. Why should I waive then my rights as a Roman, and submit myself to their tribunal, which only takes cognisance of crimes which I never dreamt of committing?'