Acts 25:2

Acts 25:2. Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul. Directly after his arrival at the seat of his new government, the procurator went up to the real capital of the province, Jerusalem, to become in some way acquainted with the national chiefs of that strange nation over whom he was placed. The majority of the older MSS., instead of ‘high priest' read here ‘chief priests,' including the ‘chiefs of the priestly courses,' and not improbably those who had for a longer or shorter period filled the office themselves of high priest. If the reading ‘high priest' be correct, the name of this high official here referred to would be Ismael the son of Plato, who had very recently been appointed to that dignity by Herod Agrippa II., in succession to that Ananias of whom we read when Paul was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrim, on the occasion when he addressed him as ‘Thou whited wall' (Acts 23:3). ‘The chief of the Jews' is a general expression signifying the most eminent and influential men in the nation. Several of these would naturally have a seat in the Sanhedrim; but this ‘information against Paul,' and request that he should be tried by a Jewish tribunal, evidently proceeded from a broader area among the people than would be covered were the reference confined to the supreme council of the Sanhedrim.

The representation to Festus was evidently made as one in which the nation generally was interested. It is clear that, owing to the machinations of his sleepless enemies, a very strong hostile feeling to the great Gentile apostle had sprung up, of which this ‘information' and ‘petition' to the new procurator was the result.