Acts 25:20

Acts 25:20. And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters. Festus hardly represents here the whole truth. No doubt he did wish to be informed more fully concerning the real ground of the bitter enmity which existed between Paul and the Sanhedrim. He felt, whatever the grave point at issue was, it was one of the burning questions which was then agitating the unhappy and distracted province over which he had just been appointed ruler; and it behoved him as a wise politician to make himself acquainted as soon as possible with the varied details of this Christianity in which Paul was a leading spirit, and which was evidently so hateful to the ruling body among the Jews. This full information he felt he could only get at the centre of Jewish life, Jerusalem, the headquarters of their religion. It was therefore quite true to allege this desire of his to get perfect information as the reason which prompted him to wish to have the trial of Paul conducted by the Sanhedrim in the Holy City. But he kept in the background another powerful motive which had influenced him in his proposition to the apostle to remove the scene of trial, and to substitute Jewish for Roman forms of law in his case, viz. his own desire to acquire popularity among the Jews (see Acts 25:9).