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Context No. 187 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 26:24-32: in context

24As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!” 25But he said, “I am not crazy, most excellent Festus, but boldly declare words of truth and reasonableness. 26For the king knows of these things, to whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him, for this has not been done in a corner. 27King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” 28Agrippa said to Paul, “With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Christian?” 29Paul said, “I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me today, might become such as I am, except for these bonds.” 30The king rose up with the governor and Bernice, and those who sat with them. 31When they had withdrawn, they spoke to one another, saying, “This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds.” 32Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Paul is under Roman custody in Caesarea, making his defense before the governor Festus and King Agrippa. He has just described his conversion and argued that the prophets and Moses foretold a suffering and rising Messiah. This passage is the reaction.

Festus interrupts, shouting: Paul, you are out of your mind, your great learning is driving you insane. Paul's reply is composed and precise. I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. Then he turns to Agrippa, a Jewish client king who would know the scriptures and the recent history: the king knows about these things, none of this has escaped him, for it was not done in a corner.

Then he presses. Do you believe the prophets? I know that you do. Agrippa's answer is famously ambiguous, sometimes rendered as almost you persuade me. Then the two officials confer privately and reach a verdict that goes nowhere: this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. They agree he is innocent and send him to Rome anyway, because the paperwork now requires it. A man is declared blameless and shipped off by procedure. What have I let run because the process was already moving, after I had decided it was wrong?

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