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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 25:26 - 25:26
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No certain thing (asphales tōi̇̇ou). Nothing definite or reliable (a privative, sphallō, to trip). All the charges of the Sanhedrin slipped away or were tripped up by Paul. Festus confesses that he had nothing left and thereby convicts himself of gross insincerity in his proposal to Paul in Act 25:9about going up to Jerusalem. By his own statement he should have set Paul free. The various details here bear the marks of the eyewitness. Luke was surely present and witnessed this grand spectacle with Paul as chief performer.
Unto my lord (tōi kuriōi). Augustus (Octavius) and Tiberius refused the title of kurios (lord) as too much like rex (king) and like master and slave, but the servility of the subjects gave it to the other emperors who accepted it (Nero among them). Antoninus Pius put it on his coins. Deissmann (Light from the Ancient East, p. 105) gives an ostracon dated Aug. 4, a.d. 63 with the words “in the year nine of Nero the lord” (enatou Nerōnos tou kuriou). Deissmann (op. cit., pp. 349ff.) runs a most interesting parallel “between the cult of Christ and the cult of Caesar in the application of the term kurios, lord” in ostraca, papyri, inscriptions. Beyond a doubt Paul has all this fully in mind when he says in 1Co 12:3 that “no one is able to say Kurios Iēsous except in the Holy Spirit” (cf. also Phi 2:11). The Christians claimed this word for Christ and it became the test in the Roman persecutions as when Polycarp steadily refused to say “ Lord Caesar” and insisted on saying “Lord Jesus” when it meant his certain death.
Before you (eph' humōn). The whole company. In no sense a new trial, but an examination in the presence of these prominent men to secure data and to furnish entertainment and pleasure to Agrippa (Act 25:22).
Especially before thee (malista epi sou). Out of courtesy. It was the main reason as Act 25:22shows. Agrippa was a Jew and Festus was glad of the chance to see what he thought of Paul’s case.
After examination had (tēs anakriseōs genomenēs). Genitive absolute, “the examination having taken place.” Anakrisis from anakrinō (cf. Act 12:19; Act 24:8; Act 28:18) is a legal term for preliminary examination. Only here in the N.T. Inscriptions and papyri give it as examination of slaves or other property.
That I may have somewhat to write (hopōs schō ti grapsō). Ingressive aorist subjunctive schō (may get) with hopōs (final particle like hina). Ti grapsō in indirect question after schō is either future indicative or aorist subjunctive (Robertson, Grammar, p. 1045). Festus makes it plain that this is not a “trial,” but an examination for his convenience to help him out of a predicament.