45th Day of Easter, Tuesday May 26: Acts 25:13-27

The next guy up the ladder from Festus is Agrippa – most English translations use the language of ‘king’. He comes by the port and regional government centre of Caesarea, for supervision and oversight of his new subordinate Festus. Festus asks for advice on how to handle the ‘hot file’ left him by Felix. Agrippa offers to hear Paul directly, before offering counsel to Felix.

Let’s not skip over Bernice. She was wife (and/or sister) of this Herod Agrippa II, and daughter of Herod Agrippa, great grandchild of Herod the Great. She is said to be mistress of Titus and Vespasian when they were ruling for Rome from Syria. The pattern is pretty close to Herodias’ open marriage to Herod Antipas – readers of Acts are assumed to remember her daughter Salome claiming the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Paul was doing better with Drusilla, the Jewish wife of Felix, Festus’ predecessor!

So with great pomp, all the powers-that-be gathered, and Paul was brought before them. It’s one thing to bear witness in a church, or privately – but most folks are pretty phobic or intimidated by the image of speaking truth to power. The goal, we hear, is to stipulate clearly the charges against Paul. It is often the most important step in conflict resolution to name the issue, and the forum.