Hopefully you all check out Dayne’s article on the man who Lysias mistook Paul for, The Egyptian Rebel, and are ready to follow Paul again as he stands trial.
When the soldiers arrived with Paul, Felix put him in Herod’s Praetorium to hold him until Paul’s accusers made there way down to Caesarea. A few days later his accusers would come down, including the High Priest and some elders, and they would bring with them a lawyer, Tertullus. Tertullus addressed Felix, buttering him up with some compliments that weren’t really true, and accuses Paul of trying to desecrate the temple and stirring up riots.
Paul responded by basically saying, “I came up to Jerusalem to worship, I purified myself before entering the temple, certainly didn’t desecrate it, and hey, my accusers can’t prove anything.”
Though Paul was pretty obviously innocent, indeed Herod and Festus will later both come to this conclusion, Felix certainly didn’t want to rule on this case. If he ruled Paul was innocent, as he was, he knew this would make the Jews who had just rioted in Jerusalem about this very upset, and would likely just try to kill Paul as soon as he was released anyway. But if he ruled Paul guilty, he would be ruling a completely innocent Roman citizen guilty. Felix had a lose-lose scenario in front of him, so he took a third option and said he’d rule on Paul’s case when Lysias arrived in Caesarea, knowing full well Lysias wasn’t going to be coming down. And so Felix left Paul under guard, but he actually hoped Paul would offer him a bribe. And so in two years when Felix was succeeded by Festus, Paul was still under guard.
Pretty much as soon as Festus had arrived in the province, and visited Jerusalem, the Jews seized the opportunity and asked that Festus transfer Paul to Jerusalem. Of course this was just another plot to try to kill Paul, as they planned to ambush him on the way.
Festus, on arriving in Caesarea asked Paul if he would be willing to go up to Jerusalem, but Paul responded by declaring that he appealed to Caesar. And to Caesar Paul would go.
This brings us to today’s card preview, Porcius Festus.
Festus’ role in the story is represent in him taking an Enhancement from your opponent, representing him trying to sell out Paul to gain a favor from the Jews.
Check back again tomorrow, where Paul will again appear before Festus, and this time a Herod.
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