Porcius Festus succeeded Felix as procurator of Judea (Acts 24:27), taking up his appointment most probably in 59 AD.
Little is known about Festus before he took office. While Felix was content to leave Paul in jail as a favour to the Jews, Festus was far more accomodating to Jewish resentments towards Paul, as we read in Acts 25:1-9:
Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. They urgently requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. Festus answered, "Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. Let some of your leaders come with me and press charges against the man there, if he has done anything wrong."
After spending eight or ten days with them, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. When Paul appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove.
Then Paul made his defense: "I have done nothing wrong against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar."
Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?"
Recognizing the danger to his life if he were to be transferred to Jerusalem for trial, Paul appealed to Caesar, which forced Festus' hand; he had no choice but to send Paul on to Rome.
Before Paul was conveyed to Rome, however, Festus took the opportunity to put Paul's case before Herod Agrippa II when the latter came to pay a visit, because "I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. For I think it is unreasonable to send on a prisoner without specifying the charges against him." (Acts 25:25-27).
Festus died in office after just two years in office.
©ALBERITH
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