The life and work of St. Paul

554 THE LIFE AND WGBS OF ST. PAUL.
whatever their Oriental notions of justice might ba, it was not the custom of
the Romans to grant any person's life to his accusers by way of doing a favour,
but to place the accused and the accusers face to face, and to give the accused
a full opportunity for self-defence. The High Priest and his fellow-conspirators,
finding that they could not play either on the timidity of Festus or his
complaisance, had to content themselves once more with organising a powerful
deputation to carry out the accusation. Eight or ten days afterwards Festus
returned to the palace at Csesarea, and the very next day took his seat on the
tribunal to hear the case. The Jews had not again hired a practised barrister
to help them, and the trial degenerated into a scene of passionate clamour, in
which St. Paul simply met the many accusations against him by calm denials.
The Jews, tuinultuously surrounding the tribunal, reiterated their accusations
of heresy, sacrilege, and treason ; but as not a single witness was forthcoming,
Paul had no need to do more than to recount the facts. This time the
Jews seem to have defined the old vague charge that Paul was a stirrer-up of
sedition throughout the Diaspora, by trying to frighten Festus, as they had
l but Festus had too thorough a
frightened Pilate, with the name of Caesar ;
knowledge of the Roman law not to see, through all this murky storm of rage,
the two plain facts, that he was trying a false issue, since the inquiry really
turned on matters which affected the arcana of Jewish theology ; and that
even if there was a grain of truth in the Jewish accusations, Paul had not
been guilty of anything approaching to a capital crime. Wishing to put an
end to the scene for nothing was more odious to the dignity of a well-trained
Homan than the scowling faces, and gleaming eyes, and screaming interpellations
of despised Orientals Festus asked Paul whether he was willing to
go up to 8
Jerusalem, and be tried before the Sanhedrin under his protection.
This was practically a proposal to transfer the question back from the Roman
to the Jewish jurisdiction. But Paul knew very well that he had far more
chance of justice at the hands of the Romans than at the hands of Jews,
whose crimes were now dragging Jerusalem to her destruction. Jewish
tribunals had invariably and even savagely condemned him ;
Gentile tribunals
Gallic, the Politarchs, the Asiarchs, Lysias, Felix, Festus, even the
"Praetors," at Philippi, and at last even the monster Nero always saw and
proclaimed his innocence. But he was sick of these delays ; sick of the fierce
reiteration of calumnies which he had ten times refuted sick of ; being made
the bone of contention for mutual hatreds ;
sick of the arbitrary caprice of
provincial governors. Terrible as the black dungeon of Machaerus to the free
soul of the Baptist, must have been the dreary barracks of Caesarea to the
ardent zeal of Paul. How he must have hated that palace, dripping with the
blood 6f murdered Herods, and haunted by
the worst memories of their
crimes ! How tired he must|have been of the idleness and the ribaldries of
1 Acte xxv. 8.
2 This must be the meaning of eir' e^ov, xxv. 9. There could be no conceivable object
In taking Paul to Jerusalem, unless it were to have him once more tried by the Sanhedrin ;
but of course Festus could not preside at a meeting of the Sanhedrin, though he might
be present (somewhat aa Lysias was), and se that the accused received fair treatmeaii