whom Agrippa himself belonged, and in the minutiae of whose law and theology he had been so well instructed, that his opinion on the case would be well worth having, to one as little acquainted with these matters as the heathen governor himself was. Festus therefore gave a very full account of the whole case to Agrippa, in terms that sufficiently well exhibited the perplexities in which he was involved, and in expressions which are strikingly and almost amusingly characteristic,—complaining as he does of the very abstruse and perplexing nature of the accusations brought by the Jews, as being "certain questions of their own religion, and of one Jesus, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Agrippa was so much interested in the case that he expressed a wish to hear the man in person; and Festus accordingly arranged that he should the next day be gratified with the hearing.
"King Agrippa and Bernice. Acts. xxv. 13. This Agrippa was the son of
Herod Agrippa; St. Luke calls him king, which Josephus also does very often.
(Ant. lib. xx. c. viii. § 6, et passim.) But St. Luke does not suppose him to be king
of Judaea, for all the judicial proceedings of that country relating to St. Paul, are
transacted before Felix, and Festus his successor; besides, he says, that 'Agrippa
came to Caesarea to salute Festus,' to compliment him on his arrival, &c. ver. 1.
When his father died, Claudius would have immediately put him in possession of
his father's dominions, but he was advised not to do so, on account of the son's
youth, then only seventeen; the emperor, therefore, 'appointed Cuspius Fadus praefect
of Judea and the whole kingdom, (Jos. Ant. lib. xix. c. 9, ad fin.) who was succeeded
by Tiberius, Alexander, Cumanus, Felix, and Festus, though these did not
possess the province in the same extent that Fadus did.' (Ant. xx. Bell. lib. ii.)
"Agrippa had, notwithstanding, at this time, considerable territories. 'Herod, brother of king Agrippa the Great, died in the eighth year of the reign of Claudius. Claudius then gave his government to the young Agrippa.' (Jos. Ant. xx. p. 887.) This is the Agrippa mentioned in this twenty-fifth chapter. 'The twelfth year of his reign being completed, Claudius gave to Agrippa the tetrarchy of Philip and Batanea, adding also Trachonitis with Abila. This had been the tetrarchy of Lysanias. But he took away from him Chalcis, after he had governed it four years.' (Jos. Ant. xx. p. 890, v. 25, &c.) 'After this, he sent Felix, the brother of Pallas, to be procurator of Judea, Galilee, Samaria, and Peraea; and promoted Agrippa from Chalcis to a greater kingdom, giving him the tetrarchy which had been Philip's. (This is Batanea, and Trachonitis, and Gaulonitis;) and he added, moreover, the kingdom of Lysanias, and the province that had been Varus's.' (Jos. de Bell. lib. ii. c. 12. fin.) 'Nero, in the first year of his reign, gave Agrippa a certain part of Galilee, ordering Tiberias and Tarichaea to be subject to him. He gave him also Julias, a city of Peraea, and fourteen towns in the neighborhood of it.' (Ant. xx. c. 7. § 4.) St. Luke is therefore fully justified in styling this Agrippa king at this time." (Lardner's Credibility, 4to. Vol. I. pp. 17, 18.) [Williams's Pearson, p. 81, 82.]
On the next day, preparations were made for this audience,
with a solemnity of display most honorable to the subject of it.
The great hall of the palace was arrayed in grand order for the
occasion, and, in due time, king Agrippa, with his royal sister,
and the Roman governor, entered it with great pomp, followed by
a train composed of all the great military and civil dignitaries of
the vice-imperial court of Palestine. Before all this stately ar-
