On their way out, they said to one another, “This man has done nothing worthy of death or imprisonment.”
31. They spake together. In that Paul is acquitted by the judgment of them all, it turned to the great renown of the gospel. And when Festus agreeth to the rest he condemneth himself, seeing he had brought Paul into such straits through his unjust dealing, by bringing him in danger of his life under color of changing the place.
Paul had scarcely touched the power of Christ's death and resurrection, the very heartbeat of his cause, when Festus cuts him off, calling him mad. But this is the expedient of a coward: by declaring Paul insane, Festus avoids both condemning him as a criminal and believing him as a preacher. A convenient escape, but a contemptible one.
AI summary
Commenting on Acts 26:24-32
Then said Agrippa unto Festus,.... As declaring his sense, and by way of advice and counsel; but not as determining anything himself, for that lay in the breast of Festus, the Roman governor and judge: this man might have been set at liberty; from his bonds and imprisonment; for ought that appears against him, or any law to the contrary: if he had not appealed...