Acts 25:10,11

I stand at Caesar's judgment-seat,— Where St. Paul says, as thou very well knowest, he may either refer to the examination of him that day taken before him, or more probably to the information which we cannot but suppose Felix gave concerning him, when he resigned up his government to Festus. The word χαρισασθαι which we render deliver, implies a deliverance in order to gratify: "No man can lawfully deliver me into their hands, so as to gratify them with my death." This, however, will by no means prove that the Jews had the power of life and death in their hands; for St. Paul might reasonably apprehend, not only that he might be murdered by the way, as he probably would have been; but that, had the sanhedrim condemned him, Festus might, for particular reasons, have acted the part which Pilate did with respect to our Lord, in permitting and warranting the execution, though in his own conscience convinced of his innocence, and even declaring that conviction. See Matthew 27:24. On these accounts St. Paul appealed to Caesar. It is well known, that the Roman law allowed such an appeal to every citizen before sentence was passed, and made it highly penal for any governor, after that, to proceed to any extremities against the person making it.