Discovery BoxActs 25:3-5 
Context25:3 Requesting him to do them a favor against Paul, 1 they urged Festus 2 to summon him to Jerusalem, planning an ambush 3 to kill him along the way. 25:4 Then Festus 4 replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, 5 and he himself intended to go there 6 shortly. 25:5 “So,” he said, “let your leaders 7 go down there 8 with me, and if this man has done anything wrong, 9 they may bring charges 10 against him.”
Acts 25:9
Context25:9 But Festus, 11 wanting to do the Jews a favor, asked Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and be tried 12 before me there on these charges?” 13
1 tn Grk “Requesting a favor against him”; the referent (Paul) has been specified in the translation, the understood direct object of “requesting” has been supplied, and the phrase “to do them” supplied for clarity.
2 tn Grk “him”; the referent (Festus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The words “they urged him” are in v. 2 in the Greek text.
3 sn Planning an ambush. The Jewish leadership had not forgotten the original plan of several years ago (see 23:16). They did not trust the Roman legal process, but preferred to take matters into their own hands.
4 sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.
5 sn Caesarea was a city on the coast of Palestine south of Mount Carmel (not Caesarea Philippi). See the note on Caesarea in Acts 10:1.
6 tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text but is implied.
7 tn Grk “let those who are influential among you” (i.e., the powerful).
8 tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.
9 tn Grk “and if there is anything wrong with this man,” but this could be misunderstood in English to mean a moral or physical defect, while the issue in context is the commission of some crime, something legally improper (BDAG 149 s.v. ἄτοπος 2).
10 tn BDAG 533 s.v. κατηγορέω 1 states, “nearly always as legal t.t.: bring charges in court.” L&N 33.427 states for κατηγορέω, “to bring serious charges or accusations against someone, with the possible connotation of a legal or court context – ‘to accuse, to bring charges.”
11 sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.
12 tn Or “stand trial.”
13 tn Grk “concerning these things.”
