Acts 25:16
To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. To whom I answered, It is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die, before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him.
Roman custom forbade handing any accused man over to die before he had stood face to face with those charging him and had been given leave to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. The accusers were required to appear in person and state their charges before impartial witnesses, and the accused was to have opportunity to defend himself rather than simply be delivered up to satisfy them. This was the legal protection that surrounded Paul when Festus took up his case.
The saying belongs to Paul's trial before Festus and his appeal to Caesar, when Festus explained to Agrippa that the Jewish leaders had brought accusations against Paul. The charges were not what Festus had expected to hear, for the dispute turned on matters of Jewish belief and on Paul's assertion that Jesus, who had died, was alive.
Festus applied the Roman rule by refusing the request to remove Paul's trial to Jerusalem and by holding to a fair trial at Caesarea where Paul could answer his accusers. He would not sacrifice Paul's life merely to gratify his accusers, and by insisting on confrontation and answer at Caesarea he thwarted the plot to murder Paul on the way. God's providence guided Festus in that decision, and through it Paul's life was preserved and prolonged.
The same rule required Paul's accusers from Palestine to appear in person and state their charges before he could be tried, so that while they had not yet arrived his trial could be postponed indefinitely. Such safeguards did not reliably protect the accused, since delays by prosecutors and prejudice, bribery, or caprice in judges could keep a man imprisoned for years, as Felix had kept Paul for years, and the emperor himself stood under no higher restraint upon his authority. His enemies held back their charges because earlier officials had pronounced him innocent, and the delay gave them time to seek to influence the emperor.
The verse belongs also to Paul's wider experience as a prisoner in chains facing death and moving toward a criminal's end under Nero, ruler of a world empire. His course in that position shows that those who trust God's word can stand firm against overwhelming human power and against policies that uphold evil.