PORCIUS FESTUS. - Procurator of Judea from 60 to 61-62 A.D. (dates of U. Holzmeister), of whom Acts 24:27-27:1 speaks. He is praised for his attitude and ability. Having arrived at Caesarea in the summer, after the deposition of his predecessor Antonius Felix (v.), he found Paul imprisoned there (ibid. 24:27).
Having gone up to Jerusalem three days later, the Jewish leaders asked him to transfer the accused there, hoping to succeed in doing away with him by an ambush along the way. P. F. invited the accusers to his tribunal at Caesarea, where they multiplied accusations in vain that they could not prove. To P. F.'s request to Paul whether he wished to go up to Jerusalem to be judged there by the Sanhedrin in his presence, the Apostle replied: "I stand at Caesar's tribunal: here I must be judged... I appeal to Caesar." P. F., after conferring with his Council, replied: "You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go!" (Acts 25:10-12).
When Agrippa II (v.) and Berenice (v.) had meanwhile arrived at Caesarea on a visit of homage, P. F. asked them to hear Paul, in order to have information for the elogium to be sent with the prisoner to Nero. Hearing Paul, at the end of his defense, speak of the resurrection of the dead, P. F. said to him good-naturedly: "Paul, you are mad! Your many books are driving you to madness!" And Paul: "I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but I speak words of truth and wisdom!" (Acts 26:24-25). In the autumn of 60 P. F. entrusted Paul to the centurion Julius, so that he might conduct him to Rome.
The year of the beginning of P. F.'s office is debated, important for the chronology of St. Paul. At present the majority of scholars agree on the year 60 A.D. Even G. Ricciotti, who in the Storia d'Israele (II, Turin 1934, § 414) set that date at 62, now, in Paolo Apostolo (Rome 1946, p. 146), prefers 60. P. F., in his brief governorship, lasting a little more than a year, restored public order disturbed by bands of assassins who stabbed, plundered, and set fire everywhere. He also put an end to the sedition of a false messiah who attracted the crowds into the desert, killing him along with his followers. He died still in office and had as his successor Albinus (v.).
Bibliography
Pietro De Ambrogi