Bible Word of the Day
Appeal to Caesar (Right of a Roman Citizen)
Meaning
Could you imagine today if you felt you were dealt with unjustly you could appeal directly to the president or king of your country and be granted an audience. This privilege was only afforded to Roman citizens. And in reality, most of the people who made up the Roman Empire were not Roman citizens. As a matter of fact, most of the rights which were afforded a Roman citizen did not apply to non-citizens. In the Roman Empire non-citizens had no rights and could be arrested, beaten or worse killed. And all without any rights to a trial or hearing. Interestingly the Bible mentions just such a case where a follower of Jesus, who happened to be a Roman citizen made an appeal to Caesar. It occurs in the book of Acts chapter twenty-five, and the believer involved was non-other than the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul had been wrongly arrested and the Roman Governor had wanted to send Paul back to Jerusalem for a trial with the very same Jewish leaders who had falsely accused him. However, Paul understood that the Jewish leaders had set a trap in order to ambush and kill him during the trip back to Jerusalem. Therefore, Paul had no choice, but to appeal to Caesar. And because of his appeal, he was taken by armed Roman soldiers for his own protection to Rome in order to make his appeal to Caesar himself. God used this incident because Paul was chained twenty-four hours a day to a Roman guard. And Paul used this opportunity to preach the Gospel of Christ to every Roman soldier who guarded him. Paul even had the opportunity to preach the Gospel to the members of Caesar’s own household. And we know from a historical perspective that Christianity not only spread quickly throughout the Roman Empire, but it many cases it was spread by the Roman soldiers themselves.
“When he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood about and laid many serious complaints against Paul, which they could not prove, while he answered for himself, ‘Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I offended in anything at all.’ But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, ‘Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and there be judged before me concerning these things?’ So Paul said, ‘I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you very well know. For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.'” (Book of Acts 25:7-11)