Conferred with the council - From this circumstance, we may learn that the appeal of Paul to Caesar was conditional; else Festus could not have deliberated with his council whether it should be granted; for he had no power to refuse to admit such an appeal. We may, therefore, understand Paul thus: "I now stand before a tribunal where I ought to be judged; if thou refuse to hear and try this cause, rather than go to Jerusalem, I appeal to Caesar." Festus, therefore, consulted with the council, whether he should proceed to try the cause, or send Paul to Rome; and it appears that the majority were of opinion that he should be sent to Caesar.

Hast thou appealed unto Caesar, etc. - Rather, Thou hast appealed unto Caesar, and to Caesar thou shalt go. The Jews were disappointed of their hope; and Festus got his hand creditably drawn out of a business with which he was likely to have been greatly embarrassed.

unto Caesar shalt.

Acts 25:21 But when Paul had appealed to be reserved to the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar.

Acts 19:21 After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying...

Acts 23:11 And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as you have testified of me in Jerusalem...

Acts 26:32 Then said Agrippa to Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed to Caesar.

Acts 27:1 And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners to one named Julius...

Acts 28:16 And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard...

Psalm 76:10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise you: the remainder of wrath shall you restrain.

Isaiah 46:10,11 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand...

Lamentations 3:37 Who is he that said, and it comes to pass, when the Lord commands it not?

Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he does according to his will in the army of heaven...

Romans 15:28,29 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain...

Philippians 1:12-14,20 But I would you should understand, brothers...

Whether it is Lawful for the Accused to Escape Judgment by Appealing?
Objection 1: It would seem unlawful for the accused to escape judgment by appealing. The Apostle says (Rom. 13:1): "Let every soul be subject to the higher powers." Now the accused by appealing refuses to be subject to a higher power, viz. the judge. Therefore he commits a sin. Objection 2: Further, ordinary authority is more binding than that which we choose for ourselves. Now according to the Decretals (II, qu. vi, cap. A judicibus) it is unlawful to appeal from the judges chosen by common consent. …
Saint Thomas Aquinas—Summa Theologica

From Antioch to the Destruction of Jerusalem.
Acts 13-28 and all the rest of the New Testament except the epistles of John and Revelation. The Changed Situation. We have now come to a turning point in the whole situation. The center of work has shifted from Jerusalem to Antioch, the capital of the Greek province of Syria, the residence of the Roman governor of the province. We change from the study of the struggles of Christianity in the Jewish world to those it made among heathen people. We no longer study many and various persons and their …
Josiah Blake Tidwell—The Bible Period by Period

One Argument which Has Been Much Relied Upon but not More than Its Just Weight...
One argument which has been much relied upon (but not more than its just weight deserves) is the conformity of the facts occasionally mentioned or referred to in Scripture with the state of things in those times, as represented by foreign and independent accounts; which conformity proves, that the writers of the New Testament possessed a species of local knowledge which could belong only to an inhabitant of that country and to one living in that age. This argument, if well made out by examples, is …
William Paley—Evidences of Christianity