Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 25:19

"but had certain questions against him of their own religion, and of one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." — Acts 25:19 (ASV)

Certain questions against him of their own superstition.—The word has the same meaning as that used by St. Paul in Acts 17:22 (see the note there), and its use here shows its comparatively neutral character. Festus was speaking to a Jewish king, and would not knowingly have used an offensive term. He falls back, accordingly, on a term that an outsider might use regarding any local religion that he himself did not accept. What follows shows that he viewed St. Paul as not merely affirming, with other Pharisees, the general doctrine of a resurrection, but as connecting it with the specific testimony that Jesus had risen from the dead.