Acts 25:16

εἰς� omitted with אABCE. Vulg. has in some texts ‘damnare,’ in others ‘donare’ for χαρίζεσθαι.

16. χαρίζεσθαί τινα ἄνθρωπον, to give up any man. See above, Acts 25:11, on the force of χαρίζεσθαι The language throughout shews that the Jews thought the influence of their party was enough to gain from Festus the condemnation of this so obscure a prisoner, whatever might be the merits of his case.

τόπον τε�, and have had opportunity to make his defence (lit. ‘place of defence’). On τόπος in this sense cf. Sir 4:5 μὴ δῷς τόπον�. See also Romans 15:23 where ‘having no more place in these parts’ signifies ‘no further opportunity for preaching the Gospel.’

The two verbs ἔχοι an λάβοι are the only two cases of an optative after πρὶν ἢ in the N.T.