Acts 24:1

Acts 24:1. Arrival of the Accusers. Speech of Tertullus, their advocate

1. And after five days Most naturally this means after St Paul's arrival in Cæsarea, and the events narrated at the end of chap. 23 But it may mean five days after the departure of the Apostle from Jerusalem. The chief captain would give notice to the high priest of what he had done as soon as it was safe to do so. After learning that they must go to Cæsarea with their accusation, the enemies of St Paul would spend some little time in preparing their charge for the hearing of Felix, and in providing themselves with an advocate. And as they would not probably travel with as much haste as St Paul's convoy did, five days is not a long interval to elapse before they arrived in Cæsarea.

Ananias the high priest He would be sure to be hot against the Apostle after that speech about the "whited wall."

descended Rev. Ver.[came down], i.e. from the capital to the sea-coast city of Cæsarea.

with the elders The best MSS. have "with certain elders." It is not likely that all the elders came. There would be some, who belonged to the Pharisees, who would rather have spoken in favour of St Paul. Those who came would be Sadducees, and so only a portion of the Council.

and with a certain orator named Tertullus Rev. Ver. "and with an orator, one Tertullus." This man, as we may judge from his name, which is a modification of the Latin Tertius, was a Roman, and would be chosen because of his knowledge of Roman law, and his ability to place the case before Felix in such a light as to make it seem that Paul was dangerous to the Roman power, and not merely a turbulent and renegade Jew. We see below that he endeavoured to do this.

who informed, &c. Better with Rev. Ver."And they informed." Thus it is shewn that the relative in the original refers not merely to Tertullus but to the whole deputation. The verb is one which St Luke uses in other places (Acts 25:2; Acts 25:15) of the laying a formal information before a judge. It is also used, Esther 2:22, of Esther laying the information of the plot of the two chamberlains before king Ahasuerus.