Acts 25:19

ζητήματα … τινα : plural contemptuously (Weiss). δεισιδαιμονίας, see on Acts 17:22, “religion,” R.V.: in addressing a Jewish king Felix would not have used the term offensively, especially when we consider the official relation of Agrippa to the Jewish religion (see above, Acts 25:13), but he may well have chosen the word because it was a neutral word (verbum μέσον, Bengel) and did not commit him to anything definite. περί τινος Ἰ.: we note again the almost contemptuous, or at least indifferent, tone of Festus. At the same time this and the similar passage Acts 18:15 are proofs of the candour of St. Luke in quoting testimonies of this kind from men of rank: in this “aristocratic ignorance of the Roman” Zeller sees a trait taken from life, so in Agrippa's answer to Paul's urgency, Acts 26:28. Festus does not even deign to mention the kind of death (but he accepts the fact of the death as certain); “ crucem aut nescivit, aut non curavit,” Bengel; see further Luckock, Footsteps of the Apostles as traced by St. Luke, ii., p. 269. ἔφασκεν : with the notion of groundless affirmation, “alleging”; see Page, in loco, and Meyer on Romans 1:22 (Revelation 2:2). Blass and Knabenbauer take it as = dictitabat.