Acts 28:19

ἀντιλ.: the word is a mild one to describe the bitter enmity of the Jews (“clementer dicit,” Bengel); they are not actually represented as speaking against Paul's acquittal, although they are evidently presupposed as doing so by the proposal of Festus, Acts 25:9, and by the belief that sooner or later he would fall a victim to their plots the Apostle was no doubt compelled (ἠναγκάσθην) to appeal. Holtzmann seems to forget the part played by the Jews, and their bitter enmity, when he says that in reality Paul was compelled to appeal not by the Jews, but by Festus; see also critical note. τοῦ ἔθνους μου : they were still his nation, and he was not ashamed to call them so, as a true patriot, when he stood before a foreign tribunal; cf. Acts 24:17; Acts 26:4, “see what friendliness of expression, he does not hold them in odium,” Chrysostom.