Acts 23:34

Acts 23:34. He asked of what province he was. Felix was not the principal Roman official in that part of the Empire. The proconsul of Syria bore supreme authority over Judæa. Felix was procurator or deputy of Judæa under that great official. The powers, however, of the procurators were considerable. Still, in the matter of trying a Roman citizen, accused by so mighty a body as the Jewish Sanhedrim, Felix deemed it expedient to inquire respecting the nationality of the prisoner, as it might have been desirable to have sent him at once to the seat of the government of some other procurator or proconsul. Compare the procurator Pilate's action in sending our Lord, a Galilean, to be judged of Herod, Luke 23:6-7. When he heard he was from Cilicia, he determined to try him at once in Cæsarea. The political motives which induced him to retain a Cilician in Judæa are to us now unknown.