Acts 25:19

Acts 25:19. But had certain questions against him of their own superstition. The English word ‘superstition,' like the adjective used in chap. Acts 17:22, utterly fails to represent the Greek δεισιδαιμονι ́ ας here. This word is one which may be understood in a bad sense, viz. a ‘superstition;' but it also signifies ‘religion,' without a shade of disrespect or slight being intended to be conveyed. In neither of these two passages is it possible to suppose anything like sarcasm or discourtesy was intended (see note on Acts 17:22). Here the courtly Festus is speaking to an exalted personage known to be a zealous Jew; and although the religion of this strange people and all connected with it was a matter of utter indifference to this true representative of Rome, yet we may be sure he would never risk offending one like King Agrippa when he spoke of the religion of his countrymen with a word of contempt. Render then simply, ‘Certain questions.. of their own religion.'

And of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. This allusion to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, evidently tells us that in the former proceedings much had been said not recorded or even alluded to in these ‘Acts.' But here the procurator dismisses the apparent point at issue between Paul and the Jews of the Sanhedrim, whether or no one Jesus was alive or dead, with contemptuous brevity. The strict, unfaltering accuracy of the writer of these ‘Acts,' in recording at all such a scornful remark, is especially noteworthy. This reference of Festus to ‘Jesus' here gives us some clue to Paul's line of argument when he spoke in defence of himself before the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, and again before Felix at Cæsarea. The ‘Acts' report is of the briefest, and fails to touch upon the inner line of thought of these ‘apologies' of the great Gentile apostle. He evidently, on those occasions, by no means confined himself to the general doctrine of the resurrection taught in all the Pharisee schools in Jerusalem and elsewhere, but dwelt earnestly on the special connection of these doctrines with the resurrection of their loved Master, the Lord Jesus. His Master's resurrection, we know, was ever a central point of Paul's teaching.