XXIV. (1) AFTER FIVE DAYS. — The interval may have just allowed time for messengers to go from Cæsarea to Jerusalem, and for the priests to make their arrangements and engage their advocate. Possibly, however, the five days may start from St. Paul’s departure from Jerusalem and this agrees, on the... [ Continue Reading ]
SEEING THAT BY THEE WE ENJOY GREAT QUIETNESS. — The orator had, it would seem, learnt the trick of his class, and begins with propitiating the judge by flattery. The administration of Felix did not present much opening for panegyric, but he had at least taken strong measures to put down the gangs of... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT I BE NOT FURTHER TEDIOUS... — Better, _that I may not detain thee too long._ Here again we note the tact of the sycophant. He speaks as if obliged to restrain himself from the further panegyrics which his feelings would naturally prompt. OF THY CLEMENCY... — The Greek word expresses the idea o... [ Continue Reading ]
WE HAVE FOUND THIS MAN A PESTILENT FELLOW. — The Greek gives the more emphatic substantive, _a pestilence, a plague._ The advocate passes from flattering the judge to invective against the defendant, and lays stress on the fact that he is charged with the very crimes which Felix prided himself on re... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO ALSO HATH GONE ABOUT TO PROFANE THE TEMPLE. — Better, _who even attempted to profane._ Here the case was clearly to be supported by the evidence of the Jews of Asia. The charge, we see, was modified from that in Acts 21:28. Then they had asserted that he had actually taken Trophimus within the s... [ Continue Reading ]
BY EXAMINING OF WHOM... — Literally, _from whom thou shalt be able, by examining him thyself, to know thoroughly..._ The English construction suggests that the “accusers” are the persons to be examined, but as the Greek relative is in the singular this cannot possibly be the meaning. Tertullus appar... [ Continue Reading ]
FORASMUCH AS I KNOW... — We note at once the difference between St. Paul’s frank manliness and the servile flattery of the advocate. He is content to appeal to the experience of the “many years” (really about six, but this was more than the average duration of a procuratorship, and the words might,... [ Continue Reading ]
I WENT UP TO JERUSALEM FOR TO WORSHIP. — This was, by implication, St. Paul’s answer to the charge of the attempted profanation. One who had come to worship was not likely to be guilty of the crime alleged against him.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY NEITHER FOUND ME IN THE TEMPLE... — The answer traverses all parts of the indictment. He had not even entered into a discussion in the Temple. He had not even gathered a crowd around him in any part of the city. He challenges the accusers to bring any adequate evidence — _i.e.,_ that of two or... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER THE WAY WHICH THEY CALL HERESY. — Better, _which they call a sect._ The Greek noun is the same as in Acts 24:5, and ought, therefore, to be translated by the same English word. As it is, the reader does not see that the “way” had been called a _heresy._ In using the term “the way,” St. Paul ad... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH THEY THEMSELVES ALSO ALLOW... — We have the same tact, perhaps also the same sympathy, as in Acts 23:6. He identifies himself, on this point, not only with the Pharisees but with the great bulk of the Jewish people.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HEREIN DO I EXERCISE MYSELF... — The “herein” seems equivalent to “in this belief.” Because he held that doctrine of a resurrection as a stern and solemn reality, the one law of his life was to keep his conscience clear from wilful sin. (See Note on Acts 23:1.) The words must have been almost as... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW AFTER MANY YEARS. — Four years had passed since the previous visit of Acts 18:22. The use of “many” in this instance may be noted as throwing light on Acts 24:10. TO BRING ALMS TO MY NATION, AND OFFERINGS. — The “alms” were, of course, the large sums of money which St. Paul had been collecting,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREUPON CERTAIN JEWS FROM ASIA... — Literally, _in which things,_ or _wherein._ Many of the better MSS. give the relative pronoun in the feminine, as agreeing with “offerings,” and indicating that he was, as it were, occupied with them at the very time when the Jews from Asia found him, not profan... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO OUGHT TO HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE THEE. — The originators of the disturbance shrank from the consequences of their actions, and either remained at Jerusalem or else started on their homeward journey as soon as the Feast was over.... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THEY HAVE FOUND ANY EVIL DOING IN ME... — The better MSS. give, “what evil thing” (or, _what wrong act_) “they found in me.” This, from St. Paul’s point of view, was the one instance in which any words of his had been even the occasion of an uproar, and in them he had but proclaimed a belief whic... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVING MORE PERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF THAT WAY... — Better, _of the way._ (See Note on Acts 9:2.) The comparative implies a reference to an average standard. Felix was too well-informed to yield any answer to the declamatory statements of Tertullus. He saw that the prisoner was no common _Sicarius,_ or l... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE COMMANDED A CENTURION TO KEEP PAUL. — More accurately, _the centurion_ — either the officer in whose custody he had been placed by Lysias, or the one who had the special charge of the prisoners waiting for trial. The favourable impression made on Felix is shown by the unusual leniency with wh... [ Continue Reading ]
FELIX CAME WITH HIS WIFE DRUSILLA. — She was, as has been said (see Note on Acts 23:26), the daughter of the first Herod Agrippa and the sister of the second. In her name, the diminutive of Drusus, and borne also by a sister of Caligula’s, we trace the early connection of her father with that empero... [ Continue Reading ]
RIGHTEOUSNESS, TEMPERANCE, AND JUDGMENT. — The first word, like our English “justice,” includes in Greek ethics the duties which man owes _to_ man. “Temperance” answers to a term with a somewhat wider sense than that which now attaches to the English word, and implies the state in which a man exerci... [ Continue Reading ]
HE HOPED ALSO THAT MONEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN GIVEN HIM OF PAUL. — The Greek gives “hoping also,” as continuing the previous verse, and so places the fact in more immediate connection with the procurator’s conduct. This greed of gain in the very act of administering justice was the root-evil of the weak... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER TWO YEARS PORCIUS FESTUS CAME INTO FELIX’ ROOM. — The English states the same fact as the Greek, but inverts the order. Literally, _When a period of two years was accomplished, Felix received Porcius Festus as his successor._ We can, of course, only conjecture how these years were spent. Some... [ Continue Reading ]