Acts 25

Acts 25:8

And he cleared himself against all the accusations, which were reducible to three heads: offences against the Mosaical law, profaning the temple, raising sedition against the government of the Romans, (see ch. xxiv. 5, 6.)

Acts 25:10

I am a Roman; and I ought to be judged, not by the Jewish sanhedrim or laws, but by the Roman; (and though I were liable to them, yet thou already discernest that they are not able to prove that I have any way trespassed against the Jews or their law;)

Acts 25:11

And if I have done any thing which by the Roman laws is punishable capitally, I will be content most willingly to suffer death; I desire no mercy: (this he did, knowing there was then no edict of the emperors against Christianity, see note [a] ch. xxvi.) But if all their accusations are invalid, if I am, as thou knowest I am, ver. 10, free from that charge of having wronged them, and being a Roman ought to be judged by the Roman laws, and none of them hath interdicted Christianity, there is then no reason I should be delivered up to my enemies to be my judges. It were absolutely unjust to do so; and from that intention of thine I make mine appeal to the Roman emperor, and desire that he may judge between us.

Acts 25:12

And Festus, conferring with those of the Jewish sanhedrim that were there, answered—

Acts 25:16

[a] have the accusers face to face] Of this law and custom of the Jews Philo Judæus is express, speaking of the Roman præfects, that κοινοὺς παρέχοντες ἑαυτοὺς δικαστὰς, ἐξ ἴσου καὶ τῶν κατηγόρων καὶ τῶν ἀπολογουμένων ἀκροώμενοι, μηδενὺς ἀκρίτου προκαταγινώσκειν ἀξιούντες ἐβράβευον, &c. “They yielded themselves to be common judges, and heard equally the accusers and the defendants, and condemned no man unheard, prejudged none, but judged without favour or enmity according to the nature of the cause.”

Acts 25:17

And therefore that they must of necessity go to Caesarea and accuse him. And when they came I used all expedition, and the very next day I went to the bench to hear this cause of Paul.

Acts 25:18

And upon hearing, I found him absolutely free from all capital crimes, all seditious practices, whereof they accused him, and wherein I suspected him to be most guilty.

Acts 25:19

And all that stuck was some disputable matters, about his particular way of serving or worshipping

Acts 25:23

[b] pomp] What φαντασία here signifies will be judged by the use of the word in other authors. Laertius, speaking of Dio, saith, he was πολυτελῆς, “sumptuous,” and accordingly “went from city to city,” and sometimes φαντασίαν ἐπιτεχνώμενος τοὺς ναύτας ἔπεισε σχολαστικὰς ἐσθῆτας ἀναλαβεῖν καὶ ἀκολουθῆσαι αὐτῷ, “using arts to have a great train, he persuaded mariners to put on scholars’ attire and follow him.” So Athenæus, Deipnos. l. 5, speaking of Athenion returning in great pomp to Athens, οὐδενὸς οὐδὲ Ῥωμαίων ἐν τοσαύτῃ φαντασίᾳ κατακλιδῶντος τῆς Ἀττικῆς, “no Roman ever outbraving Attica with so great a train.” So in Planudes Vit. Æsop. Τοὺς παῖδας λαβὼν—ἀπῆρεν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, πολλῇ φαντασίᾳ καὶ δόξῃ πρὸς ἐκπληξιν τῶν ἐκεῖ κεχρημένος, “taking

Acts 25:25

[a] Felix trembled] The grounds of Felix’s trembling at this discourse of Paul’s of justice and chastity, or continence, will be best fetched from a view of the character of this man both in Tacitus and Josephus. Tacitus, Hist. l. 5, mentions him an eques Romanus, to whom Claudius the emperor had intrusted that province, where, saith he, per omnem sævitiam et libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit, “he practised all cruelty and injustice in his government,” Drusilla Antonii et Cleopatrae nepte in matrimonium accepta, “and that he took to wife Drusilla the niece of Antony and Cleopatra.” Of this marriage of his Josephus enlargeth, and saith that Agrippa his brother had given her first to Azis the king of the Emisseni, and whilst she was his wife, Felix falls in love with her, and by the help of one Simon a magician, (not he of Samaria, but another of Cyprus,) obtained her from her husband’s bed. From these two parts of his character, an unjust governor, (of which his expecting bribes here, ver. 26, is an evidence also,) and one that lived with another man’s wife, ariseth the fitness and properness of St. Paul’s discourse before him, of justice and continence; and the guilt of his conscience, hearing that there was a judgment to come for such sins as these, might very well set him a trembling.

Acts 25:26

And being a taker of bribes, (note [a]) he hoped that money—

Acts 25:27

And when Paul had remained in custody under the time of Felix’ procuratorship for the space of two years, Felix was by Nero removed out of his place, and Porcius Festus succeeded him; and though Felix had nothing to condemn in Paul, yet, merely to gratify the Jews at parting, he left Paul in prison.

CHAP. XXV.

NOW when Festus was come into the province, after three days he ascended from Cæsarea to Jerusalem.

[b] after two years] That this two years is to be referred to Felix’s procuratorship is the opinion of Baronius, meaning those two years which he spent in Nero’s reign. But the truth is, Claudius had, five years before, placed him in the praefecture, and there is no reason to think that St. Luke should define the time of his procuratorship from Nero’s reign, who removed him, rather than from Claudius’s, who put him in: and therefore the διετία, two years, must refer to Paul’s imprisonment rather.