The Pulpit Commentary — Acts — Volume 2 — Section 228

(2 Cor. ii. 13 ; vii. 5; viii, 13 ; 2 These. i. fm·o1tr with the Jet11a for willing to ahoto the 7). DoubtleBB St. Luke WIL8 thus enabled Je,os a pleaiitU'B, A.V.; in bonds for bouhd, t.o be muoh with St. Paul during his imprison- A. V. ; Fe'lk ia also tre llsposed. We.a IUO• ment, n.nd, &B suggested above, to have his oeeded by ; ¥1'~• BuiBoxo.,, This word help in writing hie Goepel. ocours only here in the N-ew Testament, bnt Ver.H.-But for and, A.V.; Filk oam,, is used twioe in Eoolesiaetious. It is also, for tmlffl Feliz came, A.V.; Dn'8iUa., h,.'s a.a above noted, the identioal word used by tl!ife for hill tm;fe Dnuilla, A.V.; Mlil sent Josephus of Festus. But in oh. :r.xv. l for he -t. A.V.; <Jhrut J - for <Jhrist, Fesius's government is called· an lw11pxla. A.V. a_nd T.R. ~a; ,....,,,..,,,.,01'•"•<,&very and Josephus(' Ant. Jud.,• xx. vlii.11) oo.lls favourite word with St. Luke occurring Festus an h-apxos, instead of the more usual twenty-nine times in hie Gosp~l and the l11frpo..-os. Could Josephus have seen the Acts. It impliee th&.t Felix had been absent Acts of the Apostles? PoroillB J'estns, from Cmse.rea for eome de.ye after the trial. Josephus speaks of him a.s sent by Nero to Drusilla. She was, aocord.ing to Josephus be tbe "successor" (BulBoxos) of Felix (' Ant. Jud.,' xx. vii. l, 2) the daughter of (' Ant. Jud.,' xx. viii. 9; 'Bell. Jnd.,' ii. xiv. Herod Agrippa I., who" killed Jamee with 1). Nothing is known of him from Te.citus the sword" (oh. xii 1, 2), and died shortly or other Le.tin historians, and he appears afterwards. She was :first the wife of Azizus, from Josephue'e account to have held the King of Emeea.; but Felix, becoming government for a very short time, probably en&n1oured of her on oooount of her singular less thau two years, when he died (' Ant. beauty, employed a oerta.in magician, a Jew Jud.,' ::u:. ix. 1). But the impression derived named Simon, to entice her away from her from Josephus is the same e.s that conveyed husband, and persuade her to marry him, by St. Luke, that he wo.s a just and upright contrary, as Josephus says, to the institu- rnler, in marked oontrast with Felix his tions of her country. She perished, with predecessor, and his successors Albinus and Agrippa, her only son by Felix, in the Gessins Florns. 'Desiring to gain favour (xd• eruption of Vesu,ins, in the reign of Titus p1Tc 1<11Ta6lcr8a1); litero.lly, to lay up in store (Josephus, as above). Ta.citllB says that good will, or faf/our, or a boon, to be re- Drusilla, the wife of Felix, we.a ~d- quited at some future period. A frequent daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. But he phrase in the best classical .authors. Felix seems to have confounded her with another had good reason thus to try and put .the of the three royal wives of Felix, mentioned Jews under obligation to him at the close of by Suetonius in • Claudins; ' unless, per- his government. For the danger was great chance, as has been conjeotured, he had two t.o the retiring governor of complaints being wives of the n.i.me of Drusilla, of whom one sent to the emperor of oppression and we.a, ·as Tacitns aays, granddaughter of plunder, which were often listened to and Antony, by being the daughter of King punished. J osephllB relates, in point of fe.ot, Juba and Cleopatra Selene, Antony's that the chief Jews in Cl!lsaree. sent au daughter (see note in Whiston's • Josephus,' embassy to Rome to lodge a charge age.hist and in Kninoel, on eh. Dilii.. 24). But there is Felix befor-3 Nero; and that he only escaped no oerte.inty on the subject. Only J osephns's punishment by the influence of his brother detailed account of Drusilla., the wife of Pe.lle.e (' Ant. J ud.,' xx. viii 9). Felix, sgrees with St. Luke's statement that The scene in this chapter is a very strik- she .. was aJewess,"e.nd is beyond doubt true. ing one, depicted with admirable simpli- Ver. 25.-..4.nd temperanee for temperarwe, city e.nd force. The bloated slave sitting A. V. ; ~ judgment for judgment, A. V.; tDtU on the seat of judgment and power, repre- terrified for trembled, A. V.; 11,nd when for senting all the worst vioes of Roman de- when, A. V. ; call thee unto me for call /or generacy. The heads of the sinking Jewish thee, A.V. oommonwee.lth, blinded by bigotry and Ver. 26.- Withal for auo, A.V.; fDOldd be nearly mad with hatred, forgetting for t.he for .Jun,J,d, hafJIJ been, A. V. ; that he mi.ght moment their abhorrence of their Roman l.oo,e him is omitted in the R.T. and R.V.; ma.sters, in their yet deeper detestation of v,herefore also for tDherefore, A.V. Bent for the Apostle Paul. The hired advocate with him the oftener. The mixture of conviction his fulsome flattery, his rounded periods, and with covetoueness in the mind of Felix as his false charges. And then the great the motive for aeeing Paul is observable. apostle, the noble confessor, the :finished As in other cues of double-mindedness, the Christian gentleman, the pure-minded, up- oonvictions were doubtleas stifled by the right, and fearleBB man, pleading his own aorrupt avarice, and so ea.me to nothing. cause with consummate force and dignity, Ver. 27.-When '""° year, tDere fulfilld and overawing his heathen judge by the me.jestv of his chara6ter. It is a graphlo for ,,,ju,, tu,,, r,ean, A.V.; FiU:r, tDal nu- owud br, Pormua Futl/,IJ for Poreill,IJ Fe•tu deacriptiou of a very noble scellC,, oame ww Felu! rwm, A.V.; dmrlng t.o gaJa cm. UIV. 1-27.] THE AOTS OF THE APOSTLES. 235