If to injure another is not an evil, but a good, wherefore are we ashamed? wherefore do we cover our faces? Wherefore, being reproached, are we vexed and disconcerted? If the being injured is not a good thing, wherefore do we pride ourselves, and glory in the thing, and justify ourselves on its account? Would you learn how this is better than that? Observe those who are in the one condition, and those who are in the other. Wherefore are laws? Wherefore are courts of justice? Wherefore punishments? Is it not, on account of those men, as being diseased and unsound? But the pleasure lies great, you will say. Let us not speak of the future: let us look into the present. What is worse than a man who is under such a suspicion as this? what more precarious? what more unsound? is he not always in a state of shipwreck? Even if he do any just thing, he is not credited, condemned as he is by all on account of his power (of injuring): for in all who dwell with him he has accusers: he cannot enjoy friendship: for none would readily choose to become the friend of a man who has such a character, for fear of becoming implicated with him in the opinion held of him. As if he were a wild beast, all men turn away from him; as from a pest, a foe, a man-slayer, and an enemy of nature, so they shrink from the unjust man. If he who has wronged another happen to be brought into a court of justice, he does not even need an accuser, his character condemns him in place of any accuser. Not so he who is injured; he has all men to take his part, to condole with him, to stretch out the hand of help: he stands on safe ground. If to injure another be a good and a safe thing, let any one confess that he is unjust: but if he dares not do this, why then does he pursue it as a good thing? But let us see in our own persons, if his same be done there, what evils come of it: (I mean,) if any of the parts or functions within us having overstepped its proper bounds, grasp at the office of some other. For let the spleen, if it will, have left its proper place, and seize on the part belonging to some other organ along with its own, is not this disease? The moisture within us, let it fill every place, is it not dropsy and gout? [1137] is not this to ruin itself, along with the other? Again, let the bile seek for a wide room, and let the blood be diffused throughout every part. But how is it in the soul with anger, lust, and all the rest, if the food exceed its proper measure? Again in the body, if the eye wish to take in more, or to see more than is allotted to it, or admit a greater light than is proper. But if, when the light is good, yet the eye is ruined, if it choose to see more than is right: consider what it must be in the case of an evil thing. If the ear take in a (too) loud voice, the sense is stunned: the mind, if it reason about things above itself, it is overpowered: and whatever is in excess, mars all. For this is pleonexia, the wanting to have more than what is marked off and allotted. So too in respect of money; when we will needs put upon (us) more burdens (than is meet), although we do not perceive it, to our sore hurt we are nourishing within ourselves a wild beast; much having, yet much wanting, numberless the cares we entangle ourselves withal, many the handles we furnish the devil against ourselves. In the case of the rich, however, the devil has not even need of labor, so surely do their very concerns of business of themselves ruin them. Wherefore I beseech you to abstain from the lust of these things, that we may be enabled to escape the snares of the evil one, and having taken hold of virtue, to attain unto the good things eternal, through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, with Whom to the Father and the Holy Ghost together be glory forever. Amen.
[1125] Anesis better rendered "relaxation" or "indulgence" (R.V.) than "liberty" (A.V.). Meyer understands by this that he was to be allowed rest, "to be spared all annoyance." Others (DeWette, Lange) suppose anesis to refer to release from chains, the so-called custodia libera of the Romans in which the prisoner went free on bail or upon the responsibility of some magistrate. This view is, however, inconsistent with the fact that Felix committed Paul to the keeping of a centurion (23) as well as with his leaving Paul bound (27). The custody was doubtless the custodia militaris and anesis denotes the relaxation of the rigors of his imprisonment.--G.B.S.
[1126] Paul's reasoning "concerning righteousness" was directed against the well-known injustice of a prince of whom Tacitus says that he acted as if there were no penalty for villainy. His reasoning "concerning self-control" (ekrateia) was in opposition to his sensuality. He had unlawfully married Drusilla who was the wife of Azizus, the king of Emesa (Jos. Ant. xx. 7, 2). His references to the judgment to come might well have been directed against the governor's murder of Jonathan, the high priest.--G.B.S.
[1127] This formula is placed by C and mod. text just before the text "Go thy way," etc., v. 25, as if what is said of the wife also hearing, etc., related to the hearing before Agrippa and his wife Bernice.
[1128] Mod. text "And having gone down in Cæsarea, he spends ten days." Which is evidently false, but so Edd. have it.--hoste engenesthai, seemingly, "to give them an opportunity of buying him." Ben., ut prostaret eis qui vellent ipsum corrumpere.
[1129] to, "phulattesthai;" this seems to refer to xxiii. 35: in v. 4, the expression is tereisthai. Perhaps Chrys. said, "He was safe in custody, for Felix had ordered him phulattesthai, and there he was still. Then what needs this fresh order that he should tereisthai? He is not attempting to escape, is he? It shows the spirit of the governor: we have him safe; come down and accuse him.'"
[1130] epeide en kai he apophasis. Mod. text and Sav. omit the kai, Ben. epeide ei en apophasis, with no authority of mss. We have marked the clause as corrupt. Possibly, kale prophasis is latent in the words, with the sense "since some handsome pretext was necessary" (or the like): or, perhaps, epeide Kai[saros] en he apophasis, as comment upon the clause, 'Epi tou bematos Kaisaros hestos eimi.
[1131] eis ta 'Ierosoluma all our mss., and so Edd. without remark. Yet the sense plainly requires eis Romen, and in fact the Catena has preserved the true reading. In the next sentence, he seems to be commenting upon the pleious hemeras of v. 14 to this effect: "See how his cause is lengthened out by all these delays: the time (ten days) of Festus' stay at Jerusalem; then the second hearing; now again, pleious hemeras: but for all this, his enemies are not able to effect their design.
[1132] Alluding to v. 26, 27 (which mod. text inserts here): i.e. "to this same effect Festus also writes, in his report to the Emperor."
[1133] For kai hoi charizomenoi autois, mss. and Edd. we restore from the Catena kaitoi charizomenos autois.
[1134] 'Alla kai heteron; all' ouden axiopiston; mallon de oude mikron, alla kai ophlei. So B. C.; in A. all this is omitted, Mod. text--"incalculable mischief, but little to another, or rather not even a little does it hurt, nay even benefits. But I have said nothing worthy of belief all' ouden axiopiston eireka. Well then, let there be," etc.
[1135] chremata echon oliga kai tes anankaias euporon trophes, heteros de plousios kai euporos. So the mss. and Edd. without comment. We assume it to be aporon.
[1136] 'Alla to spanion aei toiouton. One would expect 'Alla spanion aei to toiouton.--Mod. text adds, kai oligoi hoi kaloi.
[1137] kai podalgia; ouchi heauton sundiephtheire met' ekeinou;he chole palin euruchorian zeteito. Mod. text "is not this dropsy? met' ekeinou he chole k. t. l. and below ean huperbe to metron, ouchi heauton sundiephtheire; houto kai he trophe. adding, "if it be taken beyond what can be digested, it involves the body in diseases. For whence comes the gout? whence the paralyzing and commotion of the body? Is it not from the immediate quantity of aliments? Again in the body," etc.