Acts 24:5

στάσεις with אABE. Vulg. ‘seditiones.’

5. εὑρόντες γὰρ … λοιμόν, for having found this man a pestilent fellow. The Greek is literally ‘a pestilence.’ But the word is used of persons, 1Ma 10:61, καὶ ἐπισυνήχθησαν πρὸς αὐτὸν ἄνδρες λοιμοὶ ἐξ Ἰσραήλ, where, as here, the A.V. gives ‘pestilent fellows.’ In the Greek there, the phrase is further defined by ἅνδρες παράνομοι. Cf. also υἱοὶ λοιμοί, 1 Samuel 2:12; 1 Samuel 10:27, and λοιμή used of Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:16.

By εὑρόντες Tertullus would convey the impression that they have already spent some pains in detecting the evil ways of the accused.

καὶ κινοῦντα στάσεις, and a mover of seditions. The first charge made was one of general depravity. On coming to particulars Tertullus puts that first which would most touch the Roman power, and against which Felix had already shewn himself to be severe. Insurrections were of such common occurrence that one man might at this time be readily the prime mover in many.

It should be noticed that εὑρόντες in this sentence is left entirely in suspense, the construction never being completed. It should run, ‘having found him &c.… we &c.,’ but the conclusion is forgotten in the orator’s accumulation of wrongdoings.

πᾶσιν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις τοῖς κατὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην, among all the Jews throughout the world. We must bear in mind that Paul had been assailed at a time when Jerusalem was full of strangers who had come to the feast. It is not improbable that from some of the Jewish visitors particulars had been gathered about the Apostle’s troubles at Philippi, Corinth, Ephesus and elsewhere, which in the minds and on the lips of his accusers would be held for seditious conduct, conduct which had brought him at times under the notice of the tribunals. This Tertullus would put forward in its darkest colours. ἡ οἰκουμένη at this time meant ‘the whole Roman Empire.’ Cf. Cæsar’s decree (Luke 2:1) that ‘all the world’ should be taxed.

πρωτοστάτην τε, and a ringleader. The word is used in classical Greek of the front-rank men in an army. It is found in LXX. (Job 15:24), ὤσπερ στρατηγὸς πρωτοστάτης πίπτων, where the Hebrew describes a man fitted for the battle.

τῆς τῶν Ναζωραίων αἱρέσεως, of the sect of the Nazarenes. The adjective is used as a term of reproach equivalent to ‘the followers of Him of Nazareth,’ which origin was to the mind of the Jews enough to stamp Jesus as one of the many false Messiahs. Cf. on the despised character of Nazareth, John 1:46.