Acts 24:27

διετίας δὲ πληρ.: on the question of chronology see below, cf. Acts 20:30, and for τριετία, Acts 20:31; on διετία in inscriptions see two instances in Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien, p. 86. πληρ.: perhaps indicating that two full years are meant. Weizsäcker throws doubt upon the historical character of this imprisonment, and thinks that the episode is merely introduced by the writer of Acts, who in his ignorance of the name of the procurator doubles the incident before Felix and Festus; but Wendt declines to value so lightly the definite notices and accounts in Acts, and adds that the delay of the trial under a procurator devoid of a sense of duty was no improbable event. The recall of Felix has been assigned to very varying dates, Lightfoot naming 60, Wendt (1899) 61, Schürer, at the earliest 58, at the latest 61, probably 60, Ramsay 59, whilst McGiffert, following the Chronology recently advocated by O. Holtzmann (with a few earlier writers), places it as early as 55 (Harnack 55 56, following Eusebius, whilst Blass has also defended the Eusebian date). Both McGiffert and Holtzmann fix upon 55 because before the end of this year Pallas, the brother of Felix, was in disgrace; and yet, according to Josephus, Felix escaped the accusations brought against him by shielding himself behind his brother Pallas, whom Nero was then holding in special honour, Jos., Ant., xx., 8, 9, Tac., Ann., xiii., 14. “Either Josephus is in error,” says O. Holtzmann, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte, p. 128, “or Festus went to Palestine in 55”. But there is good reason for thinking that Josephus was in error in stating that Felix escaped by his brother's influence, then at its height, Jos., u. s. It is no doubt true that the influence of Pallas may have been very substantial long after his fall from court favour; but if the intervention of Pallas was subsequent to his fall, what becomes of the synchronism between his disgrace and the recall of Felix? But further, Pallas, according to the statement of Tacitus, Ann., xiii., 14, was disgraced before the fourteenth birthday of Britannicus, in Feb. 55, but, if so, how could Felix have reached Rome at such an early period of that year? Nero came to the throne on 13th Oct., 54, and we have to suppose that the order for recall was sent and the return journey of Felix to the capital accomplished in spite of the winter season which made a sea voyage impossible (Ramsay, Zahn, Bacon); “one can therefore no longer base the chronology of an Apostle's life upon the dismissal of a court favourite”. But are there no chronological data available? Albinus, the successor of Festus, was already procurator in 62. How long he had been in office we cannot say, but he was certainly procurator in the summer of that year (Schürer, Jewish People, div. i., vol. ii., p. 188, E.T.; Biblical World, p. 357, 1897). From Jos., Ant., xx., 9, 1, we learn that there was an interval of some few months full of disturbance and anarchy between the death of Festus and the arrival of Albinus in Jerusalem, so that we seem justified in inferring that Festus died probably in the winter of 61 62; and whilst the events of his procuratorship can scarcely have extended over five years (as would be demanded by the earlier chronology) for in this case Josephus would surely have given us more information about them it seems equally difficult to suppose that the events which Josephus does record could have been crowded into less than a year, or portions of two (Schürer). The entrance of Festus upon his office might thus be carried back to 59 60, and St. Paul's departure for Rome would fall probably in 60. But a further contribution to the subject has been made by Mr. Turner, “Chronology of the N.T.,” Hastings' B.D., pp. 418, 419, and he argues for the exclusion of a date as late as 60 for the accession of Festus, and for placing the recall of Felix in 57 59, i.e., between the earlier and later dates mentioned above; or, more definitely still, in 58, cf. p. 420. With this date Dr. Gilbert agrees, Student's Life of Paul, p. 252, 1899. See further Zahn, Einleitung, ii., 634; Wendt (1899), p. 56; Expositor, March, 1897, Feb., 1898; “Festus” (A. Robertson), Hastings' B.D. and B.D. 2. ἔλαβε διάδοχον, Sir 46:1; Sir 48:8. In 2Ma 4:29; 2Ma 14:26, the meaning of successor is doubtful, and it would seem that the title rather denoted a high office about the court of the Ptolemies, cf. Deissmann, Bibelstudien, p. 111. In classical Greek it is used as here for successor, cf. Jos., Ant., xx., 8, 9, so successorem accepit, Plin., Epist., ix., 13. φῆστον : we know nothing of him except from the N.T. and Josephus. The latter, however, contrasts him favourably with his successor Albinus: “et Albinum cum ei dissimillimum fuisse tradit, scelestum hominem, simul illum laudat” (Blass). So far as our information goes, Festus also contrasts favourably with his predecessor; he acted with promptness to rid the country of robbers and sicarii, and amongst them of one impostor whose promises were specially seductive, Ant., xx., 8, 9, 10, and B.J., ii., 14, 1. But although, as Schürer says, he was disposed to act righteously, he found himself unable to undo the mischief wrought by his predecessor, and after a short administration death prevented him from coping further with the evils which infested the province. For his attitude towards St. Paul as his prisoner see notes below. Two other events marked his procuratorship: (1) the quarrel between the priests and Agrippa, because the latter built on to his palace so as to overlook the Temple, and the priests retaliated by building so as to shut off his view. Festus sided with Agrippa, but allowed the priests to appeal to Rome. (2) The decision of the emperor in favour of the Syrian against the Jewish inhabitants of Cæsarea, which caused a bitterness provoking in A.D. 66 the disturbances in which Josephus marked the beginnings of the great War, Ant., xx., 8, 9. θέλων τε χάριτας καταθέσθαι τοῖς Ἰ.: “desiring to gain favour with the Jews,” R.V., literally to lay down or deposit a favour with the Jews as a deposit for which a due return might be expected, cf. 1Ma 10:23 R.; Jos., Ant., xi., 6, 5, so too in classical Greek, Thuc., i., 33, 128; Herod., vi., 41, etc. The policy of Felix was to gain popularity with the Jews in view of the accusations which followed him on his return to Rome, Jos., Ant., xx., 8, 9. That the pursuit of such a policy was not alien to the character of Roman officials see Jos., Ant., xx., 9, 5, where we learn that Albinus, desiring to gain the gratitude of the Jews, took money of all those in prison for some trifling fault, by which means the prisons indeed were emptied, but the country was full of robbers. In B.J., ii., 14, 1, we learn that the same system was pursued by Albinus, the successor of Festus, until no one was left in the prisons but those who gave him nothing. According to [387] text Felix leaves Paul in prison to please his wife, but, as Blass points out, both reasons may be true. χάριτα (W.H [388], R.V.) only (in N.T.) in Jude, Acts 24:4, cf. Acts 25:9 A; found in classics, though rarer than χάριν, Winer-Schmiedel, p. 88; in LXX, Zechariah 6:14 δεδεμ.: this does not at all imply that Paul had been quite free, and was now rebound, cf. Acts 24:23. ἄνεσις did not mean perfect freedom, and the custodia militaris might still continue. Nösgen thinks that the word in its position at the end of the verse indicates a severer form of custody, but this is by no means necessary, although as the last word of the episode, and as the result of all the intercourse with Felix, it has a dramatic force and pathos. Zeller, Acts, ii., p. 83, E.T., although he thinks it remarkable that Felix and Festus are represented as acting from the same motive, as Pilate for a similar reason had consented to the execution of Jesus, is constrained to admit that conduct such as that of the two procurators is too natural for its repetition to be surprising; unscrupulous officials are always ready by complaisance at the expense of others to appease those to whom they have given just cause for complaint.

[387] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.

[388] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.