Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 25:26

ἀσφαλές τι γράψαι, Dig., xlix., 6. “Post appellationem interpositam litteræ dandæ sunt ab eo, a quo appellatum est, ad eum qui de appellatione cogniturus est, sive principem, sive quem alium, quas litt. dimissorias sive Apostolos appellant” (Wetstein and Blass). τῷ κυρίῳ : title refused by Augustus and Tiberius because it savoured too much of the relationship between a master and a slave, and perhaps because it seemed a title more fitting to God (as Wetstein explains it), cf. Suet., Aug [397], 53, Tiber., 27, and Tacitus, Ann., ii., 87. It was accepted by Caligula and succeeding emperors (cf. Pliny's Letter to Trajan with the frequent Dominus), although Alexander Severus forbade it to be applied to him; for other instances, and instances on inscriptions, see Wetstein, in loco, Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien, 44, and Bibelstudien, 77, 78, and Tert [398], Apol., 34, Polyc., Martyr., viii., 2, ix. 2, who refused to utter it with reference to Cæsar. For the due significance of the word in St. Luke, who uses it more frequently of Christ than the other Evangelists, see especially Wetstein, in loco. ἀνακρίσεως : here not in its strictly legal and judicial sense of a preliminary inquiry, but an inquiry into the case, cf. Acts 25:22 (Acts 4:9), with a view to sending a report to the emperor as judge, Renan, Saint Paul, p. 544, and Zöckler, in loco. Festus knew what the charges were, but not their significance, and he hoped to obtain some definite information from Agrippa or Paul he wanted something ἀσφαλές; Paul had contradicted the charge of treason, and what was left, Acts 25:19, seemed full of obscurity and absurdity.

[397] Augustine.

[398]ert. Tertullian.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 25:26

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