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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 24:5 - 24:5
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
For we have found (heurontes gar). Second aorist active participle of heuriskō, but without a principal verb in the sentence. Probably we have here only a “summary of the charges against Paul” (Page).
A pestilent fellow (loimon). An old word for pest, plague, pestilence, Paul the pest. In N.T. only here and Luk 21:11 (loimoi kai limoi, pestilences and famines) which see. Latin pestis. Think of the greatest preacher of the ages being branded a pest by a contemporary hired lawyer.
A mover of insurrections (kinounta staseis). This was an offence against Roman law if it could be proven. “Plotted against at Damascus, plotted against at Jerusalem, expelled from Pisidian Antioch, stoned at Lystra, scourged and imprisoned at Philippi, accused of treason at Thessalonica, haled before the proconsul at Corinth, cause of a serious riot at Ephesus, and now finally of a riot at Jerusalem” (Furneaux). Specious proof could have been produced, but was not. Tertullus went on to other charges with which a Roman court had no concern (instance Gallio in Corinth).
Throughout the world (kata tēn oikoumenēn). The Roman inhabited earth (gēn) as in Act 17:6.
A ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes (prōtostatēn tēs tōn Nazōraiōn haireseōs). Prōtostatēs is an old word in common use from prōtos and histēmi, a front-rank man, a chief, a champion. Here only in the N.T. This charge is certainly true. About “sect” (hairesis) see note on Act 5:17. Nazōraioi here only in the plural in the N.T., elsewhere of Jesus (Mat 2:23; Mat 26:71; Luk 18:37; Joh 18:5, Joh 18:7; Joh 19:19; Act 2:22; Act 3:6; Act 4:10; Act 6:14; Act 22:8; Act 26:9). The disciple is not above his Master. There was a sneer in the term as applied to Jesus and here to his followers.