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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 25:13 - 25:13
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When certain days were passed (Hēmerōn diagenomenon). Genitive absolute of diaginomai, to come between, “days intervening.”
Agrippa the King (Agrippas ho basileus). Agrippa II son of Agrippa I of Act 12:20-23. On the death of Herod King of Chalcis a.d. 48, Claudius a.d. 50 gave this Herod Agrippa II the throne of Chalcis so that Luke is correct in calling him king, though he is not king of Judea. But he was also given by Claudius the government of the temple and the right of appointing the high priest. Later he was given also the tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias. He was the last Jewish king in Palestine, though not king of Judea. He angered the Jews by building his palace so as to overlook the temple and by frequent changes in the high priesthood. He made his capital at Caesarea Philippi which he called Neronias in honour of Nero. Titus visited it after the fall of Jerusalem.
Bernice (Bernikē). He was her brother and yet she lived with him in shameful intimacy in spite of her marriage to her uncle Herod King of Chalcis and to Polemon King of Cilicia whom she left. Schuerer calls her both a Jewish bigot and a wanton. She afterwards became the mistress of Titus.
Arrived at Caesarea (katēntēsan eis Kaisarian). Came down (first aorist active of katantaō) to Caesarea from Jerusalem.
And saluted Festus (aspasamenoi ton Phēston). The Textus Receptus has aspasomenoi the future participle, but the correct text is the aorist middle participle aspasamenoi which cannot possibly mean subsequent action as given in the Canterbury Revision “and saluted.” It can only mean contemporaneous (simultaneous) action “saluting” or antecedent action like the margin “having saluted.” But antecedent action is not possible here, so that simultaneous action is the only alternative. It is to be noted that the salutation synchronized with the arrival in Caesarea (note kata, down, the effective aorist tense), not with the departure from Jerusalem, nor with the whole journey. Rightly understood the aorist participle here gives no trouble at all (Robertson, Grammar, pp. 861-3).