Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Acts 25:17 - 25:20
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Act_25:17-20. After they had therefore come together here (to Caesarea, just as in Act_25:24), I made no delay, etc. See examples of ἀναβολὴν ποιεῖσθαι (comp. ἀναβάλλεσθαι , Act_24:22) in Wetstein.
Act_25:18. περὶ οὗ ] belongs to σταθέντες . Comp. Act_25:7.
αἰτίαν ἔφερον (see the critical remarks): they brought no accusation. The classical expression would be αἰτ . ἐπιφέρειν (Herod. i. 26; Thuc. vi. 76; Plat. Legg. ix. p. 856 E; and often in the orators), or ἐπάγειν (Dem. 275. 4).
ὧν (instead of ἐκείνων ἃ ) ὑπενόουν ἐγώ ] In the case of a man already so long imprisoned, and assailed with such ardent hostility, Festus very naturally supposed that there existed some peculiar capital crimes, chiefly, perhaps, of a political nature. It is true that political charges were also brought forward (Act_25:8), but “hinc iterum conjicere licet, imo aperte cognoscere, adeo futiles fuisse calumnias, ut in judicii rationem venire non debuerint, perinde ac si quis convicium temere jactet,” Calvin.
Act_25:19. περὶ τῆς ἰδίας δεισιδαιμ .] concerning their own religion. Festus prudently uses this vox media, leaving it to Agrippa to take the word in a good sense, but reserving withal his own view, which was certainly the Roman one of the Judaica superstitio (Quinctil. iii. 8). Comp. on Act_17:22.
ζῆν ] that he lives, namely, risen and not again dead. Moreover, the words καὶ περί τινος Ἰησοῦ … ζῆν bear quite the impress of the indifference and insignificance which Festus attached to this very point, inasmuch as, in regard to the τεθνηκότος , he does not even condescend to designate the mode of death, and, as regards the ζῆν , sees in it an empty pretence ( ἔφασκεν , comp. Act_24:9).
Act_25:20. ἀπορούμενος ] but I, uncertain on my part. Quite in accordance with the circumstances of the case (for before the king, Festus might not lay himself open to any imputation of partiality), Luke makes the procurator keep silence over the real motive of his proposal (Act_25:9).
εἰς τὴν περὶ τούτων ζήτ .] regarding the investigation to be held on account of these (to me so strange) matters ( ζήτησις in the judicial sense, as in Pol. vi. 16. 2). Instead of εἰς τὴν κ . τ . λ . (comp. Soph. Trach. 1233), Luke might have written only (as A H actually read) τὴν κ . τ . λ . (Heind. ad Plat. Crat. p. 409 C), or τῆς κ . τ . λ . (Stallb. ad Plat. Rep. p. 557 D).