14. ἐπὶ τοῦ ἡγεμόνος. ‘Before the governor.’ With this use of ἐπὶ comp. ἐπὶ μαρτύρων, 1Ti 5:19; ἐπὶ τῶν ἀδίκων … ἐπὶ τῶν ἁγίων, 1Co 6:1, ‘at the bar of,’ and the common phrases ἐπὶ δικαστῶν, δικαστηρίων. These expressions are closely connected with the physical notion of ἐπὶ, ‘upon.’ A matter may be said to rest upon witnesses or judges, i.e. depend upon their evidence or decision. This use explains the expression in the text, which means either, (1) ‘If the matter should be heard in the Procurator’s Court’—come before him officially. (2) Or perhaps in a more general sense; ‘If rumours of it should come before him’—if he should hear of it.
ἀμερίμνους. At Rome, in Cicero’s time, judicial bribery was so organized that contracts were taken to secure acquittal by this means. And the whole process of bribery had a special vocabulary, in which this very word ἀμέριμνος appears to have had a place, Curio meeting Verres and assuring him that he has won his acquittal by bribery: ‘hunc jubet sine cura esse: renuntio inquit tibi te hodiernis comitiis esse absolutum.’ ἀμέριμνος here and 1Co 7:32 only in N.T.