“The reason why St. Paul chose to speak in the Hebrew tongue, may be accounted for thus. There were at this time two sorts of Jews, some called by Chrysostom οἱ βαθεις Ἑβραιοι, profound Hebrews, who used no other language but the Hebrew, and would not admit the Greek Bible into their assemblies, but only the Hebrew, with the Jerusalem Targum and Paraphrase. The other sort spoke Greek, and used that translation of the scriptures; these were called Hellenists. This was a cause of great dissension among these two parties, even after they had embraced Christianity, (Acts vi. 1.) Of this latter sort was St. Paul, because he always made use of the Greek translation of the Bible in his writings, so that in this respect he might not be acceptable to the other party. Those of them who were converted to Christianity, were much prejudiced against him, (Acts xxi. 21,) which is given as a reason for his concealing his name in his Epistle to the Hebrews. And as for those who were not converted, they could not so much as endure him: and this is the reason which Chrysostom gives, why he preached to the Hellenists only. Acts ix. 28. Therefore, that he might avert the great displeasure which the Jews had conceived against him, he accosted them in their favorite language, and by his compliance in this respect, they were so far pacified as to give him audience.” (Hammond’s Annotations.) [Williams’s Pearson, p. 70.]
“Scourging was a method of examination used by Romans and other nations, to force such as were supposed guilty to confess what they had done, what were their motives, and who were accessory to the fact. Thus Tacitus tells us of Herennius Gallus, that he received several stripes, that it might be known for what price, and with what confederates, he had betrayed the Roman army. It is to be observed, however, that the Romans were punished in this wise, not by whips and scourges, but with rods only; and therefore it is that Cicero, in his oration pro Rabirio, speaking against Labienus, tells his audience that the Porcian law permitted a Roman to be whipped with rods, but he, like a good and merciful man, (speaking ironically,) had done it with scourges; and still further, neither by whips nor rods could a citizen of Rome be punished, until he were first adjudged to lose his privilege, to be uncitizened, and to be declared an enemy to the commonwealth, then he might be scourged or put to death. Cicero Oratio in Verres, says, ‘It is a foul fault for any praetor, &c. to bind a citizen of Rome; a piacular offense to scourge him; a kind of parricide to kill him: what shall I call the crucifying of such an one?’” (Williams’s notes on Pearson, pp. 70, 71.)
“Ananias, the son of Nebedaeus, was high priest at the time that Helena, queen of Adiabene, supplied the Jews with corn from Egypt, (Josephus Antiquities, lib. xx. c. 5. § 2,) during the famine which took place in the fourth year of Claudius, mentioned in the eleventh chapter of the Acts. St. Paul, therefore, who took a journey to Jerusalem at that period, (Acts xv.) could not have been ignorant of the elevation of Ananias to that dignity. Soon after the holding of the first council, as it is called, at Jerusalem, Ananias was dispossessed of his office, in consequence of certain acts of violence between the Samaritans and the Jews, and sent prisoner to Rome, (Josephus, Antiquities, lib. xx. c. 6. § 2,) whence he was afterwards released and returned to Jerusalem. Now from that period he could not be called high priest, in the proper sense of the word, though Josephus (Antiquities, lib. xx. c. 9. § 2, and Jewish War lib. ii. c. 17. § 9,) has sometimes given him the title of αρχιερευς, taken in the more extensive meaning of a priest, who had a seat and voice in the Sanhedrim; αρχιερεις in the plural number is frequently used in the New Testament, when allusion is made to the Sanhedrim;) and Jonathan, though we are not acquainted with the circumstances of his elevation, had been raised, in the mean time, to the supreme dignity in the Jewish church. Between the death of Jonathan, who was murdered (Josephus Antiquities of the Jews lib. xx. c. 8. § 5,) by order of Felix, and the high priesthood of Ismael, who was invested with that office by Agrippa, (Josephus Antiquities lib. xx. c. 8. § 3,) elapsed an interval in which this dignity continued vacant. Now it happened precisely in this interval, that St. Paul was apprehended at Jerusalem; and, the Sanhedrim being destitute of a president, he undertook of his own authority the discharge of that office, which he executed with the greatest tyranny. (Josephus Antiquities lib. xx. c. 9. § 2.) It is possible therefore that St. Paul, who had been only a few days at Jerusalem, might be ignorant that Ananias, who had been dispossessed of the priesthood, had taken upon himself a trust to which he was not entitled. He might therefore very naturally exclaim, ‘I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest!’ Admitting him on the other hand to have been acquainted with the fact, the expression must be considered as an indirect reproof, and a tacit refusal to recognize usurped authority.” (Michaelis, Vol. I. pp. 51, 56.)
“The prediction of St. Paul, verse 3, ‘God shall smite thee, thou whited wall,’ was, according to Josephus, fulfilled in a short time. For when, in the government of Florus, his son Eleazar set himself at the head of a party of mutineers, who, having made themselves masters of the temple, would permit no sacrifices to be offered for the emperor; and being joined by a company of assassins, compelled persons of the best quality to fly for their safety and hide themselves in sinks and vaults;——Ananias and his brother Hezekias, were both drawn out of one of these places, and murdered, (Josephus Jewish War lib. ii. c. 17, 18,) though Dr. Lightfoot will have it that he perished at the siege of Jerusalem!” (Whitby’s Annotations.) [Williams on Pearson.]
During that night, the soul of Paul was comforted by a heavenly vision, in which the Lord exhorted him to maintain the same high spirit,——assuring him that as he had testified of him in Jerusalem, even so he should bear witness in Rome. His dangers in Jerusalem, however, were not yet over. The furious Jews, now cut off from all possibility of doing any violence to Paul, under the sanction of legal forms, determined to set all moderation aside, and forty of the most desperate bound themselves by a solemn oath, neither to eat nor drink, till they had slain Paul. In the arrangement of the mode in which their abominable vow should be performed, it was settled between them and the high-priest, that a request should be sent to the tribune to bring down Paul before the council once more, as if for the sake of putting some additional inquiries to him for their final and perfect satisfaction; and then, that these desperadoes should station themselves, where they could make a rush upon Paul, just as he was entering the council-hall, and kill him before the guard could bestir themselves in his defense, or seize the murderers; and even if some of them should be caught and punished, it never need be known, that the high priest was accessory to the assassination. But while they were arranging this hopeful piece of wickedness, they did not manage it so snugly as was necessary for the success of the plot; for it somehow or other got to the ears of Paul’s nephew,——a young man no where else mentioned in the New Testament, and of whose character and situation, nothing whatever is known. He, hearing of the plot, came instantly to his uncle, who sent him to communicate the tidings to the tribune. Lysias, on receiving this account of the utterly desperate character of the opposition to Paul, determined not to risk his prisoner’s life any longer in Jerusalem, even when guarded by the powerful defenses of castle Antonia. He dismissed the young man with the strongest injunctions, to observe the most profound secrecy, as to the fact of his having made this communication to him; and immediately made preparations to send off Paul, that very night, to Caesarea, designing to have him left there with the governor of the province, as a prisoner of state, and thus to rid himself of all responsibility about this very difficult and perilous business. He ordered two centurions to draw out a detachment, of such very remarkable strength, as shows the excess of his fears for Paul. Two hundred heavy-armed soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred lancers, were detached as a guard for Paul, and were all mounted for speed, to take him beyond the reach of the Jerusalem desperadoes, that very night. He gave to that portion of the detachment that was designed to go all the way to Caesarea, a letter to be delivered to Felix the governor, giving a fair and faithful account of all the circumstances connected with Paul’s imprisonment and perils in Jerusalem.
RETURN TO CAESAREA.
The strong mounted detachment, numbering four hundred and seventy full-armed Roman warriors, accordingly set out that night at nine o’clock, and moving silently off from the castle, which stood near one of the western gates of the city, passed out of Jerusalem unnoticed in the darkness, and galloped away to the north-west. After forty miles of hard riding, they reached Antipatris before day, and as all danger of pursuit from the Jerusalem assassins was out of the question there, the mounted infantry and the lancers returned to Jerusalem, leaving Paul however, the very respectable military attendance of the seventy horse-guards. With these, he journeyed to Caesarea, only about twenty-five miles off, where he was presented by the commander of the detachment to Felix, the Roman governor, who always resided in Caesarea, the capital of his province. The governor, on reading the letter and learning that Paul was of Cilicia, deferred giving his case a full hearing, until his accusers had also come; and committed him for safe keeping in the interval, to an apartment in the great palace, built by Herod the Great, the royal founder of Caesarea.
After a delay of five days, the high priest and the elders came down to Caesarea, to prosecute their charges against Paul before the governor. They brought with them, as their advocate, a speech-maker named Tertullus, whose name shows him to have been of Roman connections or education, and who, on account of his acquaintance with the Latin forms of oratory and law, was no doubt selected by Ananias and his coadjutors, as a person better qualified than themselves to maintain their cause with effect, before the governor. Tertullus accordingly opened the case, and when Paul had been confronted with his accusers, began with a very tedious string of formal compliments to Felix, and then set forth a complaint against Paul in very bitter and abusive terms, stating his offense to be, the attempt to profane the temple, for which the Jews would have convicted and punished him, if Lysias had not violently hindered, and put them to the trouble of bringing the whole business before the governor, though a matter exclusively concerning their religious law. To all his assertions the Jews testified.
This presentation of the accusation being made, Paul was then called on for his defense, which he thereupon delivered in a tone highly respectful to the governor, and maintained that he had been guilty of none of the troublesome and riotous conduct of which he was accused: but quietly, without any effort to make a commotion among the people anywhere, had come into the city on a visit, after many years absence, to bring alms and offerings; and that when he was seized by the Asian Jews in the temple, he was going blamelessly through the established ceremonies of purification. He complained also, that his original accusers, the Asian Jews, were not confronted with him, and challenged his present prosecutors to bring any evidence against him. Felix, after this hearing of the case, on the pretence of needing Lysias as a witness on the facts, deferred his decision, and left both accusers and accused to the enjoyment of the delays and “glorious uncertainties of the law.” Meanwhile he committed Paul to the charge of a centurion, with directions that he should be allowed all reasonable liberty, and should not be in any particular restricted from the freest intercourse with his friends. The imprisonment of Paul at Caesarea was merely nominal; and he must have passed his time both pleasantly and profitably, with the members of the church at Caesarea, with whom he had formerly been acquainted, especially with Philip and his family. Besides these, he was also favored with the company of several of his assistants, who had been the companions of his toils in Europe and Asia; and through them he could hold the freest correspondence with any of the numerous churches of his apostolic charge throughout the world. He resided here for two whole years at least, of Felix’s administration; and during that time, was more than once sent for by the governor, to hold conversations with him on the great objects of his life, in some of which he expressed himself so forcibly on righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, that the wicked governor,——at that moment sitting in the presence of the apostle with an adulterous paramour,——trembled at the view presented by Paul of the consequences of those sins for which Felix was so infamous. But his repentant tremors soon passed off, and he merely dismissed the apostle with the vague promise, that at some more convenient season he would send for him. He did indeed, often send for him after this; but the motive of these renewals of intercourse seems to have been of the basest order, for it is stated by the sacred historian, that his real object was to induce Paul to offer him a bribe, which he supposed could be easily raised by the contributions of his devoted friends. But the hope was vain. It was no part of Paul’s plan of action to hasten the decision of his movements by such means, and the consequence was, that Felix found so little occasion to befriend him, that when he went out of the office which he had uniformly disgraced by tyranny, rapine, and murder, he thought it, on the whole, worth while to gratify the late subjects of his hateful sway, by leaving Paul still a prisoner.
“This Drusilla was the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa. (Josephus lib. xix. c. 9. in.) Josephus gives the following account of her marriage with Felix:——‘Agrippa, having received this present from Caesar, (viz. Claudius,) gave his sister Drusilla in marriage to the Azizus, king of the Emesenes, when he had consented to be circumcised. For Epiphanes, the son of king Antiochus, had broken the contract with her, by refusing to embrace the Jewish customs, although he had promised her father he would. But this marriage of Drusilla with Azizus was dissolved in a short time, after this manner. When Felix was procurator of Judaea, having had a sight of her, he was mightily taken with her; and indeed she was the most beautiful of her sex. He therefore sent to her Simon, a Jew of Cyprus, who was one of his friends, and pretended to magic, by whom he persuaded her to leave her husband, and marry him; promising to make her perfectly happy, if she did not disdain him. It was far from being a sufficient reason; but to avoid the envy of her sister Bernice, who was continually doing her ill offices, because of her beauty, she was induced to transgress the laws of her country, and marry Felix.’” (Lardner’s Credibility, 4to. Vol. I. p. 16, 17, edition, London, 1815.) [Williams on Pearson, p. 78.]