The famous reply of Agrippa to Paul, Acts 26:28, is exceedingly difficult to translate and to interpret. The translation in the Revised Version is by no means certainly correct. The words may mean, "A little more of this persuasion will make me a Christian!" or else, "You seem to think that the little persuasion you have used is sufficient to make me a Christian." In any case, the sentence displays a certain perplexity on the part of the king. He certainly does not mean that he is on the point of accepting Christianity—his words have a half-ironical tone—but on the other hand his interest is aroused. The same thing is probably to be said for Festus. He said, "Paul, thou art mad; thy much learning is turning thee mad," but he said it with a loud voice as though he were agitated. There was something uncanny about this prisoner!
6. THE ACCESSION OF FESTUS
The dates of many events in the apostolic age have usually been fixed by counting from the accession of Festus. Unfortunately, however, that event itself cannot be dated with certainty. Some put it as late as A. D. 61, others as early as A. D. 55. If the date A. D. 60 be provisionally adopted, then Paul's arrest in Jerusalem occurred in A. D. 58, and his arrival in Rome in A. D. 61. The conclusion of the narrative in The Acts would then fall in the year A. D. 63. It will be remembered that the proconsulship of Gallio now affords an additional starting point for a chronology of the apostolic age.
7. LATER HISTORY OF THE JERUSALEM CHURCH
After the meeting between Paul and James, which is narrated in Acts 21:17-26, the Jerusalem church, at least so far as any direct narrative is concerned, disappears from the pages of the New Testament. It will be observed that in the account of Paul's last visit, only James, the brother of the Lord, and "the elders" are mentioned as representatives of the church. Possibly some of the twelve apostles may be included under the term "elders," but it is also perfectly possible that the apostles were all out of the city.
James, the brother of the Lord, continued to be the head of the Jerusalem church until he was martyred—in A. D. 62, or, as others suppose, in A. D. 66. Before the war which culminated in the capture of Jerusalem in A. D. 70, the Christians of the city fled to Pella beyond the Jordan. From that time, on, though the Christians returned after the war, Jewish Christianity was quite uninfluential. The supremacy of the Jerusalem church was gone. But that church had already rendered a priceless service. It had laid the foundations of Christendom. It had sent forth the first missionaries. And it had preserved the record of Jesus' life. The Synoptic Gospels, in substance at least, are a product of the Jerusalem church.
In the Library.—Purves, "Christianity in the Apostolic Age," pp. 160-166, 231-239. Davis, "Dictionary of the Bible": articles on the many persons and places mentioned in the narrative, especially "Felix," "Festus," and "Herod" (4). Ramsay, "St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen," pp. 283-362; "Pictures of the Apostolic Church," pp. 270-285, 310-364. Lewin, "The Life and Epistles of St. Paul," vol. ii, chs. ii, iii, iv, v, and vi. Conybeare and Howson, "The Life and Epistles of St. Paul," chs. xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii, xxiv and xxv. Stalker, "The Life of St. Paul," pp. 121-133. Lumby, pp. 266-380. Cook, pp. 485-534. Plumptre, pp. 136-184. Rackham, pp. 370-513.