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1st Day.--Arrival in Jerusalem (21: 15-17).
2nd Day.--Interview with James, etc. (21: 18).
3rd Day.--Purification in the Temple (21: 26).
7th Day.--The seven days nearly completed. Paul arrested (21: 30).
8th Day.--Before the Sanhedrin (22: 30).
9th Day.--Conspiracy Revealed (23: 12).
10th Day.--Arrival at Caesarea (23: 33).
11th and 12th Day.--In custody (23: 35).
13th Day.--Trial before Felix (24: 1).
Felix knew the date of Pentecost, and could confirm that Paul had actually arrived for
this feast. A complete account of all his movements for the whole time under review was
obtainable. The further points in his defence were:
(1)
POSITIVE.--He came to worship in the Temple.
(2)
NEGATIVE.--No evidence was produced by Tertullus to show that he had been
found disputing with any man, or raising up the people, either in the
synagogue or in the city.
He had been charged with being the ringleader of a sect called the Nazarenes. This he
willingly admitted, but it was no crime against Roman law to believe "all things which
are written in the law and the prophets". His accusers might call it "heresy", but Paul
claimed that it was the worship of the God of his fathers.
The phrase "the God of my fathers" was the usual term to denote the tutelary god of a
particular nation, and as such a legal object of worship under Roman law. The terms
"heresy" and "sect" are not used in an ecclesiastical sense in Paul's defence. His very
accusers belonged to two different sects--the Pharisees and the Sadducees--and Paul is
simply claiming for this new sect of Nazarenes the toleration normally allowed by
Roman law and enjoyed by his accusers.
In verse 15 the Apostle emphasizes the hope of resurrection which he held in common
with the sect of the Pharisees, and in the following verse declares that he exercised
himself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God and man. When the
proper occasion presented itself, Paul was very ready to preach to Felix (Acts 24: 25),
but this opportunity had not yet arrived. He concludes his defence by asking why the
Jews from Asia, who were supposed to have seen him polluting the Temple, were not
present at the trial to bear their witness against him. The only evil doing, the Apostle
claims, that the council could bring against him was the split that his declaration
concerning the resurrection had caused in their ranks.
The ring of truth that was so evident in the Apostle's defence, his ready admission of
"heresy", the harmony of his statements with the letter written by Lysias, the failure to
produce witnesses, and the manifest religious animosity of his accusers, convinced Felix
that Paul was innocent. He had a "more accurate knowledge of that way" than his
hearers had credited, and he defers the trial, saying: "When Lysias comes down I will
decide finally between you (diagnosomai)." Paul is now given into the charge of a
centurion, who is instructed to afford as much relaxation and liberty as the case allowed,