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permitting his friends to visit him and minister to his needs. There was already a
company of believers at Cęsarea, including Philip the Evangelist. Josephus, speaking of
the custody of Agrippa when he was a prisoner, uses the word aneseos, "remission" or
"relaxation", in connection with the centurion who was friendly to him upon receiving
news of the death of the Emperor Tiberius.
There are some who would criticize the Apostle for not preaching the gospel to these
Roman officials, just as they would criticize his method of speaking to the philosophers
at Athens. There are several facts, however, that should be carefully weighed before we
attempt to criticize:
(1)
The council at Athens had in earlier days the power of life and death, and even if
this power was later reduced, Paul's liberty was in danger.
(2)
The Sanhedrin still retained the power of life and death.
(3)
The administration of provincial Roman justice was very much influenced by the
character of the judges, and the pressure that could be brought to bear upon them
by influential natives.
(4)
It is the duty of a man accused before the law to indicate his innocence before he
asserts his rights, and this was the line of conduct that Paul pursued.
(5)
It is quite false to charge the Apostle with either reticence or cowardice. An
examination of his apologies in Acts 17:, 23:, 24: and 25: will show how
Christ and His gospel were either actually introduced, or would have been
introduced but for the cutting short of his defence by his opponents.
Moreover, chapter 24: shows how faithfully the Apostle seized the opportunity
which Felix presented, of preaching the gospel even while a prisoner.
"And after certain days when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess,
he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ" (Acts 24: 24).
The word paraginomai ("came") may indicate that Felix had been away and had now
returned. His wife, Drusilla, was the daughter of Herod Agrippa I, whose end is
described in Acts 12: 19-23, and the sister of Herod Agrippa II, mentioned in
Acts 25: and 26: Drusilla was originally married to Azizus, the king of Emesa, but
this marriage was soon dissolved, as recorded by Josephus:
"While Felix was procurator of Judaea, he saw this Drusilla, and fell in love with her;
for she did indeed exceed all other women in beauty. And he sent her a person whose
name was Simon, one of his friends: a Jew he was, and by birth a Cypriot, and one who
pretended to be a magician; and endeavoured to persuade her to forsake her present
husband, and marry him: and promised, that if she would not refuse him, he would make
her a happy woman. Accordingly she acted ill, and because she was desirous to avoid her
sister Berenice's envy, for she was very ill-treated by her on account of her beauty, was
prevailed upon to transgress the laws of her forefathers, and to marry Felix; and when
she had had a son by him, he named him Agrippa. But after what manner that young
man, with his wife, perished at the conflagration of the mountain Vesuvius, in the days of
Titus Cęsar, shall be related hereafter" (Ant. of Jews, 20: 7, 1).
Wordsworth comments here: