Acts 25:19

But had certain questions against him of their own superstition,....

FESTUS is giving to King Agrippa a brief account of the matter between Paul and the Jews. It may not be a very accurate account. For Festus did not profess to understand the business. He was a Roman governor newly come to Judea. He had no acquaintance whatever with Jewish Scriptures nor with Jewish laws. He is, therefore, merely giving to King Agrippa a rough and ready outline of the affair as it struck him.

It cannot be supposed that Festus would use the word in any discourteous sense in addressing his Jewish guest. one Jesus--"Thus speaks this miserable Festus of Him to whom every knee shall bow" [BENGEL]. whom Paul affirmed--"kept affirming." to be alive--showing that the resurrection of the Crucified One had been the burden, as usual, of Paul's pleading.

FESTUS is giving to King Agrippa a brief account of the matter between Paul and the Jews. It may not be a very accurate account. For Festus did not profess to understand the business. He was a Roman governor newly come to Judea. He had no acquaintance whatever with Jewish Scriptures nor with Jewish laws. He is, therefore, merely giving to King Agrippa a rough and ready outline of the affair as it struck him. He had never thought it worth his special attention but he was a little puzzled how he should represent the matter to Caesar, to whom Paul had appealed. Festus is represented by our translators as calling the Jewish religion a "superstition." I hardly think he would have used so harsh a term before Agrippa who professed to be of the Jewish faith. But yet, as he probably knew that Agrippa's religion did not lie very deep and was the mere appendage of a man of fashion, Festus was not very particular about the word which he used. And he lighted upon one which may mean "superstition" as the Authorized Version has it, or "religion" as the Revised Version has it. "Well, well," he seems to say to Agrippa, "I do not know much about it. I supposed, when the Jews brought this man before me, that he would be charged with a breach of the Roman Law and I was prepared, of course, to deal with the prisoner. But when I listened to their accusation and found that there was nothing in it but some disputes about their religion, I hardly knew what to say. Their controversy is important to them, I dare say. But it can be of no consequence either to you or to me, for it turned very much upon a person of the name of Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." I want you to notice that, rough and ready as this description is, and neither full nor deep, yet on the surface we see that in the controversy we have the same condition of things as we usually see in such conflicts.

Questions - of their own superstition - Περι της ιδιας δειδιδαιμονιας; Questions concerning their own religion. Superstition meant something as bad among the Romans as it does among us; and is it likely that Festus, only a procurator, should thus speak to Agrippa, a King, concerning his own religion? He could not have done so without offering the highest insult. The word δεισιδαιμονια must therefore simply mean religion - the national creed, and the national worship, as I have at large proved it to mean, in the observations at the end of Act 17:34. And of one Jesus, which was dead, etc. - In this way does this poor heathen speak of the death and resurrection of Christ! There are many who profess Christianity that do not appear to be much farther enlightened.