{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ACT","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Acts","commonName":"Acts","introduction":"THIS book is to the Gospels what the fruit is to the tree that bears it. In the Gospels we see the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying: in the Acts we see it bringing forth much fruit (Joh 12:24). There we see Christ purchasing the Church with His own blood: here we see the Church, so purchased, rising into actual existence; first among the Jews of Palestine, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, until it gains a footing in the great capital of the ancient world--sweeping majestically from Jerusalem to Rome. Nor is this book of less value as an Introduction to the Epistles which follow it, than as a Sequel to the Gospels which precede it. For without this history the Epistles of the New Testament--presupposing, as they do, the historical circumstances of the parties addressed, and deriving from these so much of their freshness, point, and force--would in no respect be what they now are, and would in a number of places be scarcely intelligible.\n\nThe genuineness, authenticity, and canonical authority of this book were never called in question within the ancient Church. It stands immediately after the Gospels, in the catalogues of the Homologoumena, or universally acknowledged books of the New Testament (see Introduction to our larger Commentary, Vol. V, pp. iv, v). It was rejected, indeed, by certain heretical sects in the second and third centuries--by the Ebionites, the Severians (see EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 4.29), the Marcionites, and the Manicheans: but the totally uncritical character of their objections (see Introduction above referred to, pp. xiii, xiv) not only deprives them of all weight, but indirectly shows on what solid grounds the Christian Church had all along proceeded in recognizing this book.\n\nIn our day, however, its authenticity has, like that of all the leading books of the New Testament, been made the subject of keen and protracted controversy. DE WETTE, while admitting Luke to be the author of the entire work, pronounces the earlier portion of it to have been drawn up from unreliable sources (New-Testament Introduction, 2a, 2C). But the Tubingen school, with BAUR at their head, have gone much farther. As their fantastic theory of the post-Joannean date of the Gospels could not pretend even to a hearing so long as the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles remained unshaken, they contend that the earlier portion of this work can be shown to be unworthy of credit, while the latter portion is in flat contradiction to the Epistle to the Galatians--which this school regard as unassailable--and bears internal evidence of being a designed distortion of facts for the purpose of setting up the catholic form which Paul gave to Christianity in opposition to the narrow Judaic but original form of it which Peter preached, and which after the death of the apostles was held exclusively by the sect of the Ebionites. It is painful to think that anyone should have spent so many years, and, aided by learned and acute disciples in different parts of the argument, should have expended so much learning, research, and ingenuity in attempting to build up a hypothesis regarding the origination of the leading books of the New Testament which outrages all the principles of sober criticism and legitimate evidence. As a school, this party at length broke up: its head, after living to find himself the sole defender of the theory as a whole, left this earthly scene complaining of desertion. While some of his associates have abandoned such heartless studies altogether for the more congenial pursuits of philosophy, others have modified their attacks on the historical truth of the New Testament records, retreating into positions into which it is not worth while to follow them, while others still have been gradually approximating to sound principles. The one compensation for all this mischief is the rich additions to the apologetical and critical literature of the books of the New Testament, and the earliest history of the Christian Church, which it has drawn from the pens of THIERSCH, EBRARD, and many others. Any allusions which it may be necessary for us to make to the assertions of this school will be made in connection with the passages to which they relate--in Acts, First Corinthians, and Galatians.\n\nThe manifest connection between this book and the third Gospel--of which it professes to be simply the continuation by the same author--and the striking similarity which marks the style of both productions, leave no room to doubt that the early Church was right in ascribing it with one consent to Luke. The difficulty which some fastidious critics have made about the sources of the earlier portion of the history has no solid ground. That the historian himself was an eye-witness of the earliest scenes--as HUG concludes from the circumstantiality of the narrative--is altogether improbable: but there were hundreds of eye-witnesses of some of the scenes, and enough of all the rest, to give to the historian, partly by oral, partly by written testimony, all the details which he has embodied so graphically in his history; and it will appear, we trust, from the commentary, that De Wette's complaints of confusion, contradiction, and error in this portion are without foundation. The same critic, and one or two others, would ascribe to Timothy those later portions of the book in which the historian speaks in the first person plural--\"we\"; supposing him to have taken notes of all that passed under his own eye, which Luke embodied in his history just as they stood. It is impossible here to refute this gratuitous hypothesis in detail; but the reader will find it done by EBRARD (The Gospel History, sect. 110, Clark's translation; sect. 127 of the original work, Wissenschaftliche Kritik der Evangelische Geschichte, 1850), and by DAVIDSON (Introduction to New Testament, Vol. II, pp. 9-21).\n\nThe undesigned coincidences between this History and the Apostolic Epistles have been brought out and handled, as an argument for the truth of the facts thus attested, with unrivalled felicity by PALEY in his HorÃ&brvbr PaulinÃ&brvbr, to which Mr. BIRKS has made a number of ingenious additions in his HorÃ&brvbr ApostolicÃ&brvbr. Exception has been taken to some of these by JOWETT (St. Paul's Epistles, Vol. I, pp. 108 ff.), not without a measure of reason in certain cases--for our day, at least--though even he admits that in this line of evidence the work of PALEY, taken as a whole, is unassailable.\n\nMuch has been written about the object of this history. Certainly \"the Acts of the Apostles\" are but very partially recorded. But for this title the historian is not responsible. Between the two extremes--of supposing that the work has no plan at all, and that it is constructed on an elaborate and complex plan, we shall probably be as near the truth as is necessary if we take the design to be to record the diffusion of Christianity and the rise of the Christian Church, first among the Jews of Palestine, the seat of the ancient Faith, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, with Antioch for its headquarters, until, finally, it is seen waving over imperial Rome, foretokening its universal triumph. In this view of it, there is no difficulty in accounting for the almost exclusive place which it gives to the labors of Peter in the first instance, and the all but entire disappearance from the history both of him and of the rest of the Twelve after the great apostle of the Gentiles came upon the stage--like the lesser lights on the rise of the great luminary. \n\n\n\nNext: Acts Chapter 1\n\n","order":44,"numberOfChapters":28,"sha256":"c94aad3dd7e20061c0935f668f020beecd42d660333a1ba60e42c592e5a6a94e","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":28,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/28.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":28},"totalNumberOfVerses":775},"chapter":{"number":25,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Then the high priest--a successor of him before whom Paul had appeared (Act 23:2). \n\nand the chief of the Jews--and \"the whole multitude of the Jews\" (Act 25:24) clamorously. \n\ninformed him against Paul . . .\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["desired favour--in Act 25:15, \"judgment.\" \n\nagainst him--It would seem that they had the insolence to ask him to have the prisoner executed even without a trial (Act 25:16). \n\nlaying wait . . . to kill him--How deep must have been their hostility, when two years after the defeat of their former attempt, they thirst as keenly as ever for his blood! Their plea for having the case tried at Jerusalem, where the alleged offense took place, was plausible enough; but from Act 25:10 it would seem that Festus had been made acquainted with their causeless malice, and that in some way which Paul was privy to.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["answered that Paul should be kept--rather, \"is in custody.\" \n\nat CÃ&brvbrsarea, and . . . himself would depart shortly thither.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Let them . . . which among you are able, go down--\"your leading men.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["the Jews . . . from Jerusalem--clamorously, as at Jerusalem; see Act 25:24. \n\nmany and grievous complaints against Paul--From his reply, and Festus' statement of the case before Agrippa, these charges seem to have been a jumble of political and religious matter which they were unable to substantiate, and vociferous cries that he was unfit to live. Paul's reply, not given in full, was probably little more than a challenge to prove any of their charges, whether political or religious.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure--to ingratiate himself with them. \n\nsaid, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and . . . be judged . . . before me--or, \"under my protection.\" If this was meant in earnest, it was temporizing and vacillating. But, possibly, anticipating Paul's refusal, he wished merely to avoid the odium of refusing to remove the trial to Jerusalem.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["Then said Paul, I stand at CÃ&brvbrsar's judgment seat--that is, I am already before the proper tribunal. This seems to imply that he understood Festus to propose handing him over to the Sanhedrim for judgment (and see on Act 25:11), with a mere promise of protection from him. But from going to Jerusalem at all he was too well justified in shrinking, for there assassination had been quite recently planned against him. \n\nto the Jews have I done no wrong, as thou knowest very well--literally, \"better,\" that is, (perhaps), better than to press such a proposal. \n\nif there be none of these things . . . no man may deliver me unto them--The word signifies to \"surrender in order to gratify\" another.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["I appeal to CÃ&brvbrsar--The right of appeal to the supreme power, in case of life and death, was secured by an ancient law to every Roman citizen, and continued under the empire. Had Festus shown any disposition to pronounce final judgment, Paul, strong in the consciousness of his innocence and the justice of a Roman tribunal, would not have made this appeal. But when the only other alternative offered him was to give his own consent to be transferred to the great hotbed of plots against his life, and to a tribunal of unscrupulous and bloodthirsty ecclesiastics whose vociferous cries for his death had scarcely subsided, no other course was open to him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Festus--little expecting such an appeal, but bound to respect it. \n\nhaving conferred with the council--his assessors in judgment, as to the admissibility of the appeal. \n\nsaid, Hast thou--for \"thou hast.\" \n\nto CÃ&brvbrsar shalt thou go--as if he would add perhaps \"and see if thou fare better.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["HEROD AGRIPPA II ON A VISIT TO FESTUS, BEING CONSULTED BY HIM ON PAUL'S CASE, DESIRES TO HEAR THE APOSTLE, WHO IS ACCORDINGLY BROUGHT FORTH. (Act 25:13-27)\n\nKing Agrippa--great-grandson of Herod the Great, and Drusilla's brother (see on Act 24:24). On his father's awful death (Act 12:23), being thought too young (seventeen) to succeed, Judea, was attached to the province of Syria. Four years after, on the death of his uncle Herod, he was made king of the northern principalities of Chalcis, and afterwards got Batanea, Iturea, Trachonitis, Abilene, Galilee, and Perea, with the title of king. He died A.D. 100, after reigning fifty-one years. \n\nand Bernice--his sister. She was married to her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis, on whose death she lived with her brother Agrippa--not without suspicion of incestuous intercourse, which her subsequent licentious life tended to confirm. \n\ncame to salute Festus--to pay his respects to him on his accession to the procuratorship.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["when there many--\"several\" \n\ndays, Festus declared Paul's cause--taking advantage of the presence of one who might be presumed to know such matters better than himself; though the lapse of \"several days\" ere the subject was touched on shows that it gave Festus little trouble.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["to deliver any man to die--On the word \"deliver up,\" see on Act 25:11.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["as I supposed--\"suspected\"--crimes punishable by civil law.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["questions . . . of their own superstition--rather, \"religion\" (see on Act 17:22). It cannot be supposed that Festus would use the word in any discourteous sense in addressing his Jewish guest. \n\none Jesus--\"Thus speaks this miserable Festus of Him to whom every knee shall bow\" [BENGEL]. \n\nwhom Paul affirmed--\"kept affirming.\" \n\nto be alive--showing that the resurrection of the Crucified One had been the burden, as usual, of Paul's pleading. The insignificance of the whole affair in the eyes of Festus is manifest.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["because I doubted of such manner of questions--The \"I\" is emphatic. \"I,\" as a Roman judge, being at a loss how to deal with such matters.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["the hearing of Augustus--the imperial title first conferred by the Roman Senate on Octavius.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["I would also hear--\"should like to hear.\" \n\nthe man myself--No doubt Paul was fight when he said, \"The king knoweth of these things . . . for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner\" (Act 26:26). Hence his curiosity to see and hear the man who had raised such commotion and was remodelling to such an extent the whole Jewish life.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp--in the same city in which their father, on account of his pride, had perished, eaten up by worms [WETST]. \n\nwith the chief captains--(See on Act 21:32). JOSEPHUS [Wars of the Jews, 3.4.2] says that five cohorts, whose full complement was one thousand men, were stationed at CÃ&brvbrsarea. \n\nprincipal men of the city--both Jews and Romans. \"This was the most dignified and influential audience Paul had yet addressed, and the prediction (Act 9:15) was fulfilled, though afterwards still more remarkably at Rome (Act 27:24; Ti2 4:16-17) [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["I have no certain--\"definite\" \n\nthing to write my lord--Nero. \"The writer's accuracy should be remarked here. It would have been . . . a mistake to apply this term (\"lord\") to the emperor a few years earlier. Neither Augustus nor Tiberius would let himself be so called, as implying the relation of master and slave. But it had now come (rather, \"was coming\") into use as one of the imperial titles\" [HACKET].\n\n\n\n\nNext: Acts Chapter 26\n\n"]}],"introduction":"FESTUS, COMING TO JERUSALEM, DECLINES TO HAVE PAUL BROUGHT THITHER FOR JUDGMENT, BUT GIVES THE PARTIES A HEARING ON HIS RETURN TO CÆSAREA--ON FESTUS ASKING THE APOSTLE IF HE WOULD GO TO JERUSALEM FOR ANOTHER HEARING BEFORE HIM, HE IS CONSTRAINED IN JUSTICE TO HIS CAUSE TO APPEAL TO THE EMPEROR. (Act 25:1-12)\n\nFestus . . . after three days . . . ascended . . . to Jerusalem--to make himself acquainted with the great central city of his government without delay.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/25.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":25},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/26.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":26},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/24.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":24},"numberOfVerses":19}