Acts 24:5
For we have found this man, etc. - Here the proposition of the orator commences. He accuses Paul, ant his accusation includes four particulars: -
1.He is a pest, ; an exceedingly bad and wicked man.
2.He excites disturbances and seditions against the Jews.
3.He is the chief of the sect of the Nazarenes, who are a very bad people, and should not be tolerated.
4.He has endeavored to pollute and profane the temple, and we took him in the fact.
A pestilent fellow - The word , pestis - the plague or pestilence, is used by both Greek and Roman authors to signify a very bad and profligate man; we have weakened the force of the word by translating the substantive adjectively. Tertullus did not say that Paul was a pestilent fellow, but he said that he was the very pestilence itself. As in that of Martial, xi. 92: -
\ri720 Non vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed vitium .
"Thou art not a vicious man, O Zoilus, but thou art vice itself."
The words , and pestis , are thus frequently used. - See Wetstein, Bp. Pearce, and Kypke.
A mover of sedition - Instead of Ϛ , sedition, ABE, several others, with the Coptic, Vulgate, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Oecumenius, read Ϛ , commotions, which is probably the true reading.
Among all the Jews - Bp. Pearce contends that the words should be understood thus - one that stirreth up tumults Against all the Jews; for, if they be understood otherwise, Tertullus may be considered as accusing his countrymen, as if they, at Paul' s instigation, were forward to make insurrections every where. On the contrary, he wishes to represent them as a persecuted and distressed people, by means of Paul and his Nazarenes.
A ringleader - . This is a military phrase, and signifies the officer who stands on the right of the first rank; the captain of the front rank of the sect of the Nazarenes; ̔ , of the heresy of the Nazarenes. This word is used six times by St. Luke; viz. in this verse, and in Acts 24:14, and in Acts 5:17; Acts 15:5; Acts 26:5; Acts 28:22; but in none of them does it appear necessarily to include that bad sense which we generally assign to the word heresy. - See the note on Acts 5:17, where the subject is largely considered; and see farther on Acts 24:14 (note).
