Acts 21:17

17. Come to Jerusalem The terminus of Paul’s third missionary tour, begun at Acts 18:23. where see notes.

Brethren… gladly It was doubtless cheering to Paul, saddened with the dark predictions of change and death at Jerusalem, to meet the face of smiling friends. These were the friends of his Cesarean friends, the progressive party of the Church, sympathizers with Christian Gentilism and its apostle.

HISTORIC REVIEW Paul’s entrance into Jerusalem calls for a brief history of Judea from the death of Herod Agrippa, whose history is given in our note on Acts 12:1; Acts 12:21-25.

§ 1. Herod Agrippa left two daughters, who are mentioned in Acts, namely, Bernice and Drusilla, and an only son, AGRIPPA II. (See Herod’s family table in note on Matthew 2:1.) Bernice married her uncle Herod of Chalcis; and, on account of Agrippa’s extreme youth, the kingdom of his father was reduced to a province under procurators, subordinate to the Prefect of Syria resident at Antioch, while the treasury of the temple and the appointment of the high priests were intrusted to King Herod of Chalcis. The boy Agrippa was kept at the Roman court as the favourite of the Emperor Claudius.

CUSPIUS FADUS (A.D. 44) was the first and one of the wisest of the procurators, under whose administration the robber bands infesting the country were repressed and public peace secured.

TIBERIUS ALEXANDER, an apostate from Judaism to paganism, succeeded A.D. 46 . During the four years of these two procurators occurred the great famine foretold by Agabus, (xi, 27.)

§ 2. VENTIDIUS CUMANUS, the third procurator, (A.D. 49,) ruled with a rashness that filled the province with commotion and bloodshed.

Soon after his accession Herod, king of Chalcis, died, and young Agrippa II., though still remaining at Rome, succeeded to his crown, and to his control over the temple treasury and the high priesthood. Bernice, wife of this Herod and sister to Agrippa, returned to Rome; and such was the relation there between the brother and sister that the Roman poet Juvenal satirized them an incestuous barbarians.

During Cumanus’ rule some Galileans, in passing through Samaria to the Passover at Jerusalem, were assaulted by the Samaritans, and a number slain. The Jews forthwith appealed to Cumanus, who, bribed by the Samaritans, refused all justice. The indignant Jewish people resorted to arms, in which they were countenanced by the high priest, Ananias. Cumanus met a large body of the insurgents, and Roman discipline obtained an easy victory. Cumanus sent an exciting account of the rebellion to the Emperor Claudius; and it was in consequence of this that the frightened Claudius decreed the banishment of the Jews from Rome mentioned by Luke.

Meantime the Prefect of Syria, Quadratus, at Antioch, thought it due time for himself to interpose. Upon examination he found Cumanus guilty of bribery and Ananias guilty of rebellion, and sent them both to Rome, the latter in chains, for trial before the emperor. The eloquent Jewish Jonathan went to defend the case of his nation. And now there appears upon the stage a person with whom Paul came in important contact.

§ 3. Pallas and Felix (the latter subsequently procurator) were two Greek slaves imported by Antonia, mother of Claudius, probably from Arcadia. Their manners and talents won her confidence, and they both became favourite courtiers. When the emperor’s wife was executed, Pallas was so fortunate as to advocate the claims of Agrippina (Nero’s mother) to succeed her. Agrippina became empress, and Pallas and Felix were all-powerful. Through young King Agrippa a compact was formed, by which Jonathan should petition the Jewish nation that Felix might be appointed procurator, and Pallas and Felix, combined with Agrippa and Agrippina, should secure the Emperor’s decision in favour of Ananias and the Jews against Cumanus and the Samaritans. They gained the case, and it is probable that Jonathan was appointed to the high priesthood vacated by Ananias.

FELIX now became procurator, (A.D. 51,) and, though Tacitus tells us that “he ruled with the cruelty and lust of a despot and the meanness of a slave,” his administration, at first, had its merits. He destroyed the robber bands, and gave so much peace and prosperity to the country that Tertullus (see note on Acts 24:2) was not wholly a false flatterer.

Two years after Felix’s appointment Agrippa II., now aged twenty-six, left Rome, having been transferred from Chalcis to the former tetrarchy of Philip, comprising Trachonitis, Gaulonitis, Batanea, Iturea, and Abilene.

He fixed his court at Cesarea Philippi, (Matthew 16:13;) but he also had an ancestral palace at Jerusalem. Thither he made frequent visits, and at one of them heard the celebrated defence of Paul. Bernice accompanied him to Palestine with unimproved reputation. (See note on Acts 25:23.) She then in order to terminate the scandal, married Polemo, king of Cilicia, on condition that he would be circumcised, but afterward deserted him. Bernice some years later won the heart of the Emperor Titus, became the inmate of the palace, and would have become his wife but for the opposition of the Roman public, which compelled the emperor to dismiss her.

Drusilla, the other sister of Agrippa above mentioned, married Asisus, king of Emesa; but as both of these attractive ladies often accompanied Agrippa to Rome, Felix became enamoured with Drusilla. By the arts, it is said, of a second Simon Magus, (see note on Acts 8:24,) who was employed for the purpose by Felix, she was induced to desert the king and marry the procurator. Agrippa and Felix were, therefore, brothers-in-law.

§ 4. When Paul arrived at Rome, in A.D. 58, Felix had been six or seven years in office. Claudius had died, NERO was emperor, (see notes on Acts 9:31, and Acts 19:10,) and Agrippa was in royal favour. Jonathan, who had procured the appointment of Felix, had so often and so boldly presumed to rebuke him, that the procurator employed an assassin to murder him at Jerusalem with a poinard concealed under his vestments.

From the Latin name of the poniard used, sica, the word sicarii became the term for a class of assassins who subsequently became fearfully multitudinous. They entered the most sacred places, and so skilfully committed their murders in the crowd that detection was impossible. The high priesthood, now vacated by the assassination of Jonathan, was for a long time vacant, and Ananias, as named in Acts xxii, was perhaps no genuine high priest. This lengthened vacancy arose from the fact that Agrippa, who had the appointing power, was absent, by Nero’s order, in a distant war.

§5. Shortly before Paul’s arrival occurred the overthrow of the Egyptian false prophet mentioned in Acts 21:0. Though a native of Egypt, he was probably a Jew lately landed in Judea. Announcing himself as the messenger of God to restore the kingdom of Israel, he drew four thousand followers into the Judean wilderness. His soldiers so increased that he took possession of the Mount of Olives with a force of thirty thousand to put down the Roman power. Felix bravely attacked him with horse and foot, aided by the Jerusalemites, who detested the impostor, slew four hundred insurgents, captured others, and routed the whole. The Egyptian escaped; but the whole city was in search of him, and Lysias was in hopes that he was caught in the person of Paul. (Acts 21:38.)