Insurrection for sedition, A.V. and T.R. We have found ( εὑρόντες). The construction of the sentence is an anacoluthon. The participle is not followed, as it should be, by a finite verb, ἐκρατήσαμεν (in Acts 24:6), but the construction is changed by the influence of the interposed sentence, "who moreover assayed to profane the temple," and so, instead of ἐκρατήσαμεν αὐτόν, we have ὅν καὶ ἐκρατήσαμεν.
A pestilent fellow ( λοιμόν); literally, a pestilence; as we say, "a pest," "a plague," or "a nuisance," like the Latin pestis. It only occurs here in the New Testament, but is of frequent use in the LXX.
, as e.g. 1 Samuel 2:12, 1 Samuel 10:27, and 1 Samuel 25:25, υἱοὶ λοιμοὶ, "sons of Belial;" 1 Macc. 10:61; 15:3 ἄνδρες λοιμοί: and 15:21, simply λοιμοὶ (rendered "pestilent fellows" in the A.V.
), and elsewhere as the rendering of other Hebrew words. It is occasionally used also in this sense by classical writers. A mover of insurrections ( στάσεις, R.T.). This was the charge most likely to weigh with a Roman procurator in the then disturbed and turbulent state of the Jewish mind (camp.
Luke 23:2; John 19:12). Felix himself had had large experience of Jewish insurrections. The Jewish riots at Philippi (Acts 16:20), at Thessalonica (Acts 17:6), at Corinth (Acts 18:12), at Ephesus (Acts 19:29), and at Jerusalem (Acts 21:30), would give color to the accusation.
The world ( ἥ οἰκουμένη). The Roman, or civilized, world (Luke 2:1; Luke 4:5, etc.). Ringleader; πρωτοστάτης, only here in the New Testament, but used by the LXX. in Job 15:24, and not uncommon in classical Greek, as a military term, equivalent to the first, i.
e. the right-hand man in the line. Also, in the plural, the soldiers in the front rank. The sect of the Nazarenes. As our Lord was contemptuously called "The Nazarene "(Matthew 26:71), so the Jews designated his disciples" Nazarenes."
They would not admit that they were Christians, i.e. disciples of the Messiah.