But Felix, having more exact knowledge concerning the Way, deferred them, saying for and whoa Felix heard these things having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, A.V. and T.
R.; determine for know the uttermost of, A.V. Having more exact knowledge, etc. At Caesarea, Felix must have seen and heard something of Christianity. The conversion of Cornelius with his household and friends, men belonging to the dominant Roman power; the work of Philip the evangelist, residing probably for some years at Caesarea, and working among Romans as well as Jews, must have given Felix some knowledge of "the Way."
He would learn something, too, both of Judaism and Christianity from Drusilla, his wife (verse 24, note). When Lysias … shall come (see verses 7, 8, and note). I will determine ( διαγνώσομαι); see above, Acts 23:15, where the verb is in the active voice, and is rendered in the R.
V. "to judge." The idea of the word is "to know with discrimination;" and this is the sense it has in medical writers, who use it very frequently; as e.g. Galen says, πρῶτον γὰρ διαγνῶναι χρὴ τί ποτέ ἐστὶ πάθος (quoted by Hobart).
Hence the "diagnosis" of an illness (Acts 23:1-35. 15).