Acts 24:14

The way See on Acts 9:2. A sect See on Acts 24:5. The word is commonly used in an indifferent sense, as signifying merely a school or party. So Acts 15:5; Acts 28:22. Here, however, in a bad sense - schismatic sect, as in 1 Corinthians 11:19. Worship (λατρεύω) Better, as Rev., serve. See on Luke 1:74. God of my fathers (τῷ πατρώῳ Θεῷ) A familiar classical phrase, and therefore well known to Felix. Thus Demosthenes calls Apollo the πατρῷος (ancestral god) of Athens. Socrates is asked (Plato, "Euthydemus," 302), "Have you an ancestral Zeus (Ζεὺς πατρῷος)?" So, frequently, in the classics. Similarly, the Roman phrase, Di patrii, "the gods of the forefathers." On the Roman reverence for the ancestral religion, see note on Acts 16:21. The Roman's own sentiment would prepare him to respect Paul's.

Acts 24:14-16 . But — As to what they have alleged against me with regard to the Nazarenes; this I confess unto thee — And am not ashamed publicly to avow it in the presence of the greatest personages upon earth; that after the way which they call αιρεσιν , a sect; (so the same word is properly rendered, Acts 24:5 ;) so worship I the God of my fathers — And am authorized by our sacred writings so to do; believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets — On which every part of the religion which I profess is founded, and which I should not either understand or believe if I worshipped or served the God of my fathers any other way, or did not believe in and receive Jesus Christ as the true Messiah, to whom both the law and the prophets bear witness. And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow — All the Pharisees allowed it; that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust — In a public court, this was peculiarly proper to be observed. The pious Jews expected a resurrection, as Paul did, on the foundation of the promises of God, delivered by Moses and the prophets. This was a very proper defence before a Roman magistrate, who, by the laws of the empire, was bound to allow every man to worship God according to the religion of his country.

And herein — Εν τουτω , on this account, because I believe all things written in the law and the prophets, and expect a future resurrection and an eternal state; I exercise myself — And make it the continual care and study of my life; to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward man — That so, whatever accusations are brought against me, my own heart may not condemn me, but I may always find internal support amidst all the external injuries I may receive from mankind.

But this I confess; he makes here a good confession, and is indeed a follower of Christ, who before Pontius Pilate is said to have witnessed a good confession, 1 Timothy 6:13 . Heresy: this word is of a middle signification, being sometimes taken in a good sense, as Acts 26:5 , and thus the Greeks did use it sometimes when they spake of their philosophers; though the Jews called the doctrine of Christ so in the worst acceptation of the word; which doctrine this blessed apostle is not ashamed to own. Yet he does withal truly assert, that he worshipped no other God than the God of his fathers, but worshipped him whom Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (whom they so much gloried in) had worshipped; and that he had no other religion than what was taught in the law and the prophets, from whom they themselves had received theirs.

Acts 24:14 . Ὁμολογῶ , I confess ) A forensic word, and one also used in sacred things, and appropriately employed here. A confession ingenuous, voluntary, full; having respect to faith in this verse; to hope , in the following verse; to love , in Acts 24:17 . They who assent to this confession are accused of being a sect ( heresy ), with the same injustice as Paul was.— ὁδὸν , way ) He confesses that he is one of those whom Tertullus had termed “Nazarenes.”— λέγουσιν αἴρεσιν , they call a sect, heresy ) This appellation ( Acts 24:5 ) Paul corrects, not that it was at the time an odious term (as sect or heresy is now), but because it is not a sufficiently worthy one. Αἵρεσις , a sect , is a thing of human caprice (humour): the way ( ὁδὸς ) is a thing divinely ordained. He had said all that was required for his defence; but now, skilfully making a handle of the opportunity, he adds a confession of faith.— πατρῷῳ ) Paul confutes the prejudice as to the newness of Christianity.— νόμον , in the law ) Again he refutes Tertullus, Acts 24:6 .— γεγραμμένοις , written ) concerning Jesus of Nazareth, Acts 24:5 .

{3} But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call {i} heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets: (3) Paul proceeds in the case of religion from a conjectural state to a practical state, not only admitting of the religion which he was accused of, but also proving it to be true, to be heavenly and from God, and to be the oldest of all religions. (i) Here this word heresy or sect is taken in a good sense.

14, 15. But this I confess to thee—in which Felix would see no crime. that after the way they call heresy—literally, and better, "a sect." so worship I the God of my fathers—the ancestral God. Two arguments are contained here: (1) Our nation is divided into what they call sects—the sect of the Pharisees, and that of the Sadducees—all the difference between them and me is, that I belong to neither of these, but to another sect, or religious section of the nation, which from its Head they call Nazarenes: for this reason, and this alone, am I hated. (2) The Roman law allows every nation to worship its own deities; I claim protection under that law, worshipping the God of my ancestors, even as they, only of a different sect of the common religion. believing all, &c.—Here, disowning all opinions at variance with the Old Testament Scriptures, he challenges for the Gospel which he preached the authority of the God of their fathers. So much for the charge of heresy.

Verse 14. - A sect for heresy , A.V.; serve for worship , A.V.; our for my , A.V. ( my is better, as following "I serve," and addressed to a Roman judge); which are according to the Law, and which are written in the prophets for which are written in the Law and in the prophets , A.V. A sect, This, of course, refers to this expression of Tertullus in verse 5, Πρωτοστάτης τῆς τῶν Ναζωραίων αἱρέσεως , "Ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." The word αἵρεσις , which means primarily "choice," has not necessarily or even ordinarily a bad sense. In classical Greek its secondary sense was a "sect" or "school" of philosophy, Academics, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans, etc. The Jews applied it to their own different schools of thought. So in Acts 5:17 we read, Αἵρεσις τῶν Σαδδουκαίων , " The sect of the Sadducees;" in Acts 15:5 , Αἵρεσις τῶν Φαρισαίων , " The sect of the Pharisees;" in Acts 26:5 St. Paul speaks of himself as having been a Pharisee, Κατὰ τὴν ἀκριβεστάτην αἵρεσιν τῆς ἡμετέρας θρησκείας , "After the straitest sect of our religion" (see too Acts 28:22 ). It begins to have a bad sense in St. Paul's Epistles ( 1 Corinthians 11:19 ; Galatians 5:20 ; and 2 Peter 2:1 , αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας , where, however, it gets its bad sense from the ἀπωλείας joined to it). In ecclesiastical writers it came to have its worst sense of "heresy" as something worse even than " schism." In this reference to Tertullus's phrase, St.

Paul seems hardly to admit that Christianity was properly called "a sect" by the Jews, but gives it the milder term of "the Way" (see Acts 9:2 , note). The God of our [my] father ( τῷ πατρῳ Θεῷ ); comp. Galatians 1:14 ; and Acts 22:3 ; Acts 28:17 . Observe how St. Paul throughout insists that, in becoming a Christian, he had not been disloyal to Moses, or the Law, or the prophets, or to the religion of his fathers, but quite the contrary. According to the Law . Κατὰ τὸν νόμον may mean either, as in the R.V., "according to the Law," or, as Meyer takes it, "throughout the Law," and then is better coupled, as in the A.V., with τοῖς γεγραμμένοις . The Law, and... the prophets (as Matthew 5:17 ; Luke 24:27, 44 ). Acts 24:14

14 . after the way which they call heresy ] Better (with Rev. Ver. ) “after the Way which they call a sect.” The word is the same which is used in Acts 24:5 for the “sect” of the Nazarenes. St Paul employs the expression “the Way,” in that sense in which it soon became well known, to signify “the Christian religion.” See note on Acts 9:2 . so worship I the God of my fathers ] Better, as Rev. Ver. , “so serve I the God of our fathers.” The verb is not the same as in Acts 24:11 . Here the notion is of service which a man is bound to pay. The Apostle means that he has cast off no morsel of his old allegiance. The adjective can equally be rendered by “ my fathers” or “ our fathers,” but St Paul’s aim is to shew that he has not severed himself from the ancestral faith of the whole nation, and so his thought would include himself with them. believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets ] The Rev. Ver. gives very literally “all things which are according to the Law, and which are written in the Prophets.” The Apostle thus testifies to his complete acceptance of all the Jewish Scriptures. Sometimes the division is given as “the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms” ( Luke 24:44 ), but more frequently, as in the text, only two sections are named (cp. Matthew 7:12 ; Matthew 11:13 ; Matthew 22:40 ; Luke 16:16 ; John 1:45 ).

Acts 24:14-15 . Δέ ] opposes the positive confession, which now follows, to the preceding merely negative assurance ( Acts 24:12-13 ): but, doubtless , I confess: “As a Christian I reverence the same God with the Jews, follow the same rule of faith, and I have the same hope on God, that there shall be a resurrection,” etc. Thus, notwithstanding that malicious πρωτοστάτην τῆς τῶν Ναζ . αἱρ ., I am in nowise an enemy of the existing religion (protected by the roman laws!). And with full truth could this “confessio ingenua, voluntaria, plena” (Bengel) be furnished by Paul (in opposition to Baur and Zeller; also Schneckenburger, p. 147 f.), as he recognised in Christianity the completion of the divine law and the fulfilment of the prophets; and this recognition, as regards the law , necessarily presupposes the belief in all that is written in the law , namely, in its connection with the fulfilment effected by Christ (comp.

Romans 3:31 ; Romans 13:8 ff.; Galatians 3:24 ), although the law as a rule of justification has reached its end in Christ ( Romans 10:4 ). κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν κ . τ . λ .] according to the way, which , etc., according to the Christian mode of life ( Acts 22:4 , Acts 9:2 , Acts 19:23 ). ἣν λέγ . αἵρεσιν ] for Tertullus had, Acts 24:5 , used αἵρεσις , in itself a vox media (school, party, see Wetstein on 1 Corinthians 11:19 ), in a bad sense (a schismatic party, sect ). τῷ πατρῴῳ Θεῷ ] the God worshipped by the ancestors of my nation and from them received ( Acts 22:3 ). How inviolable were even to the heathen their ancestral gods! See Wetstein and Kypke, II. p. 122 f.; and on the expression very common also among the Greeks, Lobeck, Aglaoph . p. 1206, 769 ff.; Ellendt, Lex. Soph . II. 533 f. πιστεύων κ . τ . λ ] is now that which is emphatically indicated by οὕτω : in this way : (namely) believing all things , etc. Comp. Bornemann in Rosenmüller, Repert . II. p. 277; Bernhardy, p. 284. κατὰ τὸν νόμον ] throughout the law (-book) . ἐλπίδα ἔχων ] contains a characteristic circumstance accompanying πιστεύων πᾶσι κ . τ . λ . καὶ αὐτοὶ οὗτοι ] even they themselves there , is spoken δεικτικῶς to those present as the representatives of the nation in the transaction. It was natural that this point of view in its generality should admit no reference to the Sadducean deviation from the national belief of the resurrection, or at all to special differences concerning this dogma.