Ver. 1. With a certain orator] One of those sordida poscinummia (as Plautus phraseth it), those leguleiorum faeces decem drachmariae, as another styleth these mercenary orators, qui linguas habent venales. It is reported of Nevessan (a better lawyer than an honest man) that he should say, he that will not venture his body shall never be valiant: he that will not venture his soul, never rich.
Ver. 2. Tertullus began to accuse him] Prosperior Afro Oratori eloquentia quam morum fama, saith Tacitus. (Tacit. Annal.) Ciceronis linguam omnes fere mirantur, pectus non ita, Almost all marvelled at the tongue of Cicero, but not so his heart, saith Augustine (Confess. iv. 3). The Duke of Buckingham, speaking to the Londoners for Richard III, gained the commendation, that no man could deliver so much bad matter in so good words and quaint phrases. Such another was Tertullus, wittily wicked, et malo publico facundus, eloquent for mischief to other men. There is a story of a poor man who complained to his king that a man (naming a lawyer) had taken away his cow from him. I will hear, said the king, what he will say to the matter. Nay, saith the poor man, if you hear him speak, then have I surely lost my cow indeed.
Ver. 3. We accept it always] So they say, the sooner to ingratiate; when in truth they worthily hated Felix for his oppression and cruelty. Nota hypocrisin cum assentatione, saith Beza. “In his estate shall stand up a vile person,” Daniel 11:21, that is, Antiochus Epiphanes. And yet Josephus reports that the Samaritans writing to him, because he tormented the Jews, to excuse themselves that they were no Jews, styled him, by flattery, Antiochus the mighty God. Romani, propter omnia quae a Nerone fiebant etiam scelera, quasi gratias agentes, sacra faciebant: such was their baseness, and such were these Jews.
Ver. 4. That I be not further tedious unto thee] Gr. ινα μη επι πλειον σε εγκοπτω, that I hinder thee not in thine haste to other businesses; that I put not a stop to thy praise worthy proceedings, by a troublesome prolixity, & c. Thus he cunningly insinuateth into the judge’s affections; which is one of the rhetorical precepts: and another is (Tertullus likely had learned it out of Cicero), Non ad veritatem solum, sed etiam ad opinionem eorum qui audiunt, accommodanda est oratio. An orator may make a little bold with the truth to give his hearers content. Socrates in his apology, “My lords” (said he to his judges), “I know not how you have been affected with mine accusers’ eloquence while you heard them speak; for my own part, I assure you that I, whom it toucheth most, was almost drawn to believe that all they said, though against myself, was true: when they scarcely uttered one word of truth.”
Ver. 5. A pestilent fellow] Gr. λοιμον, a botch, sicut Scelus pro scelerato: Tubulus quidam, paulo supra Ciceronem, Praetor fuit, homo tam Proiecte improbus, ut eius nomen non hominis sed vitii esse videretur. (Lips., Antiq. Lect.) Now if so precious a man as Paul (than whom, saith Chrysostom, the earth never bare a better since it bore Christ) were counted and called a pest, let not us think much to be so esteemed. And a mover of sedition] So Elias was held, and called the “troubler of Israel,” Luther Tuba rebelllonis, the trumpet of turmoil. So it was said to one Singleton, sometime chaplain to the Lady Ann Boleyn, that he was the murderer of Packington, and afterwards that he was a stirrer up of sedition and commotion, who also suffered as a traitor for the same; where in very deed the true cause was nothing else but for preaching the gospel, saith Master Fox. And he might as safely say as Mr Latimer did in his third sermon before King Edward VI, “As for sedition, for aught that I know, methinks I should not need Christ, if I might so say.” (Acts and Mon.) Of the sect of the Nazarenes] Who stirred up the people to stand up for their liberty against the Romans, saith an interpreter.
Ver. 6. To profane the temple] A loud lie: but innocence is no target against calumny.
Ver. 7. Took him out of our hands] Wherein he did well, though he hear ill; as public persons must look to do.
Ver. 8. By examining of whom] By this outfacing boldness, and these specious pretences, they hoped to have swayed the governor to deliver up the prisoner to their pleasure without any more ado, and to have condemned him unheard. But God had otherwise ordered it.
Ver. 9. And the Jews assented] With what face could they do it, but that their faces were hatched with impudence; and they had taken an order with their consciences not to trouble them: “Trouble me not, for I am in bed,” as he in the Gospel said to his neighbour.
Ver. 10. Forasmuch as I know, &c.] Paul was a stately orator when he listed, as here. Porphyry said it was a pity that such a man as Paul should be bestowed upon our religion. How bravely doth he here unstarch the orator’s speech, and make his own defence.