“Then Paul, after the governor had nodded to him to speak, answered: ‘Inasmuch as I know that you have been for many years a judge of this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself . . .'”
—Acts 24:10
The apostle Paul found himself in the custody of Marcus Antonius Felix, the governor of Judea (AD 52-58) in residence in Caesarea. He had been under the custody of Roman commander, Claudius Lysias, in Jerusalem, but hearing of a Jewish plot to kill Paul, Lysias had transferred him under heavy guard to his superior, Felix. It took five days for his Jewish accusers, including the high priest, his elders, and an orator named Tertullus (Acts 24:1), to travel to Caesarea and present their evidence against Paul.
Essentially, they accused Paul of being “a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, an a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes” (Acts 24:5). They also threw in the charge that he had “tried to profane the temple” (Acts 24:6), which they had the authority to prosecute. Paul’s rescue from them by commander Lysias had saved him from a kangaroo court and swift execution by the rabid mob that had been incited against him (Acts 21:27).
Acts 24:10 is the beginning of Paul’s defense against these ridiculous charges. He is happy to be able to speak before Felix because, as he says, the governor had been around the Jews and their often prickly religious sensitivities. Moreover, his wife, Drusilla, was Jewish and the daughter of Herod Agrippa I (Acts 24:24). Paul felt certain that Felix would not be bamboozled by any kind of political or religious trap that the Jews might set, as a less experienced governor perhaps would.
While Paul makes a spirited defense of himself—showing that the Jews’ accusations were baseless and that it was a doctrinal matter, the resurrection of the dead, that the Jews really objected to—it did not work out as he had perhaps expected. Instead of ruling on the matter immediately, Felix commenced a series of discussions and postponements that dragged Paul’s case on for two years (Acts 24:27)! At the end of that time, Felix was sent elsewhere and succeeded by a governor named Porcius Festus—and the entire case had to be tried from the beginning all over again!
One of the more sordid reasons for Felix’s dragging his feet is that he was, like many politicians both ancient and modern, corrupt. Acts 24:25 informs us that the governor “hoped that money would be given him by Paul, that he might release him.” In other words, he wanted Paul to bribe him for judgment in his favor. He likely thought Paul was like any other Roman, who would “play the game” and “grease the wheels” to get what he wanted. Yet, as many times as he spoke to Paul about his teachings, Felix should have realized that the apostle would never stoop to paying under the table for his freedom.
Like many others since then, Felix saw that Christians are different. Paul would sacrifice his freedom for several more years to bring his case before the Emperor and ultimately receive justice and freedom according to God’s timeline.
