Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 25]
plural here \enetuchon\ rather than the singular \enetuchen\.
{Crying} (\bo•ntes\). Yelling and demanding with loud voices.
{That he ought not to live any longer} (\m• dein auton z•in
m•keti\). Indirect command (demand) with the infinitive \dein\
for \dei\ (it is necessary). The double negative (\m•--m•keti\)
with \z•in\ intensifies the demand.
25:25 {But I found} (\eg• de katelabom•n\). Second aorist middle
of \katalamban•\, to lay hold of, to grasp, to comprehend as in
4:13; 10:34. {That he had committed nothing worthy of death}
(\m•den axion auton thanatou peprachenai\). Perfect active
infinitive of \prass•\ in indirect assertion with negative \m•\
and accusative \auton\ of general reference, the usual idiom.
Verse 25 repeats the statement in verse 21, perhaps for the
benefit of the assembled dignitaries.
25:26 {No certain thing} (\asphales ti--ou\). Nothing definite or
reliable (\a\ privative, \sphall•\, to trip). All the charges of
the Sanhedrin slipped away or were tripped up by Paul. Festus
confesses that he had nothing left and thereby convicts himself
of gross insincerity in his proposal to Paul in verse 9 about
going up to Jerusalem. By his own statement he should have set
Paul free. The various details here bear the marks of the
eyewitness. Luke was surely present and witnessed this grand
spectacle with Paul as chief performer. {Unto my lord} (\t•i
kuri•i\). Augustus (Octavius) and Tiberius refused the title of
\kurios\ (lord) as too much like _rex_ (king) and like master and
slave, but the servility of the subjects gave it to the other
emperors who accepted it (Nero among them). Antoninus Pius put it
on his coins. Deissmann (_Light from the Ancient East_, p. 105)
gives an ostracon dated Aug. 4, A.D. 63 with the words "in the
year nine of Nero the lord" (\enatou Ner•nos tou kuriou\).
Deissmann (_op. cit._, pp. 349ff.) runs a most interesting
parallel "between the cult of Christ and the cult of Caesar in
the application of the term \kurios\, lord" in ostraca, papyri,
inscriptions. Beyond a doubt Paul has all this fully in mind when
he says in 1Co 12:3 that "no one is able to say \Kurios I•sous\
except in the Holy Spirit" (cf. also Php 2:11). The Christians
claimed this word for Christ and it became the test in the Roman
persecutions as when Polycarp steadily refused to say " Lord
Caesar" and insisted on saying "Lord Jesus" when it meant his
certain death. {Before you} (\eph' hum•n\). The whole company. In
no sense a new trial, but an examination in the presence of these
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