2 Corinthians 6Holman Christian Standard Bible
6 Working together[a] with Him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive God’s grace in vain.” 2 For He says:
I heard you in an acceptable time,
and I helped you in the day of salvation.[b]
Look, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.
The Character of Paul’s Ministry
3 We give no opportunity for stumbling to anyone, so that the ministry will not be blamed. 4 But as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything:
by great endurance, by afflictions,
by hardship, by difficulties,
5 by beatings, by imprisonments,
by riots, by labors,
by sleepless nights, by times of hunger,
6 by purity, by knowledge,
by patience, by kindness,
by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love,
7 by the message of truth,
by the power of God;
through weapons of righteousness
on the right hand and the left,
8 through glory and dishonor,
through slander and good report;
as deceivers yet true;
9 as unknown yet recognized;
as dying and look—we live;
as being disciplined yet not killed;
10 as grieving yet always rejoicing;
as poor yet enriching many;
as having nothing yet possessing everything.
11 We have spoken openly[c] to you, Corinthians; our heart has been opened wide. 12 You are not limited by us, but you are limited by your own affections. 13 I speak as to my children. As a proper response, you should also be open to us.
Acts 26:24
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Not Quite Persuaded
24 As he was making his defense this way, Festus exclaimed in a loud voice, “You’re out of your mind, Paul! Too much study is driving you mad!”
Porcius Festus
Porcius Festus was procurator of Judea from about AD 59 to 62, succeeding Antonius Felix.
Term in officeEdit
The exact time of Festus in office is not known. The earliest proposed date for the start of his term is c. A.D. 55–6, while the latest is A.D. 61.[1] These extremes have not gained much support and most scholars opt for a date between 58 and 60. F. F. Bruce says that, "The date of his [Felix's] recall and replacement by Porcius Festus is disputed, but a change in the provincial coinage of Judaea attested for Nero's fifth year points to A.D. 59"[2] Conybeare and Howson lay out an extended argument for the replacement taking place in A.D. 60.[3]
AdministrationEdit
Festus inherited the problems of his predecessor in regard to the Roman practice of creating civic privileges for Jews. Another issue that bedeviled his administration was the controversy between Agrippa II and the priests in Jerusalem regarding the wall erected at the temple to break the view of the new wing of Agrippa's palace.
During his administration, Jewish hostility to Rome was greatly inflamed by the civic privileges issue. Feelings were aroused which played an important part in the closely following Jewish War of AD 66.
The Acts of the Apostles narrate that the Apostle Paul had his final hearing before Festus (Acts 24:27). In Acts 25:12, Festus sought to induce Paul to go to Jerusalem for trial; Paul appealed to the Emperor. The appeal resulted in Paul being sent to Rome for judgment by the Emperor himself although Festus had difficulty in detailing charges against him (Acts 25-26).
About two decades before the birth of Christ, Rome passed a law, the lex de ui publica, which forbade any magistrate to kill, scourge, chain, torture, or even sentence a Roman citizen who had announced his intention to appeal, or prevent him from going to Rome to lodge his appeal there within a fixed time.
Acts 25:11 If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!"
Did it mean that Paul would actually see the Emperor in person?
According to https://finestofthewheat.org/the-judicial-adventures-of-paul-the-apostle/:
Assuming (for a moment) that Paul’s case did come to trial, it is very unlikely that the case was heard by Caesar Nero. The Emperor, according to Tacitus, had been quite firm in the matter of rendering judgments: “‘He would not’ [Nero] said, ‘be judge in all cases…’.”54 Up until a.d. 62 or 63 he made no exceptions, and only a few after that time, up until the burning of Rome. Appeals cases were apparently assigned to various officials.
Could Paul withdraw it after saying it?
Acts 26:32 Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar."
Herod Agrippa II, (born 27 ce—died c. 93), king of Chalcis in southern Lebanon from 50 ce and tetrarch of Batanaea and Trachonitis in south Syria from 53 ce, who unsuccessfully mediated with the rebels in the First Jewish Revolt (66–70 ce). He was a great-grandson of Herod I the Great.
Agrippa II was raised and educated at the imperial court in Rome. Because of his youth at the death of his father, Agrippa I, in 44, the emperor Claudius returned Judaea to the status of a province. The young prince, however, took an interest in the welfare of the Jews and helped secure them an edict of moderation. In 48 he received authority over temple affairs in Jerusalem. Two years later he became king of Chalcis, and in 53 he exchanged this land for Philip the Tetrarch’s former holdings. Nero, the new emperor, in 54 added territory near the Sea of Galilee to Agrippa’s realm. As his father had been, Agrippa II was an ardent collaborator with Rome and did all in his power to prevent the rupture between Rome and Jewry, but in vain.
Between 52 and 60, he appointed several high priests and earned the enmity of the conflicting parties. Though he supported the rights of the Jews at Alexandria, who faced trouble from the Hellenized populace, he avoided politics in Judaea, where the Zealots, a terrorist group, were active. In 60, when St. Paul was arrested, the procurator consulted Agrippa concerning the Apostle’s case; the Tetrarch found him innocent.
In 66 the procurator Gessius Florus permitted a massacre of Jews in Jerusalem, and the Zealots there rose in revolt. When Agrippa supported Florus, urging moderation, the Zealots gained the upper hand, and the case became hopeless.
Trouble threatened in his own kingdom. Some troops he had sent to Jerusalem capitulated in the summer of 66, and the rebels massacred the Roman garrison. Vespasian arrived in Judaea in 67, and Agrippa assisted Roman operations. In 70 he aided Vespasian’s son Titus in the final conquest of Jerusalem itself. After the war, his territory was enlarged by Titus, and he apparently survived until 93 ce.
This article was most recently revised and updated by John M. Cunningham, Readers Editor.
Antiquities of the Jews - Book XVIII
Containing the Interval of 32 Years.
From the banishment of Archelaus to the departure of the Jews from Babylon.
Chapter 5.
Herod the tetrarch makes war with Aretas, the King of Arabia; and is beaten by him. As also concerning the death of John the Baptist. How Vitellius went up to Jerusalem: together with some account of Agrippa, and of the posterity of Herod the Great.
4. Herod the Great had two daughters, by Mariamne, the [grand] daughter of Hyrcanus. (17) The one was Salampsio; who was married to Phasaelus her first cousin, who was himself the son of Phasaelus, Herod’s brother: her father making the match. The other was Cypros; who was her self married also to her first cousin, Antipater, the son of Salome, Herod’s sister. Phasaelus had five children by Salampsio: Antipater, Herod, and Alexander; and two daughters, Alexandra, and Cypros. Which last Agrippa the son of Aristobulus married. And Timius of Cyprus married Alexandra: he was a man of note, but had by her no children.
Agrippa had by Cypros two sons, and three daughters: which daughters were named Bernice, Mariamne, and Drusilla: but the names of the sons were Agrippa, and Drusus. Of which Drusus died before he came to the years of puberty. But their father Agrippa was brought up with his other brethren, Herod, and Aristobulus.
For these were also the sons of the son of Herod the Great, by Bernice: but Bernice was the daughter of Costobarus and of Salome, who was Herod’s sister. Aristobulus left these infants, when he was slain by his father, together with his brother Alexander; as we have already related. But when they were arrived at years of puberty, this Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married Mariamne, the daughter of Olympias; who was the daughter of Herod the King; and of Joseph, the son of Joseph, who was brother to Herod the King; and had by her a son Aristobulus. But Aristobulus, the third brother of Agrippa, married Jotape, the daughter of Sampsigeramus, King of Emesa. (18) They had a daughter who was deaf: whose name also was Jotape. And these hitherto were the children of the male line. But Herodias, their sister, was married to Herod [Philip], the son of Herod the Great; who was born of Mariamne, the daughter of Simon the High Priest; who had a daughter Salome. After whose birth Herodias took upon her to confound the laws of our countrey, and divorced her self from her husband, while he was alive, and was married to Herod [Antipas], her husband’s brother by the father’s side. He was tetrarch of Galilee. But her daughter Salome was married to Philip, the son of Herod, and tetrarch of Trachonitis. And as he died childless, Aristobulus, the son of Herod, the brother of Agrippa, married her. They had three sons, Herod, Agrippa, and Aristobulus. And this was the posterity of Phasaelus, and Salampsio. But the daughter of Antipater by Cypros, was Cypros; whom Alexas Selcias, the son of Alexas married. They had a daughter Cypros. But Herod and Alexander, who, as we told you, were the brothers of Antipater, died childless. As to Alexander, the son of Herod the King, who was slain by his father, he had sons, Alexander and Tigranes; by the daughter of Archelaus King of Cappadocia. Tigranes, who was King of Armenia, was accused at Rome, and died childless. Alexander had a son of the same name with his brother Tigranes; and was sent to take possession of the Kingdom of Armenia by Nero. He had a son Alexander, who married Jotape, (19) the daughter of Antiochus, the King of Commagena. Vespasian made him King of an island in Cilicia. But these descendants of Alexander, soon after their birth, deserted the Jewish religion, and went over to that of the Greeks. But for the rest of the daughters of Herod the King, it happened that they died childless. And as these descendants of Herod, whom we have enumerated, were in being at the same time that Agrippa the Great took the Kingdom, and I have now given an account of them, it now remains that I relate the several hard fortunes which befel Agrippa, and how he got clear of them; and was advanced to the greatest height of dignity and power.
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Judas Iscariot (/ˈdʒuːdəs ɪˈskæriət/; Hebrew: יהודה איש-קריות Yehūḏā ʾĪš-Qǝrīyyōṯ, "Judah, man of Kerioth"; Aramaic: ܝܗܘܕܐ ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ; Biblical Greek: Ἰούδας Ἰσκαριώτης; died c. 30 – c. 33 AD) was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. According to all four canonical gospels, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane by kissing him and addressing him as "rabbi" to reveal his identity in the darkness to the crowd who had come to arrest him.[1] His name is often used synonymously with betrayal or treason. Judas's epithet "Iscariot" most likely means he came from the village of Kerioth, but this explanation is not universally accepted and many other possibilities have been suggested.
Kerioth (Hebrew: קְרִיּוֹת, Qǝrīyyōṯ) is the name of two cities mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. The spelling Kirioth appears in the King James Version of Amos 2:2.[1] The name means "cities," and is the plural of the Biblical Hebrew קריה.
- A town in the south of Judea (Joshua 15:25). Judas Iscariot was probably a native, hence his name "Iscariot". It has been identified with the ruins of El Kureitein, about 10 miles south of Hebron. (See Hazor.)
- A city of Moab (Jeremiah 48:24,48:41), called Kirioth (Amos 2:2).