5 For we have found this man to be a plague, an instigator of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
For we found this man. Tertullus doth aim at a double mark. The first is this, that Paul may be delivered to the Jews, because they be very skillful in matters which concern the worship of God and the law of Moses. But and if he deny this, he layeth to his charge a crime worthy of death, because he procured contention [1] among the people. They knew that the Romans did hate nothing more, therefore they urge that the sorest against Paul. This doth Tertullus amplify when he saith, that Paul had moved the Jews throughout the whole world. But I wonder why he addeth that he is the author or chief of the sect of the Nazarites, which we know was rather a praise than a dispraise among the Jews. I think that they mean not those who, according to the old and lawful custom of the law, did consecrate themselves to God, but those troublesome murderers who did also vaunt and boast that they were zealous men. [2] Some [3] think that Nazarites are here put for Christians, which may very well be. But if we like the former exposition better, he doth craftily lay to Paul's charge that he was one of that sect which the Romans did hate. For whereas these zealous men would above all other have been counted for notable observers of the law, they advanced a color of zeal as a banner to stir up the minds of the common people. Nevertheless, these good men, who are so zealous over their liberty, do not spare the chiefest maintainers thereof, so they may cause Paul to be hated by means of them. They would have commended the Nazarites as courageous defenders of the law, if it had not been in this matter, but now, as if they did infect the whole world, they seek to bring upon Paul great reproach by saying that he is one of them. Moreover, they slander Paul impudently, for no man did think that he was guilty of that crime. Therefore they lay to his charge, no less wickedly than maliciously, a crime which they take up at their foot, [4] and invent without all color. But such is the careless security of hypocrites, that they think they may do whatsoever they will, so they color their doings with zeal.
1 - "Seditionem... concitaverit," stirred up sedition.
2 - "Tumultusos illos sicarios qui se etiam plausibili nomine vociferabant zelotas," those tumultuary assassins who, assuming a specious name, boasted of being zelotae, (zealous)
3 - "Quae factio circiter illud tempus emerserit; imo ex Josephi historia colligitur jamtunc fuisse grassatos," about this time that faction had broken out, nay, it appears from Josephus that it had even then made considerable progress, omitted.
4 - "Crimen velut ex trivio aereptum," some charge, picked up, as it were, in the streets.
We have found this man a pestilent fellow - λοιμὸν loimon This word is commonly applied to a plague or pestilence, and then to a man who corrupts the morals of others, or who is turbulent, and an exciter of sedition. Our translation somewhat weakens the force of the original expression. Tertullus did not say that he was a pestilent fellow, but that he was the very pestilence itself. In this he referred to their belief that he had been the cause of extensive disturbances everywhere among the Jews.
And a mover of sedition - An exciter of tumult. This they pretended he did by preaching doctrines contrary to the laws and customs of Moses, and exciting the Jews to tumult and disorder.
Throughout the world - Throughout the Roman empire, and thus leading the Jews to violate the laws, and to produce tumults, riots, and disorder.
And a ringleader - πρωτοστάτην prōtostatēn. This word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is properly a military word, and denotes "one who stands first in an army, a standard-bearer, a leader, a commander." The meaning is, that Paul had been so active, and so prominent in preaching the gospel, that he had been a leader, or the principal person in extending the sect of the Nazarenes.
Of the sect - The original word here αἱρέσεως haireseōs is the word from which we have derived the term "heresy." It is, however, properly translated "sect, or party," and should have been so translated in Acts 24:14. See the notes on Acts 5:17.
Of the Nazarenes - This was the name usually given to Christians by way of contempt. They were so called because Jesus was of Nazareth.
For we have found this man, etc. - Here the proposition of the orator commences. He accuses Paul, ant his accusation includes four particulars: -
1. He is a pest, λοιμος; an exceedingly bad and wicked man.
2. He excites disturbances and seditions against the Jews.
3. He is the chief of the sect of the Nazarenes, who are a very bad people, and should not be tolerated.
4. He has endeavored to pollute and profane the temple, and we took him in the fact.
A pestilent fellow - The word λοιμος, pestis - the plague or pestilence, is used by both Greek and Roman authors to signify a very bad and profligate man; we have weakened the force of the word by translating the substantive adjectively. Tertullus did not say that Paul was a pestilent fellow, but he said that he was the very pestilence itself. As in that of Martial, xi. 92: -
Non vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed vitium.
"Thou art not a vicious man, O Zoilus, but thou art vice itself."
The words λοιμος, and pestis, are thus frequently used. - See Wetstein, Bp. Pearce, and Kypke.
A mover of sedition - Instead of Ϛασιν, sedition, ABE, several others, with the Coptic, Vulgate, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Oecumenius, read Ϛασεις, commotions, which is probably the true reading.
Among all the Jews - Bp. Pearce contends that the words should be understood thus - one that stirreth up tumults Against all the Jews; for, if they be understood otherwise, Tertullus may be considered as accusing his countrymen, as if they, at Paul's instigation, were forward to make insurrections every where. On the contrary, he wishes to represent them as a persecuted and distressed people, by means of Paul and his Nazarenes.
A ringleader - Πρωτοστατην. This is a military phrase, and signifies the officer who stands on the right of the first rank; the captain of the front rank of the sect of the Nazarenes; της των ναζωραιων αἱρεσεως, of the heresy of the Nazarenes. This word is used six times by St. Luke; viz. in this verse, and in Acts 24:14, and in Acts 5:17; Acts 15:5; Acts 26:5; Acts 28:22; but in none of them does it appear necessarily to include that bad sense which we generally assign to the word heresy. - See the note on Acts 5:17, where the subject is largely considered; and see farther on Acts 24:14 (note).
For we have found this man [a] (c) pestilent [fellow], and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a (d) ringleader of the sect of the (e) Nazarenes:
(c) Literally, "a plague".
(d) As one would say, a ringleader, or a flag bearer.
(e) So they scoffingly called the Christians, taking the name from the towns where they thought that Christ was born, whereupon it happened that Julian the apostate called Christ a Galilean.
For we have found this man a pestilent fellow,.... Pointing to Paul, the prisoner at the bar; the word here used signifies the "pest" or "plague" itself; and it was usual with orators among the Romans, when they would represent a man as a very wicked man, as dangerous to the state, and unworthy to live in it, to call him the pest of the city, or of the country, or of the empire, as may be observed in several places in Cicero's Orations.
And a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world: sedition was severely punished by the Romans, being what they carefully watched and guarded against, and was what the Jews were supposed to be very prone unto; and Tertullus would suggest, that the several riots, and tumults, and seditions, fomented by the Jews, in the several parts of the Roman empire, here called the world, were occasioned by the apostle: the crime charged upon him is greatly aggravated, as that not only he was guilty of sedition, but that he was the mover of it, and that he stirred up all the Jews to it, and that in every part of the world, or empire, than which nothing was more false; the Jews often raised up a mob against him, but he never rioted them, and much less moved them against the Roman government: and to this charge he adds,
and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes; not Nazarites, as Calvin seems to understand the passage; for these were men of great repute among the Jews, and for Paul to be at the head of them would never be brought against him as a charge: but Nazarenes, that is, Christians, so called by way of contempt and reproach, from Jesus of Nazareth; which name and sect being contemptible among the Romans, as well as Jews, are here mentioned to make the apostle more odious.
a pestilent fellow--a plague, or pest.
and a mover of sedition among all the Jews--by exciting disturbances among them.
throughout the world--(See on Luke 2:1). This was the first charge; and true only in the sense explained on Acts 16:20.
a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes--the second charge; and true enough.
*More commentary available at chapter level.