Paul could not have been otherwise than
aware of it also, on account of his intimacy with St. Luke, as well as
from other causes.
[Footnote 48: Luke xviii, 18.]
Neither has this answer been considered as satisfactory for another
reason. It has been presumed that the expressions of excellent and of
noble were established titles of rank, and if an evangelist and an
apostle used them, they could not be objectionable if used by others.
But let us admit for a moment, that they were titles of rank. How
happens it that St. Paul, when he was before Festus, and not in a
judicial capacity (for he had been reserved for Caesar's tribunal)
should have given him this epithet of noble; and that, when summoned
before Felix, and this in a judicial capacity, he should have omitted
it? This application of it to the one and not to the other, either
implies that it was no title, or, if it was a title as we have supposed,
that St. Paul had some reason for this partial use of it. And in this
case, no better reason can be given, than that suggested by Barclay. St.
Paul knew that Festus had done his duty. He knew, on the other hand, the
abandoned character of Felix. The latter was then living, as Josephus
relates, in open adultery with Drusilla, who had been married to Azis,
and brought away from her husband by the help of Simon a Magician; and
this circumstance probably gave occasion to Paul to dwell upon
temperance, or continence as the word might be rendered, among other
subjects, when he made Felix tremble.
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