Acts 25:23

When Agrippa was come and Bernice (elqonto tou Agrippa kai th Bernikh). Genitive absolute, the participle agreeing in number and gender (masculine singular, elqonto) with Agrippa, Bernikh being added as an afterthought. With great pomp (meta pollh pantasia). Pantasia is a Koin word (Polybius, Diodorus, etc.) from the old verb pantazw ( Hebrews 12:21 ) and it from painw, common verb to show, to make an appearance. This is the only N.T. example of pantasia, though the kindred common word pantasma (appearance) occurs twice in the sense of apparition or spectre ( Matthew 14:26 ; Mark 6:49 ). Herodotus (VII. 10) used the verb pantazw for a showy parade. Festus decided to gratify the wish of Agrippa by making the "hearing" of Paul the prisoner (verse Mark 22 ) an occasion for paying a compliment to Agrippa (Rackham) by a public gathering of the notables in Caesarea. Festus just assumed that Paul would fall in with this plan for a grand entertainment though he did not have to do it. Into the place of hearing (ei to akroathrion). From akroaomai (to be a hearer) and, like the Latin auditorium, in Roman law means the place set aside for hearing, and deciding cases. Here only in the N.T. Late word, several times in Plutarch and other Koin writers. The hearing was "semi-official" (Page) as is seen in verse Mark 26 . With the chief captains (sun te ciliarcoi). Ciliarc, each a leader of a thousand. There were five cohorts of soldiers stationed in Caesarea. And the principal men of the city (kai andrasin toi kat exochn). The use of kat exochn, like our French phrase par excellence, occurs here only in the N.T., and not in the ancient Greek, but it is found in inscriptions of the first century A.D. (Moulton and Milligan's Vocabulary). Exoch in medical writers is any protuberance or swelling. Cf. our phrase "outstanding men." At the command of Festus (keleusanto tou Phstou). Genitive absolute again, "Festus having commanded."