Acts 24:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He did not wish to release Paul, in order to please them. Yet it was impossible to punish him, for that would have been shameless.

Therefore he postponed the case, saying, “When Lysias the tribune comes, I will learn fully about this teaching. And he commanded the centurion to keep Paul, but not to restrain him, nor to forbid any of his own people to serve him or come to him.”

“Not to restrain him,” he says. Thus he too found him innocent. Why then, finding him innocent, does he detain him? Because he wished to please the Jews, and also hoped to take money.

For this reason he summons Paul to himself. That he summoned him precisely for this reason is clear from the writer’s following words (Acts 24:26).

Felix did not wish to enter into the domestic disputes of the Jews. Though he did not consider the accused guilty, he nevertheless did not wish to grant him justice without money. Paul did not wish to buy his freedom in so unprofitable a way, one that would cast suspicion on his very cause. Therefore Felix, in order to make amends to the Jews for his offenses when taking leave of them, left Paul in prison. Paul remained in this condition for two years, until Felix’s successor, Porcius Festus, arrived.

The defensive speech of the Apostle Paul had a stronger effect on the procurator. Felix dismissed the accusers, promising to reconsider the case when the tribune Lysias came. Until then he granted the prisoner Paul even greater freedom than he had enjoyed before. He ordered the centurion assigned to him not to restrain him, and not to forbid any of his own people to serve him or come to him (vv. 10-23).

The Apostle Paul was taken into custody, but Felix gave a special command to the centurion that the guard should not be harsh toward him. He also ordered that his friends be allowed free access to him in prison.

For his part, Felix was so interested in the prisoner that he later summoned him in order to show him also to his wife Drusilla.

The apostle did not fail to use this circumstance in order to address Felix with stern reproofs for his injustices.

The procurator’s conscience was touched. He even wished to release the prisoner altogether, if only the Apostle Paul had understood his hint and promised to give him a bribe.

Since the apostle had no money, and did not wish to seek freedom by such base means, he had to languish for two years in the Roman prison at Caesarea.

“Not to restrain him,” and so forth. Perhaps, as later in Rome, he was under the guard of only one soldier (Acts 28:16), and was able to receive everyone.

The case ended with a postponement, which Felix evidently liked to use for many purposes. Earlier he had postponed the hearing until the arrival of the chief accusers; now he postponed it until the arrival of Lysias.

Among other things, he wanted to learn more fully about the teaching to which Paul adhered. Later he made attempts toward this, verse 25.

Yet it seems that covetous motives prevailed in him, verse 26, and he did everything for their sake.

Still, he could have ordered Paul to be kept decently both because of his Roman citizenship and because his guilt was unproved. Perhaps he even had for Paul a respect similar to that which Herod had for John the Forerunner.