Paul’s Roman Citizenship, Governor Felix, and Bribery
What do Paul’s Roman citizenship, Governor Felix, and bribery have to do with the Bible’s authenticity? M. Antonius Felix was the 4th Roman governor of Judea, from 52-60 CE, and well known for taking bribes and other corruption. The apostle Paul, who was in custody, came before him in “trial”, and after hearing both sides of the issue, “Felix . . . postponed the trial” (Acts 24:21,22 NAB). Why?
“Felix . . . hoped that a bribe would be offered him by Paul, and so sent for him very often and conversed with him. Two years passed” (Acts 24:25,26 NAB). Felix’ hope for a bribe from Paul seems highly unusual, not because of any honesty on Felix’s part, but because of Paul’s poverty. To support himself, Paul, at times, did manual labor as a part-time ‘tentmaker’ (Acts 18:3). Due to his intense focus on spreading the gospel and his itinerant travel, at times he didn’t even have the basic necessities of life (2 Corinthians 11:27).
Many alligators live in the Florida Everglades.
All living things are claimed to have originally developed from non-living matter, and then gradually and continually undergo Darwinian evolution over millions of years of time.
“By around 8 million years ago, the modern alligator species began to emerge. These creatures were smaller and more adapted to their swampy habitats.” (Evolution of Modern Alligators). This is the standard teaching of mainstream science today. But what are the actual facts?
“The fossil record does support the evolution of reptiles, although it may not provide a complete and unbroken chain of transitional fossils for all reptile lineages.”—AI search
The Bible reports that, “God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moved about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind, and God saw that it was good” (
