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).
“His personal presence is unimpressive, and as for eloquence, he has none” (2 Corinthians 10:10 Weymouth). In addition to his poverty, Paul was very unimpressive in his appearance and speech, so he must have looked like a commoner to others, not like anyone who could afford to pay a bribe.
Why did Felix think such a seemingly poverty-stricken person as Paul would have the means to pay a bribe? On the surface, this might seem like something that the writer of Acts, Luke, invented to embellish the story, were it not for some details buried in the scriptural record.
For one thing, Felix must have known that Paul had used his rights as “a Roman citizen” to avoid being beaten, and had the right to a public trial (Acts 22:22-30; 23:23-33). He also knew that acquiring Roman citizenship could be very costly. By coincidence, the commanding officer on duty in Jerusalem when Paul was taken into custody admitted, “I paid a lot of money to become a Roman citizen” (Acts 22:28 GWT). Not only was Roman citizenship legally purchased with money, but Felix knew that bribes also were often paid to those in charge of this process. Might Paul be willing to pay a bribe to be released from custody?
Another thing that Felix knew was that during the first hearing when Paul appeared before him at Caesarea, Paul had testified, “After several years I came to bring relief-money to my nation and to make offerings” (Acts 24:17 NJB). Felix knew that somehow Paul had the means to travel long distances to a large sum of relief money to Jerusalem. Might Paul still have access to some of this money? Even if Paul personally didn’t have the money to pay a bribe, might Paul have benefactors who could pay a bribe for him?
Felix, who was known as an unkindly, unmerciful man, did something that might otherwise seem to be out of character with his personality, without knowing the above facts. What was that?
“Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs” (Acts 24:23 ESV). Felix allowed any of Paul’s friends who wished to visit him, and he very likely hoped that someone, or several, of them could give Paul money to pay a bribe.
We can see from all of this how Paul’s Roman citizenship, Governor Felix and bribery all fit together in Luke’s account historical in the Bible book of Acts in verification of the Bible’s authenticity. Such undesigned internal harmony in the account of Acts, combined with the concurrence with known historical facts, gives us very strong evidence that the Bible is no fictitious or forged account, but contains true and accurate details of actual historical occurrences.
4 thoughts on “Paul’s Roman Citizenship, Governor Felix, and Bribery”
BA: Why did Felix think such a seemingly poverty-stricken person as Paul would have the means to pay a bribe?
GW: Maybe because he thought Paul could raise that money through donations to him during his preaching.
BA: Might Paul be willing to pay a bribe to be released from custody?
GW: Yes, of course. Paul may have been highly motivated to get back out among the people to do his preaching, which was a life mission for him. So, he may have promised to pay the bribe in time or over time.
BA: Might Paul still have access to some of this money?
GW: Yes he might. Or he may have thought that he could easily raise the money if given the time to preach on the road.
BA: We can see from all of this how Paul’s Roman citizenship, Governor Felix and bribery all fit together in Luke’s account historical in the Bible book of Acts in verification of the Bible’s authenticity. Such undesigned internal harmony in the account of Acts, combined with the concurrence with known historical facts, gives us very strong evidence that the Bible is no fictitious or forged account, but contains true and accurate details of actual historical occurrences.
GW: Well of course the Bible has some facts, but it has just as many falsehoods, or more. The biggest falsehood of all is “God exists.” We now know and have proven that God does not exist. Any statement in the Bible which assumes that God exists is false, and that pertains to a very large number of statements. Why do modern people continue to cling to this two-thousand year old book? They cling to it like an infant clinging to a soft comforting “blankie”.
GW— Why do modern people continue to cling to this two-thousand year old book?
BA—Because it’s true.
There is now more extant evidence than ever before in support of the Bible’s authenticity.
No. It is an error to say “The Bible is true.” The Bible is composed of thousands of statements. (Has anyone counted them all? Probably not.) Some of its statements are true, and some of them are false. I dare say that more than half are false. But the most important statements of the Bible say or imply “God exists.” And we know and have proven this statement to be false.
As far as the issue of authenticity is concerned, of course we know that even the oldest Bible we actually have is not authentic. It is not the first Bible which was put together in human history. That first Bible has been lost or been destroyed. And even the books collected for it at the time were not authentic. In contrast, the Declaration of Independence, kept in DC, is authentic. It is the original.
It is popularly believed today that the Bible has been copied and re-copied so many times over the centuries that is text is unreliable, and no one can be sure of what was in the originals. Is there any truth to this?
“All people are like grass, and all their glory is like that of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever” (1 Peter 1:24,25 NIV). In this text, the thought is conveyed that “the Word of the Lord endures forever”, which implies that the scriptures would be faithfully preserved over time.
Any book copied by hand is likely to contain errors. Not surprisingly, there are copyists’ errors (called textual or scribal errors) in ancient Biblical manuscripts. The original copies of the books were lost long ago. Thus our sources for the Biblical materials are limited to handwritten copies (of copies) of the originals. We do also have access to copies of ancient translations of the Bible into other languages, as well as citations of the Bible by early rabbis and church fathers. Thus Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of the Bible, together with early translations and citations of Scripture, witness to the correct reading of a particular text.
How did scribal errors arise? Poor memory, impaired judgment, mishearing and errors of sight or misunderstanding often caused the best-intentioned scribes to omit, substitute or repeat letters or entire words. Sometimes scribes made matters worse when they deliberately altered the text in an attempt to rectify something they perceived as a problem (deliberate alterations are probably very rare, however). In time, the result was a series of accidental corruptions or intended improvements that departed from the original text.
“Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished” (Matthew 5:18 HCSB). Jesus says here that even the smallest details from God’s word will be preserved.
Textual criticism is the attempt to restore the Biblical authors’ original words by comparing and contrasting the various copies and translations of the Bible. Here “criticism” does not mean “finding fault with” but “evaluating” the existing copies of the text. Significantly, while textual errors do exist among the ancient Biblical witnesses, they do not destroy the Bible’s credibility or message. Just as an alert reader can understand a book or newspaper article that has typographical errors in it, so too God’s Word is able to speak for itself in spite of the minor corruptions that have arisen through scribal transmission. The vast majority of the Biblical text is certain, and where variations do occur among existing copies, the original wording can usually be determined with a good degree of certainty by a thorough acquaintance with the available manuscripts. Most modern translations use footnotes to let readers know where the text is difficult or where scribal errors may exist.
An example of a textual problem is found in the last sentence of Isaiah 51:19. The New American Standard Bible translates the question “How shall I comfort you?” while the NIV words it “Who can console you?” (emphasis added for both translations). These different renderings reflect a difference of opinion over which manuscripts preserve the best reading. The NIV follows a reading that is found in a Hebrew manuscript from the Dead Sea Scrolls. This translation is also supported by the Greek (Septuagint), Latin (Vulgate) and Syriac (Peshitta) translations of the Old Testament. On the other hand, the standard edition of the Hebrew Old Testament (the Masoretic Text) reads “How can I comfort you?”and was followed by the NASB translators.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Matthew 24:35 NIV). Jesus uses hyperbole’ to show that God will not allow his word, especially the scriptures, to fade, or “pass away”. This would include preventing any significant changes.
The above example of Isaiah 51:19 also makes the point that virtually all scribal questions involve minor points in the text. We have good reason to be confident that the translations now available faithfully, albeit never perfectly, reflect what the prophets and other Biblical authors originally wrote. The presence of scribal errors is not a reason to consider the Bible untrustworthy, because refined Hebrew-Aramaic, and Koine’ Greek Master Texts use a compilation and collation thousands of ancient manuscripts to derive a Biblical text that faithfully represents the originals.
In fact, scribal errors are actually one of the many proofs that the Bible is not a work of fiction, nor is it the a result of collusion among conspirators to make it seem to be the word of God , when it actually is of human origin.
God said he would preserve his word, and he has!
One source: New International Version Archaeological Study Bible