And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad.
Ver. 24. Much learning hath made thee mad] Core diminuit harem, the seed is lessened, let it grow, as Ennius hath it. Paul was indeed a man of much learning; for besides the Bible, and the Jewish records, he had read the poets (whom also he citeth), and Plato, from whom he borrowed that excellent word αναζωπυρειν, 2 Timothy 1:6; "Stir up thy gift," &c. But if Paul were so great a scholar, why did not Festus show him more favour, or at least do him better justice? Aeneas Sylvius was wont to say of learning, that popular men should esteem it as silver, noblemen as gold, princes prize it as pearls. Festus might possibly have heard or read of Antony the Triumvir, that when Varro (his very enemy, and of a contrary faction) was proscribed for death, he thus gallantly superscribed his name, Vivat Varro vir doctissimus: Let Varro have his life for his learning' sake. And if Antipater (saith Sir Walter Raleigh, Hist. of the World) upon his conquest had carried all other actions never so mildly, yet for killing Demosthenes, all that read his eloquent orations do condemn him for a bloody tyrant to this day.