For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: For we have found this man, etc. - Here the proposition of the orator commences. He accuses Paul, ant his accusation includes four particulars: -
1. He is a pest, λοιμος; an exceedingly bad and wicked man.
2. He excites disturbances and seditions against the Jews.
3. He is the chief of the sect of the Nazarenes, who are a very bad people, and should not be tolerated.
4. He has endeavored to pollute and profane the temple, and we took him in the fact.
A pestilent fellow - The word λοιμος, pestis - the plague or pestilence, is used by both Greek and Roman authors to signify a very bad and profligate man; we have weakened the force of the word by translating the substantive adjectively. Tertullus did not say that Paul was a pestilent fellow, but he said that he was the very pestilence itself. As in that of Martial, xi. 92: -
Non vitiosus homo es, Zoile, sed vitium.
"Thou art not a vicious man, O Zoilus, but thou art vice itself."
The words λοιμος, and pestis, are thus frequently used. - See Wetstein, Bp. Pearce, and Kypke.
A mover of sedition - Instead of Ϛασιν, sedition, ABE, several others, with the Coptic, Vulgate, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Oecumenius, read Ϛασεις, commotions, which is probably the true reading.
Among all the Jews - Bp. Pearce contends that the words should be understood thus - one that stirreth up tumults Against all the Jews; for, if they be understood otherwise, Tertullus may be considered as accusing his countrymen, as if they, at Paul's instigation, were forward to make insurrections every where. On the contrary, he wishes to represent them as a persecuted and distressed people, by means of Paul and his Nazarenes.
A ringleader - Πρωτοστατην. This is a military phrase, and signifies the officer who stands on the right of the first rank; the captain of the front rank of the sect of the Nazarenes; της των ναζωραιων αἱρεσεως, of the heresy of the Nazarenes. This word is used six times by St. Luke; viz. in this verse, and in Acts 24:14, and in Acts 5:17; Acts 15:5; Acts 26:5; Acts 28:22; but in none of them does it appear necessarily to include that bad sense which we generally assign to the word heresy. - See the note on Acts 5:17, where the subject is largely considered; and see farther on Acts 24:14 (note).