Felix

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

A Roman governor of Judea; originally a slave, but manumitted and promoted by Claudius Caesar, from whom he received the name of Claudius. He is described by the historian Tacitus as cruel, licentious, and base. In Judea he married Drusilla, sister of the younger Agrippa, having enticed her from her second husband Azizus. Paul having been sent by Lysias to Caesarea, then the seat of government, Felix gave him an audience, and was convinced of his innocence. Nevertheless he kept him a prisoner, though with many alleviation's, in hopes that his friends would purchase his liberty by a heavy bribe. Meanwhile his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess, desired to hear Paul explain the new religion; and the apostle being summoned before them, discoursed with his usual boldness on justice, chastity, and the final judgment. Felix trembled, but hastily remanded Paul to confinement, and stifled his convictions-a melancholy instance of the power of lust and the danger of delay. Two years after, A. D. 60, he was recalled to Rome; and left Paul in prison, in order to appease the Jews. He was brought to trial, however, for maladministration, found guilty, and barely escaped death through the intercession of his brother Pallas, another royal favorite, Acts 23:26; 24:1-27 .

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

As Roman governor of Judea from AD 52 to 60, Felix had some influence on Jewish affairs in Palestine. Early non-biblical records show that he was corrupt and cruel, characteristics that are well illustrated in the story about him in the Bible.

After a riot by the Jews in Jerusalem, Paul was sent to Caesarea to be judged by Felix (Acts 23:26-35). Felix knew the Jews well, for he had a Jewish wife (Acts 24:24). He also knew sufficient of Christianity to realize that Paul was innocent of the charges the Jews laid against him (Acts 23:29; Acts 24:22). Yet he kept Paul imprisoned for two years, simply to please the Jews and so prevent any further unrest (Acts 24:23; Acts 24:27). He was interested to hear of Paul’s religious beliefs, and Paul could have gained his freedom had he paid the bribe Felix wanted (Acts 24:25-26). Paul refused to cooperate, so the heartless Felix left him in prison. In due course Felix returned to Rome, leaving the next governor to deal with the matter as best he could (Acts 24:27; Acts 25:1-5).

Easton's Bible Dictionary

Acts 24:25

At the end of a two years' term, Porcius Festus was appointed in the room of Felix (A.D. 60), who proceeded to Rome, and was there accused of cruelty and malversation of office by the Jews of Caesarea. The accusation was rendered nugatory by the influence of his brother Pallas with Nero. (See Josephus, Ant. xx. 8,9.)

Drusilla, the daughter of Herod Agrippa, having been induced by Felix to desert her husband, the king of Emesa, became his adulterous companion. She was seated beside him when Paul "reasoned" before the judge. When Felix gave place to Festus, being "willing to do the Jews a pleasure," he left Paul bound.

Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Antonius (Tacitus, Hist. 5:9) Claudius (Suidas), Roman procurator of Judaea, appointed by the emperor Claudius, whose freedman he was, to succeed Ventidius Cumanus, who was banished A.D. 53. Tacitus (Ann., 12:54) makes F. procurator of Samaria while Cumanus had Galilee. Josephus (Ant. 20:6, section 2, 7, section 1) makes him succeed Cumanus. Tacitus writes of Felix, "he exercised the authority of a king with the disposition of a slave in all cruelty and lust." He and Cumanus were tried before Quadratus for winking at robbery and violence and enriching themselves with bribes, according to Tacitus, and Felix was acquitted and reinstated. Having the powerful support of his brother Pallas, Claudius' freedman and favorite, he thought he could do what he liked with impunity. Pallas' influence continuing, Felix remained procurator under Nero.

Felix crushed the Jewish zealots under the name of "robbers," and crucified hundreds. He put down false Messiahs and the followers of an Egyptian magician (Josephus, Ant. 20:8, section 5, 6; Acts 21:88) and riots, but he once employed the zealot assassins (Sicarii) to murder the high priest Jonathan. "By unseasonable remedies he only aggravated" the evils of Judaea (Tacitus, Annals 12:54). These were the "very worthy deeds done by Felix's providence," which gave the nation "great quietness" according to the lying flatterer Tertullus' set oration against Paul (Acts 24:2, etc.). Claudius Lysias, the chief captain, sent Paul for judgment to Felix at Caesarea.

There Paul had two hearings before Felix. After the first hearing, Felix deferred the Jews until Lysias the chief captain should come. At the second Paul, before Felix and Drusilla, Felix's Jewish wife, who was curious to "hear him concerning the faith of Christ," so reasoned of "righteousness and temperance (both of which Felix outraged as a governor and a man, having seduced from her husband) and judgment to come" that Felix "trembled" before his prisoner, but deferred repentance, saying, "when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." (See DRUSILLA.) Greed of gain supplanted conscience, so that instead of repenting of his shameful life he would not even do common justice to Paul, but left him a prisoner because he got no bribe to set him free.

Felix could hardly have hoped for money from so poor looking a prisoner as Paul (which is implied in Lysias' surprise, presuming Paul had like himself bought Roman citizenship, Acts 22:27-28), had he not heard Paul stating in the former interview, "after many years I came to bring alms to my nation and offerings." This accounts for Felix "letting Paul have liberty and forbidding none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him." He doubtless hoped they would supply the money wherewith to buy his deliverance, an undesigned coincidence and so a mark of the truth of the history. After two years Porcius Festus succeeded, and Felix was accused by the Jews of Caesarea, at Rome, but escaped through Pallas' influence with the emperor Nero, A.D. 60.

Holman Bible Dictionary

Acts 23:24Acts 24:26Acts 24:27Paul

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

(Acts 23:24 ff.)

A freedman, and a brother of Pallas, Felix was the favourite of the Emperor Claudius. Tacitus ( Hist . Acts 23:9) calls him ‘Antonius Felix.’ Of his public life prior to his appointment to his procuratorship in Palestine, nothing is known; of his private life, only that he had married a granddaughter of Antony and Cleopatra, whom Tacitus ( loc. cit .) calls Drusilla, confusing her, no doubt, with the Jewish princess with whom Felix allied himself later. Suetonius knows of yet another marriage-also to a princess ( Claud . 28).

Josephus and Tacitus are at variance as to the time and circumstance of the sending of Felix to Palestine. According to Josephus ( Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) ii. 12; Ant . xx. 6f.), Fells was appointed to succeed the procurator Cumanus, when the latter was condemned and banished for his misrule. According to Tacitus ( Ann , xii. 54), Cumanus and Felix were contemporaneously procurators, the one of Galilee, the other of Samaria. It seems reasonable to follow Schürer ( History of the Jewish People (Eng. tr. of GJV).] I. ii. [1890] 174) in giving preference in this matter to ‘the very detailed narrative of Josephus.’ This fixes the arrival of Felix in Palestine in a.d. 52, or early in the following year.

The historians are entirely at one in their estimate of Felix and of the manner in which he exercised his functions. His countryman Tacitus ( Hist . v. 9) describes him as using ‘the powers of a king with the disposition of a slave,’ and says ( Ann , xii. 54) ‘he deemed that he might perpetrate any ill deeds with impunity.’ Under his government the state of Palestine grew rapidly worse. If there had been occasional disorders under Cumanus, ‘under Felix rebellion became permanent.’ The boundless cruelty with which he repressed the more open opposition of the ‘Zealots’ to the Roman rule stimulated the formation of the secret associations of the ‘Assassins’ ( Sicarii ), whose hand was against all-Jew not less than Roman-who did not further their designs. Not less significant of the misery of the people was their readiness to answer the call of religious fanatics like ‘the Egyptian’ mentioned in Acts 21:38, whom Josephus ( Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) II. xiii. 5) credits with a following of thirty thousand. In any such movement Felix suspected ‘the beginning of a revolt,’ and adopted measures which only served to increase the popular disaffection. For the intrigue by which he possessed himself of the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I.-the newly wedded wife of King Azizus of Emesa-see articleDrusilla.

The cynical disregard of Felix for justice, and his inordinate greed are alike brought to view in his treatment of the Apostle Paul. Although possessed of information Concerning the Way,’ which would have justified him in releasing the prisoner when he was first brought before him, he decided to adjourn the case in definitely (Acts 24:22), partly to curry favour with the Jews, and partly to serve his own rapacious ends. The interview with the Apostle recorded in Acts 24:24 was probably intended by the procurator and his wife to be somewhat of a diversion-it ended for Felix in terror. He had frequent communing with St. Paul during the time he detained him as his prisoner at Caesarea; but seemingly on these later occasions Felix kept control of the conversation and directed it, though unavailingly, towards his mercenary aim.

Two years after St. Paul was brought to Caesarea, Felix was recalled to Rome in connexion with a strife which had broken out at Caesarea between the Jews and the Syrians in that town-the Jews asserting for themselves certain exclusive rights, which the others denied. The matter was referred to the Emperor. The investigation proved so damaging to Felix that ‘he had certainly been brought to punishment, unless Nero had yielded to the importunate solicitations of his brother Pallas’ (Jos. Ant . xx. viii. 9).

Of the subsequent life of Felix, nothing is known.

Literature.-H. M. Luckock, Footprints of the Apostles as traced by St. Luke , 1905, pt. ii. p. 243; A. Maclaren, Expositions  : ‘Acts, ch. xiii.-end,’1907, pp. 281, 287: G. H. Morrison, The Footsteps of the Flock , 1904, p. 362; M. Jones, St. Paul the Orator , 1910, p. 202; J. S. Howson, The Companions of St. Paul , 1874, p. 145: H. Goodwin, Parish Sermons , 2nd ser. 3, 1861, p. 179; W, H. M. H. Aitken, The Glory of the Gospel , n.d., pp. 193, 208, 223; C. H. Turner, ‘Eusebius’ Chronology of Felix and Festus’ in Journal of Theological Studies , iii. [1901-02] 120; S. Buss, Roman Law and History in the NT , 1901, p. 373.

G. P. Gould.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

One of the freedmen of the Emperor Claudius, and by him appointed to be procurator or governor of Judaea, A.D. 51. Paul, when sent a prisoner to Caesarea, appeared before Felix; and again before him and his wife Drusilla; and as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgement to come, Felix trembled, and said when he had a convenient season he would send for him. He showed his mercenary and unrighteous character in keeping Paul a prisoner two years in the hope of being bribed; and then leaving him a prisoner to please the Jews. Acts 23:24,26; Acts 24:3-27; Acts 25:14 .

Tacitus says Felix ruled the province in a mean, cruel, and profligate manner. The country was full of sedition, among which Josephus speaks of 'false messiahs' being put down. Eventually he was accused before Nero by the Jews, and only escaped punishment by the intercession of his brother Pallas. He was superseded by Porcius Festus, A.D. 60.

People's Dictionary of the Bible

Felix (fç'lix), happy. A Roman procurator of Judea appointed by the emperor Claudius in a.d. 53. His period of office was full of troubles and seditions. Paul was brought before Felix in Cæsarea. Paul was remanded to prison, and kept there two years in hopes of extorting money from him. Acts 24:26-27. At the end of that time Porcius Festus superseded Felix, who, on his return to Rome, was accused by the Jews in Cæsarea, and would have suffered for his crimes had not his brother Pallas prevailed with the emperor Nero to spare him. This was probably about a.d. 60. The wife of Felix was Drusilla, a daughter of Herod Agrippa I., who was his third wife and whom he persuaded to leave her husband and marry him.

Smith's Bible Dictionary

Fe'lix. (happy). A Roman procurator of Judea, appointed by the emperor Claudius in A.D. 53. He ruled the province in a mean, cruel and profligate manner. His period of office was full of troubles and seditions. St. Paul was brought before Felix in Caesarea. He was remanded to prison, and kept there two years in hopes of extorting money from him. Acts 24:26-27.

At the end of that time, Porcius Festus, see Porcius Festus, was appointed to supersede Felix, who, on his return to Rome, was accused by the Jews in Caesarea, and would have suffered the penalty due to his atrocities had not his brother, Pallas, prevailed with the emperor Nero to spare him. This was probably about A.D. 60. The wife of Felix was Drusilla, daughter of Herod Agrippa I, who was his third wife and whom he persuaded to leave her husband and marry him.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary

CLAUDIUS. See CLAUDIUS .

Whyte's Dictionary of Bible Characters

OUR original authorities for the life of Felix are Luke in the Acts of the Apostles, Josephus in the Antiquities and in the Wars of the Jews, and Tacitus in the Annals of the Romans. Luke gives us one of his most graphic chapters about Felix; but he abstains, as the Bible manner is, from judging even Felix before the time. Josephus is graphic enough about Felix, but we are sure neither of Josephus's facts nor of his judgments. We cannot go very far either for or against any man on the word of such a witness as Josephus. But Tacitus scars Felix's forehead as only Tacitus's pen can scar. Tacitus, as his manner is, anticipates the very day of judgment itself in the way he writes about Felix. Felix began his life as a slave, and he ended his life as a king. But, as Tacitus says, there was a slave's heart all the time under Felix's royal robes. All what evil secrets lay hidden in Felix's conscience we do not know; but we have only too abundant testimony as to how savage, how treacherous, and how steeped in blood, Felix's whole life had been. Luke calls Drusilla the wife of Felix. Drusilla was a wife, but she was not the wife of Felix. Drusilla was still a young woman, but she had already come through wickedness enough to stamp her as one of the worst women in the whole of human history. Paul was lying in prison waiting for his trial at Felix's judgment-seat, when, most probably to satisfy Drusilla's guilty curiosity about Paul and about Paul's Master, Felix sent for Paul to hear what he had to say for himself and for his Master. How the interview opened, and how Paul conducted his discourse, we are not told. But this we are told, that as Paul continued to reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee."

"The ears of our audiences must first be propitiated," says Quintilian in his Institutes of Oratory. And Dante but borrows from that fine book when he tells all public speakers in his Banquet that they must always begin by taking captive the goodwill of their hearers. Now, just how Paul managed to propitiate Felix's unfriendly ears that day, and to take captive his hardened heart, we are not told. But that the great preacher did succeed in getting a hearing from Felix is certain. And it was neither a short hearing nor a hostile that Felix gave to Paul that day. Felix sat in transfixed silence while Paul stood up before him, and plunged the two-edged sword of God's holy law into his guilty conscience, till the hardened reprobate could not command himself. A greater seal was never set to the power of Paul's preaching than when Felix shook and could not sit still under the Apostle's words. And a greater encouragement could not possibly be given to all true preachers than that scene in the palace of Cæsarea gives to them. What an ally, unseen but omnipotent, all true preachers have in the consciences of their hearers! "The conscience," says the prince of Puritan expository preachers, "is what the snout is in a bear, a tender part to tame him by. Conscience is acutely sensible to God's wrath. And hell-fire itself could not take hold of the soul but at this corner."

O conscience! who can stand against thy power!Endure thy gripes and agonies one hour!Stone, gout, strappado, racks, whatever isDreadful to sense are only toys to this.No pleasures, riches, honours, friends can tellHow to give ease to thee, thou'rt like to hell.

If Felix had but sat still a little longer, Paul was just going on to tell him how to get ease to the hell that was beginning to burn in his bosom. But I suspect Drusilla at that moment. I cannot get over my suspicion that it was Drusilla who so suddenly cut short Paul's discourse, and sent him back to his prison. I do not read that Drusilla trembled. My belief about that royal pair is, that had Drusilla not sat beside Felix that day, Felix would have been baptized, and Paul would have been set free, before the sun had gone down. But Drusilla and her sisters have east into their graves many wounded. Many strong men have been slain to death by them. Their house is the way to hell, and their steps go down to the chambers of death.

"Go thy way for this time," said Felix to Paul, "when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." Felix never sat at a Communion Table. But many of us here tonight who sat at that table today have in effect said Felix's very words today to God and to our own consciences. Many of us trembled at the table today, but we recovered ourselves with this resolution-that we would repent and amend our ways at another time. More actionsermons and more table-addresses have been silenced and forgotten because of a postponed repentance than because of anything else. Felix did not really intend to shut Paul's mouth for ever. He did not intend to go before God's judgment-seat just as he was that day. And no more do we. We honestly intend to live righteously and temperately-after a time. When we are in other circumstances. When we have other companionships. When we have formed other and better relationships. After that happy alteration in our life to which we are looking forward, you will find us very different men. When I am old, says one. Not too old. But when I am somewhat older and much less occupied. I will then have time to give to secret prayer. I will then have on my table, and near my bedside, some of those books my minister has so often besought me to buy and to read at a Communion season. I will then attend to God and to my own soul. Poor self-deceived creature that you are! Cruelty and uncleanness have slain their thousands; but a life like yours, a life simply of putting off repentance and reformation, has slain its tens of thousands.

But Felix, after all, was as good as his word, so far. Felix did actually call for Paul again, and that not once nor twice, but often, and communed with him in the palace. Only, it had almost been better he had not done so, for he always did it with a bad motive in his mind. It was not to hear out Paul's interrupted discourse that Felix sent for Paul. The sacred writer is able to tell us what exactly Felix's secret motive was in so often giving the Apostle an audience. "He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him; wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix's room; and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound." And it is because our motives in coming to church are so mixed that the years allowed us for our salvation pass on till some one else occupies our pew, and the preaching of salvation has for ever come to an end as far as we are concerned.

Pulpits and Sundays; sorrow dogging sin;Afflictions sorted; anguish of all sizes;Without our shame; within our consciences;Yet all these fences, and their whole array,One cunning bosom sin blows quite away.

I have known a man come to a church for a slip of a girl; another as a stepping-stone to some great man's favour; another for the advantage of his shop; and another for the chance of a tippet and a chain and a hoped-for handle to his name, and so on. Felix sat under Paul's preaching because his household expenses in Cæsarea were so great, and his resources so low, and his debts so heavy. And because he had been told that Paul had such rich friends, that they could and would pay any price for his release. And who can tell how Felix's calculations might have turned out, had it not been that Cæsar so suddenly sent for Felix to come to Rome to give an account of his stewardship; and all that, most unfortunately, before Paul's rich friends had time to come forward. Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt for the foundout reasons why they went to this church or to that.

It is like the fresh air of heaven itself to turn from Felix's church attendances in this matter of motive, and to turn to Paul. For, when the royal message summoning Paul to the palace was delivered to him in his prison, what was Paul's first thought, do you think? Paul was a great man. Paul was a noble-minded man. Paul was a true and a pure-hearted man. Paul never thought of himself at all. He never once said to himself how all this might tell upon his release and his liberty. Dear and sweet as release and liberty were to Paul, these things never once came into his mind that day. Felix and Drusilla alone came into his mind that day; Drusilla especially. For Drusilla was a Jewess; she was a daughter of Abraham; and Paul's heart's desire and prayer to God for long had been that Drusilla might be saved. And here, in this opportunity to him, was the answer to his prayer! And thus it was that all the way up from his prison to her palace Paul was thinking only of that wicked and miserable pair, with their fearful looking for of judgment. Till, with Ids heart full of all that, as Paul was led into the presencechamber, Felix turned to Drusilla, and pointing to Paul, he as good as said to her-

Lo! this man's brow like to a title-leaf,Foretells the nature of a tragic volume!He trembles, and the whiteness in his cheekIs apter than his tongue to tell his errand!Even such a manDrew Priam's curtain in the dead of night.

It was the snow-white purity of Paul's motives that gave to his words, and to his whole look and manner, such last-day power as he stood and spoke before Felix. Paul's eye was so single at that moment that the whole palace was filled to Felix as with the light of the great white throne itself. No other man knows with a full certainty any or all of his neighbour's motives. At the same time, I have come to think that the purity of a preacher's motives has very much to do with his success. Not always, perhaps; but sufficiently often to make it a good rule for all of us who are, or are to be, preachers. For instance, to speak of two very successful preachers who have lately gone to give in their account and to reap their reward-Moody and Spurgeon. I have always attributed their immense and their lasting success to the singleness of their eye and the transparency of their motives. And therefore it is that I am always directing young probationers who are going to preach in a vacancy to read before they go Dr. Newman's sermon entitled, "The Salvation of the Hearer the Motive of the Preacher." I constantly tell them that this desired call, if it is to be a call to them from Christ, will largely lie in their motive that day. If the preacher makes the vacant congregation tremble like Felix till they forget themselves, that is the preacher for them, and that is the people for him. Let all probationers of the pulpit study that same great writer's noble lecture, entitled "University Preaching," and they will thank me for this instruction all their days.

And now to conclude. I can imagine no other night in all the year so convenient as just the night after a Communion day. I can imagine no night in all the year so acceptable to Christ, and so welcome to His Father. No day and no night in which our Redeemer so desires to see of the travail of His soul. No night in which He has so much joy in seeing either a sinner repenting, or a saint returning. It is a special night for new beginners, and it is famous for the restoring of backsliders' souls. This is the night, then, for us all to date from. It was that day, it was that night, when we had Felix, you will say all your days on earth. My Lord met me, you will say, in that house of His, and on that night of His. Come away then, and make a new start on the spot. Come away, and there will be a joy in heaven tonight that there will not be but for you. Oh! do come, and let this house have this honour in heaven henceforth, because this man and that man were born here. And, in saying that, it is not I that say it. Jesus Christ Himself singles you out of all the congregation and says to you, as if you were alone in this house, Come! Come, He says, and let us reason together. And if you are a very Felix and a very Drusilla; if your unrighteousness, and your intemperance, and your fearful looking for of judgment, are all as dreadful as were theirs; even were your sins as scarlet as were theirs, they shall be as white as snow. And though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Who, then, this Communion evening, will come forward like the brave man in Bunyan, and will say to him who has the book and the pen and the ink-horn in his hand, Set down my name, sir! At which there was a most pleasant voice heard from those within, even of those who walked upon the top of the king's palace, saying-

Come in, come in,Eternal glory thou shalt win.

So he went in, and was clothed with the same garments as they were clothed with. Then Christian smiled, and said, I think verily that I know the true meaning to me of this great sight, and the true intention to me of this great Scripture.

Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblial Literature

Fe´lix. A Roman procurator of Judea, before whom Paul so 'reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,' that the judge trembled, saying, 'Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee' . The context states that Felix had expected a bribe from Paul; and, in order to procure this bribe, he appears to have had several interviews with the Apostle. The depravity which such an expectation implies is in agreement with the idea which the historical fragments preserved respecting Felix would lead the student to form of the man.

The year in which Felix entered on his office cannot be strictly determined. From the words of Josephus it appears that his appointment took place before the twelfth year of the Emperor Claudius.

Felix was a remarkable instance of the elevation to distinguished station of persons born and bred in the lowest condition. Originally a slave, he rose to little less than kingly power. For some unknown, but probably not very creditable services, he was manumitted by Claudius Caesar (Sueton. Claud. 28; Tacit. Hist. v. 9): on which account he is said to have taken the praenomen of Claudius.

The character which the ancients have left of Felix is of a very dark complexion. Suetonius speaks of the military honors which the emperor loaded him with, and specifies his appointment as governor of the province of Judea; adding an inuendo, which loses nothing by its brevity, namely, that he was the husband of three queens or royal ladies. Tacitus, in his History (v. 9), declares that, during his governorship in Judea, he indulged in all kinds of cruelty and lust, exercising regal power with the disposition of a slave; and, in his Annals (xii. 54) he represents Felix as considering himself licensed to commit any crime, relying on the influence which he possessed at court. The country was ready for rebellion, and the unsuitable remedies which Felix applied served only to inflame the passions and to incite to crime. Under his sway the affairs of the country grew worse and worse. The land was filled with robbers and impostors who do deluded the multitude. Felix used his power to repress these disorders to little purpose, since his own example gave no sanction to justice. Having a grudge against Jonathan, the high-priest, who had expostulated with him on his misrule, he made use of Doras, an intimate friend of Jonathan, in order to get him assassinated by a gang of villains, who joined the crowds that were going up to the temple to worship—a crime which led subsequently to countless evils, by the encouragement which it gave to the Sicarii, or leagued assassins of the day, to whose excesses Josephus ascribes, under Providence, the overthrow of the Jewish state. Among other crimes, some of these villains misled the people under the promise of performing miracles, and were punished by Felix. An Egyptian impostor, who escaped himself, was the occasion of the loss of life to four hundred followers, and of the loss of liberty to two hundred more, thus severely dealt with by Felix.

While in his office, being inflamed by a passion for the beautiful Drusilla, a daughter of King Herod Agrippa, who was married to Azizus, king of Emesa, he employed one Simon, a magician, to use his arts in order to persuade her to forsake her husband and marry him, promising that if she would comply with his suit he would make her a happy woman. Drusilla, partly impelled by a desire to avoid the envy of her sister, Berenice, was prevailed on to transgress the laws of her forefathers, and consented to a union with Felix. In this marriage a son was born, who was named Agrippa: both mother and son perished in an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which took place in the days of Titus Caesar. With this adulteress was Felix seated when Paul reasoned before the judge, as already stated .

Paul, being apprehended in Jerusalem, was sent by a letter from Claudius Lysias to Felix at Caesarea, where he was at first confined in Herod's judgment-hall till his accusers came. They arrived. Tertullus appeared as their spokesman and had the audacity, in order to conciliate the good will of Felix, to express gratitude on the part of the Jews, 'seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence' (Acts 23; Acts 24). Paul pleaded his cause in a worthy speech; and Felix, consigning the Apostle to the custody of a centurion, ordered that he should have such liberty as the circumstances admitted, with permission that his acquaintance might see him and minister to his wants. This imprisonment the Apostle suffered for a period of two years, being left bound when Felix gave place to Festus, as that unjust judge 'was willing,' not to do what was right, but 'to show the Jews a pleasure.'

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

(happy, Graecized Φῆλιξ, Acts 23-24 in Tacitus, Hist. v, 9, called ANTONIUS FELIX; in Suidas, CLAUDIUS FELIX; in Josephus and Acts, simply FELIX: so also in Tacitus, Ann. 12:54), the Roman procurator of Judaea, before whom Paul so "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," that the judge trembled, saying, " Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee" (Acts 24:25; see Abicht, De Claudio Felice, Viteb. 1732; Eckhard, Paulli oratio ad Felicem, Isen. 1779). The context states that Felix had expected a bribe from Paul; and, in order to procure this bribe, he appears to have had several interviews with the apostle. The depravity which such an expectation implies is in agreement with the idea which the historical fragments preserved respecting Felix would lead the student to form of the man. The year in which Felix entered on his office cannot be strictly determined. He was appointed by the emperor Claudius, whose freedman he was, on the banishment of Velatidius Cumanus, probably A.D. 53. Tacitus (Ann. 12:54) states that Felix and Cumanus were joint procurators, Cumanus having Galilee, and Felix Samaria. In this account Tacitus is directly at issue with Josephus (Ant. 20:6, 2), and is generally supposed to be in error; but his account is very circumstantial, and by adopting it We should gain greater justification for the expression of Paul (Acts 24:10) that Felix had been judge of the nation "for many years." Those words, however, must not even thus be closely pressed; for Cumanus himself only went to Judea in the eighth year of Claudius (Josephus, Ant. 20:5, 2). From the words of Josephus (Ant. 20:7, 1), it appears that his appointment took place before the twelfth year of the emperor Claudius. Eusebius fixes the time of his actually undertaking his duties in the eleventh year of that monarch. The question is fully discussed under (See Chronology), vol. ii, 311, 312.

Felix was a remarkable instance of the elevation to distinguished station of persons born and bred in the lowest condition. Originally a slave, he rose to little less than kingly power. For some unknown but probably not very creditable services, he was manumitted by Claudius Caesar (Sueton. Claudius, 28; Tacit-us, Hist. v, 9), on which account he is said to have taken the praenomen of Claudius. In Tacitus, however (1. c.), he is surnamed Antonius, probably because he was also a freedman of Antonia, the emperor's mother. Felix was the brother of Claudius's powerful freedman Pallas (Josephus, War, ii, 12, 8; Ant. 20:7,.1); and it was to the circumstance of Pallas's influence surviving his master's death (Tacitus, Ann xiv,65) that Felix was retained in his procuratorship by Nero. In speaking of Pallas in conjunction with another freedman, namely, Narcissus, the imperial private secretary, Suetonius (Claudius, 28) says that the emperor was eager in heaping upon them the highest honors that a subject could enjoy, and suffered them to carry on a system of plunder and gain to such an extent that, on complaining of the poverty of his exchequer, some one had the boldness to remark that he would abound in wealth if he were taken into partnership by his-two favorite freedmen.

The character which the ancients have left of Felix is of a very dark complexion. Suetonius speaks of the military honors which the emperor loaded him with, and specifies his appointment as governor of the province of Judaea (Claudius, 28), adding an innuendo, which loses nothing by its brevity, namely, that he was the husband of three queens or royal ladies ("trium reginarum maritum"). Tacitus, in his History (v, 9), declares that, during his governorship in Judaea, he indulged in all kinds of cruelty and lust, exercising regal power with the disposition of a slave; and, in his Annals (xii, 54), he represents Felix as considering himself licensed to commit any crime, relying on the influence which he possessed at court. The country was ready for rebellion, and the unsuitable remedies which Felix applied served only to inflame the passions and to incite to crime. The contempt which he and Cumanus (who, according to Tacitus, governed Galilee while Felix ruled Samaria; but see Josephus, Ant. xx. 7, 1) excited in the minds of the people, encouraged them to give free scope to the passions which arose from the old enmity between the Jews and Samaritans, while the two wily and base procurators were enriched by booty as if it had been spoils of war. This so far was a pleasant game to these men, but in the prosecution of it Roman soldiers lost their lives, and but for the intervention of Quadratus, governor of Syria, a rebellion would have been inevitable. A court-martial was held to inquire into the causes of this disaffection, when Felix, one of the accused, was seen by the injured Jews among the judges, and even seated on the judgment-seat, placed there by the president Quadratus expressly to outface and deter the accusers and witnesses. Josephus (Ant. 20:8, 5) reports that under Felix the affairs of the country grew worse and worse. The land was filled with robbers and impostors who deluded the multitude. Felix used his power to repress these disorders to little purpose, since his own example gave no sanction to justice. Thus, having got one Dineas, leader of a band of assassins, into his hands by a promise of impunity, he sent him to Rome to receive his punishment.

Having a grudge against Jonathan, the high-priest, who had expostulated with him on his misrule, he made use of Doras, an intimate friend of Jonathan, in order to get him assassinated by a gang of villains, who joined the crowds that were going up to the Temple worship-a crime which led subsequently to countless evils, by the encouragement which it gave to the Sicarii, or leagued assassins of the day, to whose excesses Josephus ascribes, under Providence, the overthrow of the Jewish state. Among other crimes, some of these villains misled the people under the promise of performing miracles, and were punished by Felix. An -Egyptian impostor, who escaped himself, was the occasion of the loss of life to four hundred followers, and of the loss of liberty to two hundred more, thus severely dealt with by Felix (Josephus, Ant. 20:8, 6; War, ii, 13, 5; comp. Acts 21:38). A serious misunderstanding having arisen between the Jewish and the Syrian inhabitants of Caesarea, Felix employed his troops, and slew and plundered -till prevailed on to desist. His cruelty in this affair brought on him, after he was superseded by Festus, an accusation at Rome, which, however, he was enabled to render nugatory by the influence which his brother Pallas had, and exercised to the utmost, with the emperor Nero. Josephus, in his Life (§ 3), reports that, "at the time when Felix was procurator of Judaea, there were certain priests of my acquaintance, and very excellent persons they were, whom, on a small and trifling occasion, he had put into bonds and sent to Rome to plead their cause before Caesar." At the end of a two years' term Porcius Festus was appointed to supersede Felix, who, on his return to Rome, was accused by the Jews in Caesarea, as above noticed (Ant. 20:8, 9). This was in A.D. 55 (not in the year 60, as Anger, De temporum in Act. Apost. ratione, p. 100; Wieseler, Chronologie der Apostelgeschichte, p. 66-82).

While in his office, being inflamed by a passion for the beautiful Drusilla, a daughter of king Herod Agrippa, who was married to Azizus, king of Emesa, he employed one Simon, a magician, to use his arts in order to persuade her to forsake her husband and marry him, promising that if she would comply with his suit he would make her a happy woman. Drusilla, partly impelled by a desire to avoid the envy of her sister Berenice, was prevailed on to transgress the laws of her forefathers, and consented to a union with Felix. In this marriage a son was born, who was named Agrippa: both mother and son perished in an eruption of Mount Vesuvius;' which took place in the days of Titus Caesar (Josephus, Ant. 20:7, 2). With this adulteress was Felix seated when Paul reasoned before the judge, as already -stated (Acts 24:24). Another Drusilla is mentioned by Tacitus as being the wife (the first wife) of Felix. This woman was niece of Cleopatra and Antony. (See Drusilla). By this marriage Felix was connected with Claudius. Of his third wife nothing is known. (See Salden, De Felice et Drusilla, Amst. 1684).

Paul, being apprehended in Jerusalem, was sent by a letter from Claudius Lysias to Felix at Caesarea, where he was at first confined in Herod's judgment-hall till his accusers came. They arrived. Tertullus appeared as their spokesman, and had the audacity, in order to conciliate the good-will of Felix, to express gratitude on the part of the Jews, "seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence" (Acts 23, 24). Paul pleaded his cause in a worthy speech; and Felix, consigning the apostle to the custody of a centurion, ordered that he should have such liberty as the circumstances admitted, with permission that his acquaintance might see him and minister to his wants. This imprisonment the apostle suffered for a short period (not two years, as ordinarily supposed, that expression having reference to Felix's whole term of sole office), being left bound when Felix gave place to Festus (q.v.), as that unjust judge "was willing," not to do what was right, but "to show the Jews a pleasure" (Walch, De Felice procuratore, Jena, 1747; also in his Dissertt. in Act. iii, 29; Smith's Dictionary of Classical Biography, s.v.).

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

The name of five Popes:

ope from 269 to 274, said to have been a victim of the persecution of Aurelius;

ope from 356 to 357, the first anti-pope having been elected in place of the deposed Liberius who had declined to join in the persecution of Athanasius ( q. v .), was banished on the restoration of Liberius;

ope from 483 to 492, during his term of office the first schism between the Eastern and Western Churches took place;

ope from 526 to 530, was appointed by Theodoric in face of the determined opposition of both people and clergy;

ope from 1439 to 1449. See Amadeus Viii. .