24:6 Who also hath gone about to profane the temple. This false charge is repeated, because this was the cry when Paul was seized (Ac 21:28). Note that there are three charges: (1) That Paul was the author of sedition; (2) preached an unlawful religion (Ac 24:5); (3) profaned the temple. The penalty of the last by Jewish law was death, and the Romans usually permitted it to be enforced.
Whom we took, and would have judged. This part of the sixth verse, all of the seventh, and the first clause of the eighth, are not found in the Revised Version, or the best MSS.
24:1-9 See here the unhappiness of great men, and a great unhappiness it is, to have their services praised beyond measure, and never to be faithfully told of their faults; hereby they are hardened and encouraged in evil, like Felix. God's prophets were charged with being troublers of the land, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that he perverted the nation; the very same charges were brought against Paul. The selfish and evil passions of men urge them forward, and the graces and power of speech, too often have been used to mislead and prejudice men against the truth. How different will the characters of Paul and Felix appear at the day of judgement, from what they are represented in the speech of Tertullus! Let not Christians value the applause, or be troubled at the revilings of ungodly men, who represent the vilest of the human race almost as gods, and the excellent of the earth as pestilences and movers of sedition.
