Rulers of Judea in Paul's Time.
ON the death of king Herod Agrippa, Judea being again reduced to a Roman province, the government of it was confided to Antonius Felix; who had originally been the slave, then the freedman of Nero, and, through the influence of his brother Pallas, also a freedman of that emperor, was raised to the dignity of procurator of Judea. He liberated that country from banditti and impostors (the very worthy deeds alluded to by Tertullus, Acts 24:2); but he was in other respects a cruel and avaricious governor, incontinent, intemperate, and unjust. So oppressive at length did his administration become, that the Jews accused him before Nero, and it was only through the powerful interposition of Pallas that Felix escaped condign punishment. His third wife was Drusilla, a Jewish princess. It was before these persons that St. Paul, with singular propriety, reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come. (Acts 24:25.) On the resignation of Felix, A. D. 60, the government of Judea was committed to Portius Festus, before whom Paul defended himself against the accusations of the Jews (Acts 25), and appealed from his tribunal to that of Cæsar. Finding his province overrun with robbers and murderers, Festus strenuously exerted himself in suppressing their outrages. He died in Judea about the year 62. The situation of the Jews under the two above-mentioned procurators was truly deplorable. Distracted by tumults, excited on various occasions, their country was overrun with robbers that plundered all the villages whose inhabitants refused to listen to their persuasions to shake off the Roman yoke. Justice was sold to the highest bidder; and even the sacred office of high priest was exposed to sale. But, of all the procurators, no one abused his power more than Gessius Florus, a cruel and sanguinary governor, and so extremely avaricious that he shared with the robbers in their booty, and allowed them to follow their nefarious practices with impunity. Hence considerable numbers of the wretched Jews, with their families, abandoned their native country; while those who remained, being driven to desperation, took up arms against the Romans, and thus commenced that war, which terminated in the destruction of Judea and the taking away of their name and nation.—Horne's Introduction.