Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Monday, August 19, 2013 Read – Acts 23:24-27 Luke now provides a fascinating piece of information to his readers. Felix’s wife is a woman named Drusilla. Luke tells us she is a Jew, but there is far more to say about her. We learn from Josephus that Drusilla is Felix’s third wife. His first wife had been the grand-daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. His second wife was unknown to Josephus. At the time Felix married Drusilla, he was about 55 years old – she was 16. She was also the daughter of Herod Agrippa, the king who had ruled over Judea, Samaria, and Galilee from about 40-44 AD. This Herod was the one who failed to renounce the claim of the people that he was a god and was struck down by God for his arrogance. As we will learn shortly, Drusilla was the sister of two other characters who will appear in Luke’s story, Bernice and Herod Agrippa the second, both also children of Herod Agrippa the first. (Again, there are just too many Herods!) All of this adds intrigue to the story. It is a real soap opera in some ways. All of this helps us to grasp the interwoven relationship between the Romans and the Jews – at least at the higher political levels. This is not a clean little story of well minded people. It is a tragic, complex, and fascinating story of intrigue at the highest levels and how all of that influenced the lives of both Jews and Christians. Luke tells us that Felix and Drusilla were delighted to enter often into conversation with Paul. It is a story that sounds something like the story Mark tells us of Herod Antipas delighting in listening to John the Baptist when he was in prison (Mark 6:20) – a story Luke dropped out of his gospel at this point even though he was otherwise following Mark’s story. Luke tells us that Felix both feared and could not resist talking to Paul. Of course Luke also tells us that Felix hoped to receive a bribe from Paul or Paul’s friends which reveals the sinister and corrupt ruler Felix really was. Josephus and Tacitus likely were correct in their descriptions of Felix. One can only wonder how conversations about “justice, self-control, and the coming judgment” went between Paul, Drusilla, and Felix. Luke tells us two years passed by before Felix was replaced by the next procurator, Porcius Festus. In the Roman legal system, the statute of limitations for a crime was two years. For a second time Roman justice should have led Felix to free Paul. First his accusers failed to appear and now the statute of limitations had expired. Felix does not provide justice for Paul. Instead he plays his hand toward the Jews by granting them the favor of leaving Paul in prison. Luke is building a case for the innocence of Paul – just as he built the case for the innocence of Jesus. Neither was guilty of the crimes they were accused of committing, and neither received the Roman justice they deserved. Readers of Luke’s gospel will recall that three times Pontius Pilate declared Jesus to be innocent, and at the point of his death the centurion declares, “Truly this man was innocent” (Luke 23:47)! Perhaps Luke’s first readers were suffering persecution and part of Luke’s reason for writing his gospel was to argue that they are innocent too.