Acts 25:19 - Expostion

Religion for superstition, A.V.; who for which, A.V. Certain questions ζήτηματα ); Acts 15:2 ; Acts 18:15 ; Acts 23:29 , etc. Religion ( δεισιδαιμονία ) ; see Acts 17:22 , δεισιδαιμονεστέρους , where there is the same doubt as here whether to take it in a good sense or a bad one. Here, as Festus, a man of the world, was speaking to a king who was a Jew, he is not likely to have intended to use an offensive phrase. So it is best to render it "religion," as the R.V. does. But Bishop Wordsworth renders τῆς ἰδίας δεισιδαιμονίας his own superstition, Paul's, which agrees with the context. These details must have been among those "complaints" spoken of in Acts 17:7 . Whom Paul affirmed to be alive . Notice the stress constantly laid by the apostle upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. If his own superstition is the right rendering, we have here the nature of it, in Festus's view, belief in the resurrection of Jesus.