Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 18:71 (Jul 1861)
Article: Some Remarks On An Expression In Acts 25:26. —A Monograph
Author: Theodore Dwight Woolsey

BSac 18:71 (July 1861) p. 595

Some Remarks On An Expression In Acts 25:26. —A Monograph

Rev. Theodore Dwight Woolsey

The words “of whom I have no certain thing to write τῷ κυρίῳ,” suggest the inquiry whether a Roman official, like Festus, when speaking of the emperor, could, in conformity with Roman usage about the year 60 of our era, have uttered the words τῷ κυρίω, which are here attributed to him. This inquiry has not been overlooked or unan-

BSac 18:71 (July 1861) p. 596

swered. We name only among the commentators on the scriptures, Wetstein, in his edition of the New Testament, as having furnished a valuable collection of materials for a satisfactory answer; and, among other writers, Lipsius, in an excursus on the Annals of Tacitus, ii. 87, and Zell, in his Röm. Epigraphik, as having elucidated a parallel use of dominus. We propose to go into this inquiry at greater length than others within our knowledge have done, with the result, as we hope, of setting forth the accuracy of the evangelist Luke.

The first question to be answered in considering these words is: Whether Luke wishes to represent Festus as talking in the Roman or in the Oriental style. On the latter supposition, he might, one may say, attribute to the procurator, without any accurate knowledge of the usages of speech prevailing among Roman gentlemen, expressions similar to those which he met with in the Septuagint; or again, Festus, adopting a more Oriental style than was his wont at home in Italy, and accommodating himself to his companion king Agrippa, might call the emperor κύριος, when he would not call him dominus at Rome. This latter part of the alternative, however, seems too refined; if any one chooses to adopt it, he will, of course, rate the accuracy of Luke highly. It is natural enough to suppose that Romans of rank accommodated themselves in a degree to eastern forms of address, while living in the eastern parts of the empire; but if it can be shown that the use of dominus and of κύριος, as titles of the emperor, went along together, this of itself will be good proof that Festus in these words was talking as a Roman would. The Greeks employed αὐτοκράτωρ as an equivalent of imperator; they also used βασιλεύς; of the emperor, while the Romans, for reasons obvious from their history, were avoiding rex. But we shall endeavor soon to show that the two agreed in the use of the title κύριος and dominus, in whatsoever part of the empire this use may have originated.

But migh...