- Φῆλιξ
- Φῆλιξ, ικος, ὁ (ins: Sb 4601, 3 [144 A.D.]; APF II 442 no. 56, 9 [II A.D.]; POxf 3, 1 [142 A.D.]; POxy 800 [153 A.D.]; Joseph. index; Just., A I, 29, 2f; on the accent B-D-F §13; Mlt-H. 57) Antonius Felix, a freedman of the House of the Claudians and brother of Pallas, the favorite of the Emperor Claudius. In 52/53 A.D. F. became procurator of Palestine. The year of his removal is in dispute (s. Schürer I, 465, 42; ESchwartz, NGG 1907, 284ff), but was in the neighborhood of 60. The infamous character of his administration helped to lay the ground for the revolt of 66–70 (per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit, ‘he revelled in cruelty and lust, and wielded the power of a king with the mind of a slave’: Tacitus, Hist. 5, 9). Ac 23:24, 26; 24:3, 22, 24f, 27; 25:14.—Zahn, Einl. II3 647ff; Schürer I, 460ff; Pauly-W. I 2616–18; EMeyer III 47ff; BHHW I 469; Haenchen index.—On the question whether Pilate (s. Πιλᾶτος and Πόντιος), Felix, and Festus were procurators (s. ἐπίτροπος 1) or prefects (s. ἔπαρχος) see the Lat. ins from Caesarea discovered and first publ. by AFrova, Istituto Lombardo Rendiconti 95, ’61 (see also Schürer I, 358 note 22, and 359), which officially refers to Pilate as prefect. A probability is that by the time of Felix and Festus this was officially changed to procurator. The terms were sometimes used interchangeably.—Hemer, Acts 171–73; HTajra, The Trial of St. Paul ’89, 125–34.—M-M.
Ελληνικά-Αγγλικά παλαιοχριστιανική Λογοτεχνία. 2015.