Bible Lexicons

Φῆλιξ (Lachmann Φῆλιξ (so Tr in Acts 24:22 (by mistake?)); cf. Lipsius, Grammat. Untersuch., p. 37; Buttmann, 13 (12); (Tdf. Proleg., p. 104; and references under the word κῆρυξ)) (literally, 'happy', 'fortunate'), Φήλικος, ὁ (Claudius (but in Tacitus, hist. 5, 9 called Antonius)) Felix, the eleventh procurator of Judaea (apparently between A.D. 52 and 60). He was a freedman of Claudius and his mother Antonia, and the brother of Pallas, the powerful favorite of the emperor. He first married Drusilla ((?) see Dict. of Greek and Rom. Biogr. under the word, 4), the granddaughter of Cleopatra and Antony; and afterward Drusilla, the daughter of Derod Agrippa. According to Tacitus, "per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit," and by his cruelty and injustice he stimulated the rage of the turbulent Jews against the Roman rule. When he had retired from the province and come to Rome, the Jews of Caesarea accused him before the emperor, but through the intercession of his brother Pallas he was acquitted by Nero (cf. Tacitus, hist. 5, 9, 5f; annal. 12, 54; Suetonius, vit. Claudii, 28; Josephus, Antiquities 20, 7, 1f and 8, 5f; 7, 9; b. j. 2, 13): Acts 23:24, 26; Acts 24:3, 22, 24f, 27; Acts 25:14. Cf. Winers RWB, under the word; Paret in Herzog iv. 354; (V. Schmidt in Herzog edition 2, iv. 518f); Overbeck in Schenkel ii., 263f; Schürer, Neutest. Zeitgesch., p. 303f § 19, 4; (Farrar, St. Paul, chapter xli.).