Acts 25:19

Act_25:19

One Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

Christ alive, a subject of debate

I. Why was Christ, of all persons, the subject of so much observation and debate?

1. Because He claimed the very highest descent.

2. There were proofs embodied in His circumstances and character which none could or can deny, that were equal to His claims and secured unparalleled notableness to His name.

3. Because of the strange circumstances connected with His early history.

II. Why was there such emphasis laid upon the fact of His being alive? If alive--

1. The truthfulness of His character is confirmed.

3. The vital importance of His teaching is established.

3. The work He came to do was accomplished.

4. The success of His cause is assured. (D. Jones.)

The resurrection of Christ as viewed by the man of the world and by the earnest believer

One cannot fail to be struck with the contrast between the results produced by it in Festus and Paul. In the apostle belief in it had kindled a fire of all-sacrificing devotion, and braced him with a courage which no terrors could quell. But Festus received it with complete indifference. Had it been a question of politics or law, that keen judge would have brought all the power of his intellect to bear upon it; but because it referred to an unseen world he dismissed it without for a moment troubling himself to inquire whether it were false or true, and possibly wondered how a man gifted like Paul could waste his powers in proclaiming such an idle tale. Note, then, the aspect of Christs resurrection as viewed--

I. By the man of the world.

1. What is worldliness? The preference of the pleasurable to the right--the visible to the invisible--the transient to the everlasting. Hence the awful questions--What is God? What am I? What is beyond death? are passed by as dreamy and unprofitable questions. And that this was the temper of Festus we infer from the character of his age, and from his opinion of the insanity of Paul. The well-being of his province, the success of his policy, the vision of an old age crowned with wealth, and bright with the sunshine of the emperors favour--these were the great hopes of his soul.

2. To a man in that state the assertion of Paul would inevitably appear as an idle tale. From Pauls statement he would learn that Christ was--

(1) The Teacher of a new truth. But he knew that hatred, persecution, death, were generally the penalties for the proclamation of ideas the world could not understand, or which clashed with existing prejudices. Truth! What was that but an empty name; what enthusiasm and unselfishness but childish weakness?

(2) The Founder of a new religion. This again was a familiar story. Like most cultivated Romans, Festus has lost faith in all religions.

(3) A Revealer of supernatural worlds. If anything could waken his interest and suggest inquiry that would. But to a worldly mind the idea of immortality is dim. Its range of vision and sympathy is limited to the visible and tangible. When do we believe in immortality? When spiritual aspirations are stronger than bodily tendencies, or when sorrow has drawn the veil across earths attractions. From the same source it comes that the risen Christ is to thousands only one Jesus, etc. For to feel Christs resurrection as a power in life demands spiritual sympathy with Christ. The selfish cannot see the beauty of unselfishness, nor the sensual the beauty of purity.

II. By the earnest Christian. Turn from Festus to Paul. To him Christs resurrection was--

1. A sign of the Divinity of His teaching. He had come revealing a new world of truth, and He appealed to His future resurrection as a proof of that truth. He died, but had He not risen, His whole doctrine would have become meaningless. But He rose, and Heavens seal rested on His teaching. If this were false, Paul was indeed a dreamer; but it was true; hence his mighty zeal.

2. A witness to the perfection of His atonement. The question of the ages is, Who shall deliver us from the curse and burden of evil? But One came manifestly bearing this burden, and the only confirmation of the truth of His atonement lay in being able to bear it unconquered. Had He passed away in silence forever, Death would have conquered Him. But He rose and presented the perfect atonement in His own Person in heaven.

3. A pledge of the immortality of man. Man needs a living witness to a life beyond death. He has it in Christ. Paul had it: hence his all-consuming zeal. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)

The death and life of Jesus

I. Jesus died. In this we have--

1. A proof of His humanity. He paid the debt of human nature. Death passed upon all men, Himself not excepted.

2. An exhibition of human sin. Beyond this sin could not go. Diabolism here reached its climax.

3. An example of supreme self-sacrifice. Greater love hath no man than this, etc. But Christ died for His enemies.

4. A demonstration of Divine love. God commendeth, etc.

5. An atonement for the worlds guilt. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

6. An anodyne for the worlds sorrow. Death is robbed of its terrors when we remember that Jesus died. To suffer in fellowship with Christ is to glory in tribulations.

II. Jesus is alive. In this fact we have--

1. A proof of His Divinity. He is declared to be the Son of God with power by His resurrection.

2. An exhibition of His power. He has vanquished him who had the power of death.

3. A guarantee of His presence. Lo, I am with you alway.

4. A call to His service. He is Lord of the dead and the living.

5. Eternal hope--Because I live ye shall live also. (J. W. Burn.)

Jesus a living Saviour now

Standing in the crypt of the cathedral of St. Pauls in London your eye is attracted by a huge mass of porphyry, to gain which they searched the continent of Europe. They wanted something large, massive, grand. At length they came upon it in Cornwall, England. They cut it, shaped it, polished it, at last lifted it upon its plinth of Aberdeen granite, and dedicated it as the tomb of their grandest man. On one side you read, Arthur, Duke of Wellington, born May 1, 1769; died September 14, 1852. A great man was buried when they buried him. His hand had been for many a year on the helm of the British Empire. His influence remains, indeed, but his personality has departed. Pass beyond the Channel, and in Paris take your place beneath the golden dome of the Hotel des Invalides, and behold the most magnificent sepulchre in the world. You are gazing now at the burial place of Wellingtons chief antagonist. But Napoleon himself has gone. His influence remains, but he is not in the world. Him neither can France have in any way of personal presence. Go to Rome, stand for a moment under the encircling dome of the Pantheon. Raphael loved that majestic building, more majestic even than St. Peters. It was his wish that he might be buried there. Look! There on the wall it is written, Here is the tomb of Raphael. But Raphael is not there. You may gaze entranced upon his Transfiguration in the Vatican, you may be touched and softened as his wonderful Madonnas tell you the story of that virgin motherhood with its pains, its mysteries, its beatitudes. But Raphael was done with this world at thirty-seven. He puts colour no more to canvas. Everywhere in Rome you may see something that he has done; nowhere can you see anything that he is doing. His works last; he has gone forever. The great heroes, painters, poets, teachers--they have been; but, as to this world, they are no longer. They have gone elsewhere. They have carried their presence with them. They are memories, they are not presences. But Christ is a present, personal, living Saviour. (Christian Age.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 25:19. [Ζητήματα, questions) There is a great variety in questions. The most unimportant are often accounted as the most important, and the most important as the most unimportant. See that from your heart you estimate as of the highest importance questions concerning Jesus.—V. g.]—ἰδίας)—Truly the Jews seemed to the Gentiles to have something peculiar about them. Agrippa was not a Jew: otherwise Festus would not thus express himself to him. He was of the family of the Herods, an Idumean, a Proselyte; but, as usually happens in the case of great men, without any great zeal for religion. Festus therefore might have held Agrippa as a Gentile. Compare also ch. Act 26:27.—δεισιδαιμονίας, superstition religion) A word middle between a good and bad sense; it is sometimes employed in the former, but oftener in the latter sense.—περί τινος, concerning a certain Jesus) Thus the wretched Felix speaks concerning Him, to whom even knee shall bow. [If ye refuse to believe, ye mockers and despisers! who is that Certain One ye shall see with wailing and lamentation?—V. g.]—τεθνηκότος, dead) Festus either did not know or did not trouble himself about the cross (crucifixion of Jesus).—ζῇν, to be alive) He does truly live. This is no doubt true: not a fiction.—V. g.]

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 25:19 . ζητήματα … τινα : plural contemptuously (Weiss). δεισιδαιμονίας , see on Act 17:22 , “religion,” R.V.: in addressing a Jewish king Felix would not have used the term offensively, especially when we consider the official relation of Agrippa to the Jewish religion (see above, Act 25:13 ), but he may well have chosen the word because it was a neutral word ( verbum μέσον , Bengel) and did not commit him to anything definite. περί τινος Ἰ .: we note again the almost contemptuous, or at least indifferent, tone of Festus. At the same time this and the similar passage Act 18:15 are proofs of the candour of St. Luke in quoting testimonies of this kind from men of rank: in this “aristocratic ignorance of the Roman” Zeller sees a trait taken from life, so in Agrippa’s answer to Paul’s urgency, Act 26:28 . Festus does not even deign to mention the kind of death (but he accepts the fact of the death as certain); “ crucem aut nescivit, aut non curavit,” Bengel; see further Luckock, Footsteps of the Apostles as traced by St. Luke , ii., p. 269. ἔφασκεν : with the notion of groundless affirmation, “alleging”; see Page, in loco , and Meyer on Rom 1:22 (Rev 2:2 ). Blass and Knabenbauer take it as = dictitabat.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The profane and wicked take an occasion to condemn the true doctrine by reason of private controversies and contentions of men betwixt themselves: but the truth nevertheless abideth in the mean season safe and sure.

This profane man calleth the Jews’ religion, superstition, and that before king Agrippa, but no marvel: for the rulers of provinces by reason of the majesty of the empire of Rome, used to prefer themselves before kings.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

questions . . . of their own superstition--rather, "religion" (see on Act 17:22). It cannot be supposed that Festus would use the word in any discourteous sense in addressing his Jewish guest.

one Jesus--"Thus speaks this miserable Festus of Him to whom every knee shall bow" [BENGEL].

whom Paul affirmed--"kept affirming."

to be alive--showing that the resurrection of the Crucified One had been the burden, as usual, of Paul's pleading. The insignificance of the whole affair in the eyes of Festus is manifest.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 19. Questions - of their own superstition] Περι της ιδιας δειδιδαιμονιας; Questions concerning their own religion. Superstition meant something as bad among the Romans as it does among us; and is it likely that Festus, only a procurator, should thus speak to Agrippa, a KING, concerning his own religion? He could not have done so without offering the highest insult. The word δεισιδαιμονια must therefore simply mean religion-the national creed, and the national worship, as I have at large proved it to mean, in the observations at the end of Ac 17:34.

And of one Jesus, which was dead, &c.] In this way does this poor heathen speak of the death and resurrection of Christ! There are many who profess Christianity that do not appear to be much farther enlightened.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(19) Certain questions against him of their own superstition.—The word is of the same import as that used by St. Paul in Act_17:22 (where see Note), and the use here shows its comparatively neutral character. Festus was speaking to a Jewish king, and would not knowingly have used an offensive term. He falls back, accordingly, upon one which an outsider might use of any local religion which he did not himself accept. What follows shows that he looked on St. Paul as not merely affirming, with other Pharisees, the general doctrine of a resurrection, but as connecting it with the specific witness that Jesus had risen from the dead.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. of their own superstition [R. V. religion]. The noun used here is cognate to the adjective employed by St Paul in speaking to the Athenians (Act_17:22). It is a term which might be employed by any one without offence in speaking of a worship with which he did not agree. Addressing Agrippa, Festus would not wish to say a word that might annoy, any more than St Paul wished to irritate the Athenians by his speech.

of one Jesus] Neither in the hearing of the cause before Felix nor when Festus made his inquiry, does St Luke record any mention of the name of Jesus, but it is clear from the explanation here given that not only had Paul stated the doctrine of the Resurrection generally, which the Pharisees accepted, but had also asserted in proof of it that Jesus had risen and “become the firstfruits of them that sleep.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But had certain questions against him of their own superstition,.... Or religion; as about their law, which they said Paul had spoke against; and about their temple, which they pretended he had polluted; and about the resurrection of the dead, which he asserted, and some denied:

and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive; for it seems more was said on each side, than is recorded by Luke: the Jews objected to him among other things, his belief in Jesus of Nazareth, whom they traduced as an impostor and deceiver; Paul on the other hand argued, that he was the true Messiah; and in proof of it, affirmed that though they had put him to death, he was risen from the dead, and so was declared to be the Son of God with power: Festus, it is very likely, had never heard of Jesus before, and therefore speaks of him in this manner; or if he had, he had entertained a contemptible opinion of him, as well as of the Jewish religion; and which he expresses, even in the presence of the king, who had outwardly at least embraced it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

19 But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

Ver. 19. But had certain questions] See how basely this profane fellow speaketh of God’s true service. These cocks on the dunghill know not the price of that pearl, and do therefore avile it. They took occasion also from the contentions of the Church’s doctors, to condemn their doctrine. It was therefore a devilish device of Julian the Apostate, to call home those heterodox and heretical bishops that had been banished by Constantine, that they might embroil and darken the Church by their mutual discords among themselves, and so bring the Christian religion into disgrace.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But had certain questions - Certain inquiries, or litigated and disputed subjects; certain points of dispute in which they differed - ζητήματα τινα zētēmata tina.

Of their own superstition - δεισιδαιμονίας deisidaimonias. This word properly denotes “the worship or fear of demons”; but it was applied by the Greeks and Romans to the worship of their gods. It is the same word which is used in Act 17:22, where it is used in a good sense. See the notes on that place. There are two reasons for thinking that Festus used the word here in a good sense, and not in the sense in which we use the word “superstition”:

(1) It was the word by which the worship of the Greeks and Romans, and, therefore, of Festus himself, was denoted, and he would naturally use it in a similar sense in applying it to the Jews. He would describe their worship in such language as he was accustomed to use when speaking of religion.

(2) He knew that Agrippa was a Jew. Festus would not probably speak of the religion of his royal guest as superstition, but would speak of it with respect. He meant, therefore, to say simply that they had certain inquiries about their own religion, but accused him of no crime against the Roman laws.

And of one Jesus, which was dead - Greek: “of one dead Jesus.” It is evident that Festus had no belief that Jesus had been raised up, and in this he would expect that Agrippa would concur with him. Paul had admitted that Jesus had been put to death, but he maintained that he had been raised from the dead. As Festus did not believe this, he spoke of it with the utmost contempt. “They had a dispute about one dead Jesus, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.” In this manner a Roman magistrate could speak of this glorious truth of the Christian religion, and this shows the spirit with which the great mass of philosophers and statesmen regarded its doctrines.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Their own superstition.[3] Their particular religion, and manner of worshipping their God. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

De sua superstitione, Greek: peri tes idias deisidaimonias.

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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Superstition; so this heathen governor profanely calls the religion and worship of God’s own institution, and that in the presence of Agrippa and Bernice, who were both Jews, or, at least, brought up amongst them.

To be alive; to have been raised again from the dead; acknowledging, with them, that he had been indeed dead.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. Superstition—The same word as in Act_17:22, and capable of both a good and a bad sense.

One Jesus—The phraseology here indicates first that Jesus and the resurrection were debated at the interview, (Act_25:7-8,) and, second, that Festus listened with a very cool indifference.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Religion for superstition, A.V.; who for which, A.V. Certain questions zhthmata; Act_15:2 Act_18:15 Act_23:29, etc. Religion (deisidaimoni) seerouv, (Act_17:22, deisidaimoneste) 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 thv ijdiav deisidaimoniav his own superstition, Paul"s, which agrees with the context. These details must have been among those "complaints" spoken of in ver. 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.

Spiritual deprivation.

The translation which gives us the word superstition" in this verse of our English Version, cannot be accepted as conveying the meaning of Festus. He would not have spoken of that which was, at all events nominally, the religion of Agrippa, as a "superstition." We may safely adopt the ordinary word "religion a word, even from the Jews" point of view, little enough appreciated by a Roman official as found in the Revised Version. Great as was the practical injustice in some directions of Festus, for instance, in keeping Paul in prison; yet we cannot fail to note a certain truthfulness of his lip. He has already spoken sufficiently the acquittal of his prisoner. This he does again, privately, in conversation with Agrippa; and yet again tomorrow, without disguise, in the publicity of the open court. To that same lip it was also given to utter, at all events, the central truth about Jesus in his relation to men, however little he believed or understood it. We may notice here

I THE WIDE DISTANCE THAT SEPARATES THE MAN WHO HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF REVELATION FROM HIM WHO HAS SOME SUCH KNOWLEDGE. Presumably, Festus had not the slightest inclination to speak slightingly to Agrippa of the religion of the Jews of Jerusalem. But nevertheless his tone is that of a man who speaks of what is utterly unintelligible to him. A Roman"s worship was a strange thing; his religion a strange product under any circumstances perhaps in nothing so strange as in this disabling quality of them. But the phenomenon, after all, is most typical. It is typical of all those in their measure, i.e. the measure of their time and place in the whole world"s history, who are without true revelation. It shows these in the twofold aspect, and apparently contradictory aspects, of believing tar too much and far too little.

1. They believe far too much; for they are sure to construct their own superhuman and supernatural. They will have their own pantheon in some sort.

2. And they believe far too little; for the verities of the true revelation of the superhuman and supernatural they are most averse to receive. Be the account of this what it may, it is but the expression of the thing of perpetual recurrence. The domain so wide, so dreary, of superstition lies where ignorance of true revelation is the appointed signal for men to make the materials of revelation unreal and incongruous for themselves. "Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools," not less in what they accept than in what they reject. What a world of thought and feeling, of meaning and of truth, was shut off from Festus, as his present language betrays him! And what a world of thought and feeling, of meaning and of truth, is shut off from any man and every man who is destitute of true revelation! If it have not yet traveled to him, it is at present his mysterious lot. If it have, and he reject it, it is his undeniable folly and guilt. Religion and superstition are not differenced by one not introducing the supernatural, while the other does introduce it. They both introduce it, and they both earnestly believe in it. They are differenced in that the one acquaints with what things are real and which it concerns us to know, beyond the ken of mortal eye or reason; but the other offers us imaginations, perhaps in every grotesquest form, for truth and stones for bread.

II BRIEFLY EXPRESSED, THE VITAL FACT OF ALL CHRISTIAN TRUTH, OF ALL CHRISTIAN FAITH, OF ALL CHRISTIAN IMPULSE. "One Jesus, who was dead and whom," now no longer Paul alone, but a vast portion of the world, "affirms to be alive." It were past all his merit that it should be given to the lip of Festus to utter these words, the charter of our faith and hope and religion, that day, and to have them recorded as his. Yet there they were spoken by him, and here for ever they will lie. The dead and anon living One is the center of Christian faith, hope, love. It is the description he gives of himself: "I am he that liveth, and was dead, and, behold, I am alive for evermore". (Rev_1:18) Three perennial springs springs of heavenly truth and influence, issue out of these simplest and coldest words as uttered by Festus.

1. The death of Christ has

1. a meaning all its own;

2. a boundless fullness of meaning; an endless continuance of meaning.

2. The life of Christ, after his death, has a very luster of light for us, if we think of it simply for what it teaches us about himself. It proclaims him, when all is considered, different from any other, unique among men, Prince of life, Victor over death. These are his own dignities. He shines wonderful in the midst of them, did we all but worship far away in wonder and admiration but mystery lost.

3. That risen life, and what followed it the ascended life, have floods of joyful meaning for us, when we remember all that is distinctly revealed as involved in it for mankind and ourselves.

(1) He is every way to be trusted, since he has proved himself true herein.

(2) He gives us the life he has for himself.

(3) He is the very Specimen, the Earnest, the manifest First fruits of the life that shall be, for all them that sleep in him.

(4) He is even now, though invisible, somewhere surely, and mindful of his people, and watchful over them, their one ever-living sympathizing Mediator and High Priest.

(5) He lives above, waiting to receive, to judge, and then to bless his own people forever and ever. Yes, the vital germs of all the highest Christian hope and faith lie in the words of Festus. B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But had certain questions - How coldly does he mention the things of the last importance! And about one Jesus - Thus does Festus speak of Him, to whom every knee shall bow! Whom Paul affirmed to be alive - And was this a doubtful question? But why, O Festus, didst thou doubt concerning it? Only because thou didst not search into the evidence of it. Otherwise that evidence might have opened to thee, till it had grown up into full conviction; and thy illustrious prisoner have led thee into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

See notes on verse 14

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. περὶ τῆς ἰδίας δεισιδαιμονίας, concerning their own religion. Cf. St Paul’s use of the cognate adjective, when he was speaking to the Athenians. The word is one which might be employed without offence by any one in speaking of a worship with which he did not agree. Addressing Agrippa, Festus would not wish to say a word that might annoy, any more than St Paul wished to irritate the Athenians by his speech.

περί τινος Ἰησοῦ, concerning one Jesus. Neither in the hearing of the cause before Felix nor when Festus made his inquiry, does St Luke record any mention of the name of Jesus, but it is clear from the explanation here given that not only had Paul stated the doctrine of the Resurrection generally, which the Pharisees accepted, but had also asserted in proof of it that Jesus had risen and ‘become the firstfruits of them that sleep.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19.] δεισιδαιμ. is used by Festus in a middle sense, certainly not as = ‘superstition,’ E. V., speaking as he was to Agrippa, a Jew.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Superstition [δεισιδαιμονιας] . See on ch. Act 17:22. Better, religion, as Rev. As Agrippa was a Jew by religion, Festus would not have insulted him by applying the word superstition to his faith. Note, however, that he speaks of it as their own religion, not identifying Agrippa with them. It was a non - committal expression, since the word meant either religion or superstition according to circumstances. He left Agrippa "to take the word in a good sense, but reserved his own view, which was certainly the Roman one" (Meyer). There is, indeed, a similar tact in Paul 's use of the word to the Athenians. He selected "a word which almost imperceptibly shaded off from praise to blame" (Trench). 27 Affirmed [εφασκεν] . The imperfect implies something habitual. "Paul kept asserting."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.