Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 24:1

"And after five days the high priest Ananias came down with certain elders, and [with] an orator, one Tertullus; and they informed the governor against Paul." — Acts 24:1 (ASV)

After five days.—The interval may have just allowed time for messengers to go from Caesarea to Jerusalem, and for the priests to make their arrangements and engage their advocate. Possibly, however, the five days may start from Paul’s departure from Jerusalem, and this agrees, on the whole, better with the reckoning of the twelve days from the Apostle’s arrival there, in Acts 24:11.

Descended.—Better, came down, in accordance with the usage of modern English.

A certain orator named Tertullus.—Men of this class were to be found in most of the provincial towns of the Roman empire, ready to hold a brief for plaintiff or defendant, and bringing to bear the power of their glib eloquence, as well as their knowledge of Roman laws, on the mind of the judge.

There is not the slightest ground for supposing, as some have done, that the proceedings were conducted in Latin, and that while the chief priests were obliged to employ an advocate to speak in that language, Paul, who had never learned it, was able to speak at once by a special inspiration. Proceedings before a procurator of Judea and the provincials under him were almost of necessity, as in the case of our Lord and Pilate, in Greek.

Had Paul spoken in Latin, Luke, who records when he spoke in Hebrew (Acts 21:40) and when in Greek (Acts 21:37), was not likely to have passed the fact over; nor is there any evidence, even on that improbable assumption, that Paul himself, who was, we know, a Roman citizen, had no previous knowledge of the language. The strained hypothesis breaks down at every point.

The name of the orator may be noted as standing halfway between Tertius and Tertullianus.

Who informed the governor against Paul.—The word is a technical one and implies something of the nature of a formal indictment.