Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!” Acts 26:24

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It is another verse that is rather difficult to translate directly. More literally, and with a newly coined word to get the sense, it reads, “And he, defending himself by these, Festus said with a loud voice, ‘You are maniacizing Paul! Your great letters turn you to mania.’”

Putting the previous verse with this one will provide clarity on the subject, “that passable, the Christ. That first from dead – resurrection – He is come to preach light to both our people and the Gentiles. And he, defending himself by these, Festus said with a loud voice, ‘You are maniacizing Paul! Your great letters turn you to mania.’”

Note: The word “maniacizing” didn’t exist until this translation was made. It is a present verbal form of maniac to match the Greek.

Paul was speaking of the human nature of Jesus the Christ, noting that He was passable or capable of suffering. In that human nature, he died but was the first to rise from the dead. It is concerning this line of speaking that Luke refers to Paul with the words, “And he, defending himself by these.”

The meaning is that in the process of speaking out what would otherwise seem absolutely incredible, because it is beyond anyone’s common understanding, that he is interrupted. Luke notes that, “Festus said with a loud voice.”

In other words, Festus had been listening up to this point, probably enjoying Paul’s words, even if he wasn’t on the same page with him. But when Paul spoke concerning the resurrection from the dead, he could no longer contain himself and simply blurted out his next words, “You are maniacizing Paul!”

The words are those of an eyewitness testimony. Luke was probably there in attendance, but if he wasn’t, we can still imagine Paul and him laughing over the response of Festus as Paul brought the memory back to words.

If Luke was not present at the time, the animation of Paul’s words was still enough for Luke to perfectly describe the scene. As Festus is sitting in judgment, it seems almost ridiculous that he would burst out in the way he has. It would be just like a judge yelling at a defendant, “You’re nuts.”

Although he may think these things about people while sitting in judgment, it isn’t a common or expected type of reaction. It would even show that an unfavorable judgment could be the result, simply because of his own bias against Paul’s argument. Regardless of this, the words are blurted out, and the reason for them is given as well, “Your great letters turn you to mania.’”

The word translated as letters is gramma. It signifies that which is drawn or written down. Thus, a letter. We use the same term today when we say something like, “He is a man of many letters.” The same word is used in John 7:15 to speak of Jesus’ great learning as well. Here, it is in the neuter plural, and therefore it gives the idea of the cumulative body of writings which Paul studied.

Festus may have known that the Jews held fast to their sacred writings as no other people, even more so than the highly educated Greeks. The Greeks were in the habit of studying but also writing. The Jews claimed that what they read wasn’t their own writings, but the writings of God. Therefore, they were studiers first and foremost of that which they claimed was divine.

Festus may have known this, and his conclusion was that Paul had gone over the deep end in studying, finding things in the writings which he mentally converted into an obsession and then insanity. Paul had spoken the very words that these writings proclaimed (verses 22, 23), but Festus was unable to accept what he proclaimed.

Although his comments were limited, it is apparent that the words of 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 rang true in Festus’s case. What Paul saw as logical, reasonable, and fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ, Festus saw as both incredible and mentally unsound. He surely thought that Paul had, as it were, been overwhelmed through study.

It is of interest that Paul never makes an appeal to either Greek reason or intellect in this speech as he did in Acts 17:25. Instead, he has spoken only of what can be derived from Scripture and which would keep him legally within the confines of a sub-sect of Judaism (religio licita).

As a brain squiggle, the word translated as “mania” is from the noun mania. That is derived from the verb form also used in this verse and translated as “maniacizing.” It is only used here in the New Testament. It is, of course, the basis for our modern term “mania.”

Life application: There is a duality in the final acts of the finished work of Christ. There is the cross, and then there is the resurrection. Neither is a stand-alone act. The cross without the resurrection would be a pointless sacrifice. The resurrection is an unintelligible event unless it is preceded by the atoning death of Christ.

Sin is the problem. People are spiritually dead because of sin. People then physically die apart from Christ because that sin problem is not corrected. Christ was crucified, becoming an atoning sacrifice for the sins of man. But if Christ did not resurrect, it would mean that either He died in His own sin or that the sins of those He died for stuck to Him, tainting Him with their sin. Either way, the act would have been futile.

But because He had no sin, and because He was able to fully atone for the sins of others, their sin is removed from them forever. His body was the offering that made this possible. In Acts 2, Peter says of Jesus that “it was not possible that He should be held by” death. As the wages of sin is death, and as He had no sin, death could not hold Him. But more, because His perfection was fully sufficient to atone for our sin, death could not hold Him by that either.

Thus, it is an absolute proof that those who are saved will forever remain saved. In coming to Christ, our sin is once and forever immediately atoned for. There is no sin beyond the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood. To claim that would then be to claim that Jesus’ sacrifice was insufficient to purify. Such cannot be the case! All hail the glorious name of Jesus. Hooray for Jesus!

Lord God, we thank You for what occurred in the giving of Your Son for our sin. Jesus! It is all about Jesus. Forgive us for making our lives and thoughts about us. We are merely the recipients of the gracious work that You have accomplished through Jesus Christ our Lord! Amen.