FELIX.  Biblical.  [Latin = "happy"].  In Greek Φήλιξ.  Usage: America, Austria, England, Germany, Switzerland.

    A Roman who, about A.D. 53, was appointed by the Emperor Claudius procurator of Galilee, Samaria, Judaea, and Peraea, which together made up the whole of Palestine (Joseph., Antiq., XX. vii. § 1; Wars, II. xii. 8).  He seems to have obtained this appointment partly through the influence of his brother, Pallas, who was a great man at the court of Claudius.  Nero, the successor of Claudius, transferred four Galilean cities from Felix to Agrippa.  Felix's first effort was to put down the robbers who infested the land.  He was successful, and capturing many of them, crucified the ordinary sort, but sent their leader, Eleazar, to Rome (Wars, II. xiii. § 2).  Josephus charged him with having encouraged the robbers to murder Jonathan, the high priest, partly on whose recommendation he had been appointed by Claudius to the procuratorship.  The cause of quarrel was the fidelity with which Jonathan had given him good counsel regarding his government of the Jews.  The impunity with which this gross crime was treated by the Roman representative emboldened the robbers to become Sicarii, i.e. people who concealed daggers about their persons and, mingling with crowds, stabbed those to whom they had an antipathy (Antiq., XX. xiii § 5).  Next false prophets arose and led people in multitudes into the wilderness, where they were told God would "show them the signals of liberty."  No signals were, however, shown; and Felix, believing these wilderness gatherings to be the commencement of revolt, attacked the people present and slew them in large numbers (Wars, II. xiii. § 3, 4).  An Egyptian soon afterwards made his appearance as a prophet and led out to the Mount of Olives a great mob, under the pretence that they would see the walls of Jerusalem fall down, leaving them every facility for entering the city.  Felix attacked them with troops, slaying about 400, and taking about 200 more prisoners.  The Egyptian escaped from the ruin he had brought on others.  His insurrection was A.D. 55, and when about A.D. 60, five years later, the riot about St. Paul arose, Claudius Lysias, the Roman commandant at Jerusalem, seems to have half suspected that the Apostle was the Egyptian back again to excite fresh troubles (Acts xxi. 38; Josephus, Antiq., XX. xiii. 6).  Under Felix's administration also arose those collisions between the Jews and the Syrians at Caesarea which were destined to recur and help towards the ruin of the Jewish polity (§ 7; Wars, II. xiii. 7).  Felix, as already mentioned, was procurator when Paul was arrested at Jerusalem on the false charge of profaning the temple; and when to prevent the Apostle's assassination it was needful to send him to Caesarea, the letter explaining the case was written by Claudius Lysias to Felix, whose head-quarters were at Caesarea (Acts xxiii. 26).  When, after his accusers had come, his trial took place, Felix was the judge before whom the pleadings took place.  Mention is made of "his wife Drusilla which was a Jewess," who seems to have been present at a subsequent interview.  It was then that, as Paul "reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled" (Acts xxiv. 1-26).  No wonder.  Drusilla had been married to Azizus, king of Emesa, and Felix, who was fascinated by her beauty, had seduced her away from her rightful husband (Josephus, Antiq., XX. vii. § 1, 2).  But there was no real repentance for his sin.  The transgressor procrastinated and said to the Apostle, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season I will call for thee."  It does not appear that the convenient season ever came.  It is discreditable to Felix that, convinced as he evidently was of the Apostle's innocence, he failed to release him, hoping that his prisoner would bribe him to do that justice which it was his bounden duty to have granted without money and without price.  Disappointed as to the bribe, he still believed that he could make political capital out of the man of God by leaving him bound, to please the Jews.  This did not, however, prevent them complaining of him after he had ceased to be procurator and returned to Rome about A.D. 60 or 62.  They represented that he had not acted well in the Caesarean riots, and he would have been punished by Nero had not the powerful intercession of his brother Pallas, who was a favourite with the reigning emperor, as he had been with his predecessor, been exerted in his favour (Josephus, Antiq., XX. viii. 9).  He was succeeded in the procuratorship by Porcius Festus. [Festus.] (The Sunday School Teacher's Bible Manual, Hunter, 1894)