TERTULLUS tər tūl’ əs (Τέρτυλλος, G5472, diminutive of Lat. tertiufs, third). The professional orator hired by the Jews to state their case against Paul before Felix, Rom. governor of Judea (Acts 24:1-9). He may have been a Rom., judging from his Lat. name, although Rom. names were common among Jews and Greeks; or he may have been a Jew, since he identifies himself with his clients. However, it is a lawyer’s custom to do so.

With traditional courtesy he began his clever rhetoric by flattering the governorship of Felix beyond the facts. He attributed the riot in Jerusalem to the agitation of Paul, ringleader of an illegal sect who was detained in custody by the Jews for trying to “profane the temple.” Paul was thus made out to be an enemy of the public peace and of Jewish religion, both of which Felix was charged to uphold. The speech of Tertullus should be compared with the factual account of Acts 21:27-40, with the letter of Lysias the tribune (Acts 23:26-30), and with the reserve of Paul’s reply (Acts 24:10-21).

Bibliography R. B. Rackham, The Acts of the Apostles, 14th ed. (1951), 442-444.