XXVI. (1) THEN PAUL STRETCHED FORTH THE HAND. — The characteristic attitude reminds us of Acts 21:40. Here it acquires a fresh pictorial vividness from the fact that St. Paul now stood before the court as a prisoner, with one arm, probably the left, chained to the soldier who kept guard over him. ... [ Continue Reading ]
I THINK MYSELF HAPPY, KING AGRIPPA. — We note the characteristic union of frankness and courtesy. He will not flatter a prince whose character, he must have known, did not deserve praise, but he recognises that it was well for him that he stood before one who was not ignorant of the relations of Sad... [ Continue Reading ]
EXPERT IN ALL CUSTOMS AND QUESTIONS. — The former word is used in its half-technical sense, as including all the precepts of the Law of Moses. (See Notes on Acts 6:14; Acts 21:21.)... [ Continue Reading ]
MY MANNER OF LIFE FROM MY YOUTH. — The Apostle refers, of course, to the time when he first came up to Jerusalem to study the Law and the traditions at the fees, of Gamaliel. (Comp. his account of the same period in Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:5.) KNOW ALL THE JEWS. — The noun seems to be used in... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER THE MOST STRAITEST SECT. — Better, _most rigid,_ or _most precise._ The Greek does not contain anything answering to the double superlative of the English. The word for “sect” is the same as that used in Acts 24:5, and translated “heresy” in Acts 24:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE HOPE OF THE PROMISE MADE OF GOD. The words include the whole expectation of a divine kingdom of which the Christ was to be the head, as well as the specific belief in a resurrection of the dead. UNTO OUR FATHERS. — Some of the better MSS. have simply, “to the fathers.” The Received text is,... [ Continue Reading ]
OUR TWELVE TRIBES. — The noun is strictly a neuter adjective: _our twelve-tribed nation._ It will be noted that St. Paul, like St. James (James 1:1), assumes the twelve tribes to be all alike sharers in the same hope of Israel, and ignores the legend, so often repeated and revived, that the ten trib... [ Continue Reading ]
WHY SHOULD IT BE THOUGHT A THING INCREDIBLE...? — Some MSS. give a punctuation which alters the structure of the sentence: _What! is it thought a thing incredible_... _?_ The appeal is made to Agrippa as accepting the sacred books of Israel, in which instances of a resurrection were recorded (1 King... [ Continue Reading ]
I VERILY THOUGHT WITH MYSELF... — The words have a tone of considerate sympathy and hope. He himself had been led from unbelief to faith; he will not despair of a like transition for others, even for Agrippa. (Comp. 1 Timothy 1:12.) On the relation of this account of the Apostle’s conversion to prev... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY OF THE SAINTS DID I SHUT UP IN PRISON. — The use of the term as applied to the believers in Christ (see Note on Acts 9:13) is remarkable as an example of courage. In the presence of Agrippa, St. Paul does not shrink from speaking of them as the “holy ones” of God’s people Israel — what the Chas... [ Continue Reading ]
COMPELLED THEM TO BLASPHEME. — The verb is in the imperfect tense, which may express either continued or incomplete action. It does not follow, therefore, that any of the believers yielded to the pressure; and the words may be paraphrased, _I went on trying to compel them._ BEING EXCEEDINGLY MAD AG... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH AUTHORITY AND COMMISSION. — The former word implies the general power delegated to him, the latter the specific work assigned to him, and for the execution of which he was responsible.... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS HARD FOR THEE TO KICK AGAINST THE PRICKS. — See Note on Acts 9:5. Here there is no doubt as to the genuineness of the reading.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT RISE, AND STAND UPON THY FEET. — The report of the words heard by the Apostle is much fuller than in either Acts 9:11 or Acts 22:10, and may fairly be thought of as embodying what followed on the actual words so recorded, the substance of “the visions and revelations of the Lord” (2 Corinthians... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THE GENTILES, UNTO WHOM NOW I SEND THEE. — The distinct mission to the Gentiles seems, in Acts 22:21, to be connected with the trance in the Temple, three years after the conversion. Galatians 1:15, however, agrees with what we find hero in connecting it with the very time when the Son of God w... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT. — The words gain a fresh interest if we think of them as corresponding with the Apostle’s own recovery from blindness. The imagery, though naturally common throughout Scripture, taking its place among the earliest and most widely received of the parables of the spiritual life... [ Continue Reading ]
I WAS NOT DISOBEDIENT. — Literally, _I did not become disobedient._ The language of the Apostle is significant in its bearing on the relations of God’s grace and man’s freedom. Even here, with the “vessel of election” (Acts 9:15) “constrained” by the love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14), there was th... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT SHEWED... — The verb is in the tense which sums up a long-continued activity, and stands in the Greek after the enumeration of those to whom the Apostle preached: _But first to them of Damascus_... _and to the Gentiles I went on showing_... THROUGHOUT ALL THE COASTS OF JUDÆA, AND THEN TO THE GE... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THESE CAUSES... — Better, perhaps, _on account of these things._ With this brief touch, avoiding any elaborate vindication of his own character, St. Paul indicates the real cause of the hostility of the Jews. The one unpardonable sin, in their eyes, was that he taught the Gentiles that they migh... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVING THEREFORE OBTAINED HELP OF GOD. — The Greek noun for “help” is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. It implies the kind of assistance which one friend or ally gives to another of inferior power. It is found in the Greek of Wis. 13:18. Here the word seems used as being more intelligible to... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT CHRIST SHOULD SUFFER. — Literally, _that the Christ was passible_ — _i.e.,_ capable of suffering. The great body of the Jews had fixed their thoughts only on the prophetic visions of the glories of the Messiah’s kingdom. Even the disciples of Jesus were slow to receive any other thought than th... [ Continue Reading ]
FESTUS SAID WITH A LOUD VOICE. — The description may be noted as one of the touches of vividness indicating that the writer relates what he had actually heard. The Roman governor forgot the usual dignity of his office, and burst, apparently, into a loud laugh of scorn. MUCH LEARNING DOTH MAKE THEE M... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM NOT MAD, MOST NOBLE FESTUS. — There is something characteristic in the union of a calm protest with the courtesy which gives to rulers the honour which is their due. Comp. the use of the same word by Tertullus (Acts 24:3). The painful experience of Acts 23:3 had, we may well believe, taught the... [ Continue Reading ]
I AM PERSUADED THAT NONE OF THESE THINGS ARE HIDDEN FROM HIM. — The appeal to Agrippa’s knowledge is two-fold. He knew that Moses and the prophets had spoken of the great Prophet and Deliverer whom the Jews knew as the Christ. He knew also that for more than a quarter of a century there had been com... [ Continue Reading ]
BELIEVEST THOU THE PROPHETS? — The appeal to Agrippa’s knowledge was followed by the assumption of his accepting the ground on which St. Paul invited discussion. He might, of course, dispute St. Paul’s interpretation of prophecy, but he could not, as a Jew, in the presence of other Jews, speak of th... [ Continue Reading ]
ALMOST THOU PERSUADEST ME TO BE A CHRISTIAN. — At the cost of giving up a familiar and impressive text, it must be admitted that the Greek words cannot possibly bear the meaning which is thus put upon them. The words run literally, _In,_ or _with, a little thou persuadest me;_ and this may be comple... [ Continue Reading ]
I WOULD TO GOD THAT NOT ONLY THOU... — It is clear that here also the English “almost” must be abandoned, and that we must take the words _in a little or in a great_ (_measure_)_,_ or, _with little labour and with great,_ as corresponding with what Agrippa had just said. Grammatically the words admi... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN HE HAD THUS SPOKEN, THE KING ROSE UP... — The act indicated, as far as it went, that the Apostle’s words had made a favourable impression. This, they felt, was no common criminal, no fomenter of sedition. The question how he was to be dealt with was one that called for serious consideration... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS MAN DOETH NOTHING WORTHY OF DEATH OR OF BONDS. — St. Luke obviously dwells on the witness thus given to St. Paul’s innocence. To us, knowing him as we do, the anxiety to record the witness seems superfluous; but it was not so when the historian wrote. The charge of what we should call lawless a... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS MAN MIGHT HAVE BEEN SET AT LIBERTY... — The decision to which Agrippa came showed the wisdom of the line which St. Paul had taken. The matter could not be hushed up nor got rid of. The authorities could not now free themselves from responsibility for the safe custody of the prisoner, and, by re... [ Continue Reading ]