Acts · WEB-C
Acts
26
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Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense. See also: Acts 9:15Acts 26:2Proverbs 1:24“I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you today concerning all the things the Jews accuse me of, especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently. See also: Acts 6:14Acts 26:26Acts 24:4“Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem; See also: Galatians 1:13Acts 22:3Philippians 3:5having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. See also: Acts 23:6Acts 22:3Acts 22:5Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers, See also: Titus 2:13Acts 28:20Daniel 7:13-14which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa! See also: James 1:1Philippians 3:111 Timothy 5:5Why is it judged incredible with you if God does raise the dead? See also: 1 Corinthians 15:12-20Acts 4:2Acts 17:31-32“I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. See also: 1 Timothy 1:13Acts 22:8Philippians 3:6I also did this in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them. See also: Acts 8:3Acts 9:21Acts 9:13-14Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. See also: Matthew 10:17Acts 22:19Acts 13:45“Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests, See also: Acts 9:1-8Acts 26:10Acts 22:5-11at noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me. See also: Revelation 21:23Revelation 1:16Matthew 17:2When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ See also: Acts 21:40Acts 22:2Acts 9:7“I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. See also: John 15:20-21Matthew 25:45Exodus 16:8But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will reveal to you; See also: Acts 22:14-15Daniel 10:11Ezekiel 2:1delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, See also: Acts 9:151 Timothy 2:7Jeremiah 1:19to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ See also: 1 Peter 2:9Ephesians 1:18Acts 20:32“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, See also: Isaiah 50:5Ezekiel 2:7-8Galatians 1:16but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. See also: Acts 3:19Matthew 3:82 Timothy 2:25-26For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. See also: Acts 21:30-31Acts 21:27Acts 23:12-15Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen, See also: John 5:46Acts 24:14Romans 3:21how the Christ must suffer, and how, by the resurrection of the dead, he would be first to proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles.” See also: Isaiah 53:1-12Luke 24:26Colossians 1:18As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!” See also: 1 Corinthians 2:13-141 Corinthians 1:232 Corinthians 5:13But he said, “I am not crazy, most excellent Festus, but boldly declare words of truth and reasonableness. See also: Acts 23:26Titus 2:7-8Titus 1:9For the king knows of these things, to whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him, for this has not been done in a corner. See also: Acts 26:2-3Acts 2:1-12Matthew 27:29-54King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” See also: Acts 26:22-23Agrippa said to Paul, “With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Christian?” See also: Matthew 10:18Acts 11:26James 1:23-24Paul said, “I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me today, might become such as I am, except for these bonds.” See also: Ephesians 6:20Acts 21:33Colossians 1:28The king rose up with the governor and Bernice, and those who sat with them. See also: Acts 18:15Acts 28:22Acts 25:23When they had withdrawn, they spoke to one another, saying, “This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds.” See also: Acts 23:29Acts 23:9Acts 28:18Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” See also: Acts 28:18Acts 25:11-12Acts 25:25
See also: Cross references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), derived in part from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
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Notes · Haydock (1859, public domain)13 notes
Notes in English 19th-century Catholic commentary by Fr. George Leo Haydock, shown as published.
These notes keep the polemics of their time: some speak harshly of the Jewish people or of other Christians. The Church teaches otherwise today. The Jewish people may not be blamed for the death of Christ (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597–598), and Christians of other communities are our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Unitatis Redintegratio 3). Christian unity
Acts 26:1
Ver. 1. S. Paul having obtained liberty of speaking, stretches out his right hand, disengaged from his cloak. We must recollect that S. Paul still bore his chains about him, those chains in which he gloried; (v. 26.) it is therefore necessary to suppose that his left hand only was tied; or, what is less likely, that these chains were not so tight nor heavy as to hinder the easy motion of the right. It is observed by Apuleius, that orators in this action closed the two shorter fingers, and had the others extended. Calmet.
↑ 1Acts 26:5
Ver. 5. According to the most sure sect.[1] In the Greek, the most exact or approved: for such was esteemed that of the Pharisees. Wi.
↑ 5Acts 26:6
Ver. 6. For the hope of the promise. That is, of the promised Messias, and of salvation by him. Wi.
↑ 6Acts 26:8
Ver. 8. He speaks now to the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection. Can you say it is impossible for Him, whom you all allow to be omnipotent, to raise any of the dead to life? Is it not easier to reanimate a body, whose parts are dissolved by death, than create what had no existence? "And why should He, who daily from the corrupted seed brings forth plants, leaves, wood, not be able to call back into their primitive state the flesh and bones from the dust into which they have been dissolved." S. Greg. hom. xxvi. in Evang.
↑ 8Acts 26:10
Ver. 10. I brought the sentence.[2] That is, from those who in the great council were judges of life and death, to those officers who were to put the sentence in execution. This seems to be the sense of these words, rather than, I voted, or gave my voice in condemning them; for we have no grounds to think S. Paul was one of the council, or of the judges. Wi.
↑ 10Acts 26:14
Ver. 14. It is generally supposed that S. Paul addresses king Agrippa in the Greek language, which was the common tongue of a great part of the East. V.
↑ 14Acts 26:16
Ver. 16. Wherein I will appear to thee. From whence interpreters take notice, that Christ divers times appeared to S. Paul to reveal things to him. Wi.
↑ 16Acts 26:17
Ver. 17. Delivering thee, &c. That is, from many attempts, both of the Jews and Gentiles, against thee. Wi.
↑ 17Acts 26:18
Ver. 18. That they may be converted from the darkness of error to the light of the gospel, and from the power of Satan to the liberty of the children of God.
↑ 18Acts 26:23
Ver. 23. That Christ should suffer, &c. Lit. if Christ be passible. If, here is expounded not as implying a condition, but as an affirmation; so that the sense is, that Christ, according to the predictions of the prophets, was to suffer, was to be the first that should rise from the dead, &c. Wi. — First, &c.
Many had been raised from the dead before Jesus; the child of the widow of Sarepta, Lazarus, and others. How, then, is Jesus first? He is the first who rises not to die again; and as such the Messias is always represented by the prophets. Others were raised from the dead, but returned again to their graves.
Jesus dies no more. He is the first too who raises himself. Calmet.
↑ 23Acts 26:24
Ver. 24. It is not surprising that Festus should have taken S. Paul for a madman. The resurrection of the dead, remission of sins, receiving baptism, and faith, announcing light to the nations, &c. were subjects completely unintelligible to a Roman. To a Jew the terms were customary and common.
The eloquence and manner in which he spoke on these subjects, might shew him to be a man of great learning.
↑ 24Acts 26:28
Ver. 28. In a little thou persuadest me to become a Christian. According to the common exposition, Agrippa speaks in a jest, and ironically; and as for the words, they are the same as, thou almost persuadest me, &c. Wi.
↑ 28Acts 26:29
Ver. 29. Except these chains. That is, I heartily wish all men in the same condition as myself, not only to be prisoners as I am, but to be Christians, as I am. Wi.
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[1] V. 5. Certissimam, akribestaten, accuratissimam.
[2] V. 10. Ego sententiam detuli, katenegka psephon, calculum, suffragium. It was the custom for judges to give their votes either by taking up a white or a black stone: that it, a white stone, if the persons judged were found not guilty, and a black stone, if guilty: so Ovid,
Mos erat antiquis niveis, atrisque lapillis,
His damnare reos, illis absolvere culpa.
— So that psephos was a lapillus, or a little stone made use of in giving sentence, and from thence taken for the sentence itself.
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↑ 29License: Notes by Fr. George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), from the Douay-Rheims Bible with Haydock's commentary (first ed. Thomas Haydock, Manchester/Dublin, 1811–1814; New York: Edward Dunigan & Brother, 1859); New Testament notes compiled with Fr. Benedict Rayment. Public domain. Digital text: "The Haydock Bible", Internet Archive (archive.org/details/TheHaydockBible), uploaded 2011 under the Public Domain Mark. · Credits and licenses