Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Acts Chapter 26

Acts 26:1. Paul stretched forth the hand,— Elsner shews this to have been esteemed at that time a very decent expression of earnestness in one who spoke in public; though some of the most illustrious Greek orators in earlier ages, as Pericles, Themistocles, Aristides, thought it a point of modesty to avoid it. But this was the effect of a false taste; and it is certain, that the prince of orators, Demosthenes, often made use of this gesture.

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Acts 26:3. Because I know thee to be expert— Agrippa must have had great advantages for an accurateacquaintance with the Jewish customs, from his education under his father Herod Agrippa, and from his long residence at Jerusalem; and agreeably to this, by the permission of the emperor, he had the direction of the sacred treasure, &c. See on ch. Acts 25:13.

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Acts 26:4. Which was at the first, &c.— Doddridge reads this, Which from the beginning (of my youth) was spent among those of mine own nation, &c. Probably he had in his childhood been brought up in the school of Tarsus, and there formed an acquaintance with Greek and Roman authors, till he entered on a kind of academical course under the celebrated Gamaliel, about the fifteenth or sixteenth year of his age, when he came to Jerusalem, and was there educated from the beginning of his youth.

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Acts 26:5. After the most straitest sect— The strictest sect. So Josephus, in a variety of places, calls the sect of the Pharisees, almost in the very words which the apostle uses. They were in many respects stricter than the Essenes. It appears from the gospels, that many rigorous severities were used by them. Compare Luke 18:11-12.Matthew 23:25-28; Matthew 23:25-28. We are told, among other instances of their rigour, that many of them used to sleep on narrow planks, that, falling down from them, they might soon be awakened to prayer; and that others lay on gravel, and placed thorns so near them, that they could not turn without being pricked by them. See Witsius's Meletem. 100: i, sect. 15.

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Acts 26:7. Unto which promise, &c.— Great numbers of the ten tribes returned with the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin from the Babylonish captivity, Ezra 6:16-17; Ezra 8:35. Luk 2:36 and many of them who did not return to the land of Canaan, did nevertheless entertain hopes of the coming of the Messiah, and of a resurrection and future state of happiness. See the note on Luke 20:38.

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Acts 26:8. Why should it be thought a thing incredible, &c.— Beza, with the Greek scholiast, would place a mark of interrogation after the word τι, and read it, What? is it thought incredible, &c.? which is indeed well suited to the animated manner of St. Paul's speaking.

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Acts 26:10. I gave my voice against them.— St. Paul had no vote in the sanhedrim, nor do we certainly know that he was personally concerned in the death of any except Stephen, in whose condemnation there was no voting at all. But the meaning plainly is, that he instigated the people against them as much as he could in that instance, and any other that might occur, whether at Jerusalem or elsewhere; which, as we hinted on ch. Act 22:4 might perhaps be more than are recorded. Accordingly the Syriac renders it, I joined with those who condemned them.

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Acts 26:11. Compelled them to blaspheme;— A known passage in Pliny, lib. 10: ep. 97 proves that the Heathen persecutors obliged Christians who fell under their trial, not only to renounce Christ, but also to curse him; and it appears from this passage, that the Jews imposed the like test upon them. See ch. Acts 22:19.

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Acts 26:12. Whereupon— That is, In this view as I was going to Damascus, &c.

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Acts 26:14. To kick against the pricks.— Or, Against the goad.

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Acts 26:17. Delivering thee from the people, &c.— "And thou shalt experience my gracious presence with thee, delivering thee from the rage and malice of the Jewish people; and also from the dangers which thou shalt encounter among the Gentiles, to whom I now send thee."

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Acts 26:18. To turn them— That they may turn, seems to be the sense of the original, which may properly be rendered thus, without the need of any supplement; and this will best agree with the construction, and with the sense in which the word επιστρεψαι is generally used in other places. See Act 26:20 ch. Act 9:35 Acts 11:21 Acts 15:19.

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Acts 26:21. The Jews—went about to kill me.— The proper import of the word διαχειρισασθαι is, to kill with their own hands; which was with peculiar propriety used here, as there was reason to apprehend that St. Paul would have been actuallypulled to pieces in another assembly, which was, as it seems, less numerous and less violent than that which seized him in the temple. See ch. Acts 23:10.

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Acts 26:22. Having therefore obtained help of God, &c.— "I impute it therefore to an extraordinary providence that I am yet alive, and publicly declare it with all thankfulness, that it is by having obtained help from God that I continue until this day; and I endeavour to employ my life to the purposes for which it is prolonged, resolutely and courageously testifying, both to small and great, as what is really a matter of the greatest concern both to the meanest and the most exalted of mankind, the way of salvation by Christ Jesus my Lord, &c."

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Acts 26:24. Paul, thou art beside thyself;— Thou art distracted, much study drives thee to madness. Perhaps Festus might know that St. Paul, in his present confinement, spent a great deal of time in reading; and this was the most discreet turn which could have been given to such a charge. Besides, it would appear quite absurd to Festus to hear St. Paul talk of a resurrection from the dead accomplished in Jesus as the first-fruits; or pretend that a person should come from the Jews, whom he looked upon as a barbarous nation, who should enlighten not only his own nation, but even the Gentiles too, and, among the rest, the polite and learned Romans and Greeks. This, in conjunction with what St. Paul had said of the manner in which it was revealed to him, would naturally lead such a half-thinker as Festus appears to have been, to conclude roundly thathe was a visionary enthusiast. Besides, religious topics to men of rank and fortune among the Heathens, were what they ever avoided; and thus it happened, that when St. Paul pleaded his cause before Festus, as well as before Felix, thoughhis discourse was altogether to the purpose, yet because it turned upon religious subjects, it presently tired the judges, and they would hear no more of it.

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Acts 26:25. But he said, I am not mad, &c.— This answer, in this connection, appears inexpressiblybeautiful; when great and good men, who meet with rude and insolent treatment in the defence of the gospel, (which is often the case,) behave with such moderation, it proves a great accession of strength to the Christian cause. The word σωφροσυνη, soberness, is with the strictest exactness opposed to μανια, madness.

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Acts 26:28. Almost thou persuadest me, &c.— There can be no doubt that these words were delivered in the most serious manner by Agrippa. It plainly appears by St. Paul's answer, and from the sense in which he there uses εν ολιγω, almost, in opposition to εν πολλω, altogether, that he understood him to mean seriously that he was almost persuaded, and consequently that he did indeed mean so. To explain the words as if he had meant, thou persuadest me to be almost a Christian, or to become an almost Christian, that is, a hypocritical professor, is quite foreign to the purpose; nor could Agrippa have any temptation to be so.

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Acts 26:29. And Paul said, I would to God, &c.— "When I consider this apostle (says that great enemy of Christianity himself—Lord Shaftesbury,) as appearing either before the witty Athenians, or the Roman court of Judicature, in the presence of their great men and ladies, I see how handsomely he accommodates himself to the apprehensions and temper of those politer people, &c." St. Paul is thought to have had his chain now wrapped about his own arm, and that he was not chained to a soldier while he stood before this grand and numerous audience.

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