For Teaching

Acts 26: What the Passage Says

111 claims across 32 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Acts 26 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul makes his defense before King Agrippa, the Roman governor Festus, and Bernice. He describes his upbringing as a Pharisee, his campaign against the followers of Jesus, and the light and the voice he met on the road to Damascus, along with the assignment he says he was given there. Festus calls him insane, and Paul turns to Agrippa and asks whether he believes the prophets. After the hearing the officials agree that Paul has done nothing deserving death or prison, and Agrippa tells Festus he could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar.

Claim by Claim

26:1
- Agrippa said to Paul that he was permitted to speak for himself.
- Paul stretched out his hand.
- Paul made his defense.
26:2
- Paul addressed Agrippa as king.
- Paul said he considered himself fortunate.
- Paul said he was about to defend himself that day before Agrippa.
- Paul said the defense concerned all the things of which he was accused by the Jews.
26:3
- Paul said Agrippa was expert in all the customs and disputed questions among the Jews.
- Paul begged Agrippa to hear him patiently.
26:4
- Paul said all the Jews knew his manner of life from his youth.
- Paul said that life was lived from the beginning among his own nation and at Jerusalem.
26:5
- Paul said the Jews had known him from the beginning.
- Paul said they could testify if they were willing.
- Paul said he had lived as a Pharisee.
- Paul said the sect he followed was the strictest sect of their religion.
26:6
- Paul said he stood and was being judged for the hope of a promise.
- Paul said God made that promise to their fathers.
26:7
- Paul said their twelve tribes hoped to attain that promise.
- Paul said the twelve tribes served God earnestly night and day.
- Paul said he was accused by the Jews for the sake of that hope.
- Paul addressed Agrippa as king.
26:8
- Paul asked why it should be judged incredible among them that God raises the dead.
26:9
- Paul said he had thought within himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
26:10
- Paul said he did this in Jerusalem.
- Paul said he shut up many of the saints in prison.
- Paul said he had received authority from the chief priests.
- Paul said that when they were put to death he cast his vote against them.
26:11
- Paul said he punished them often in every synagogue.
- Paul said he compelled them to blaspheme.
- Paul said he was exceedingly enraged against them.
- Paul said he persecuted them even as far as foreign cities.
26:12
- Paul said he was going to Damascus in this pursuit.
- Paul said he went with authority and commission from the chief priests.
26:13
- Paul said it was midday.
- Paul addressed Agrippa as king.
- Paul said he saw a light from heaven on the road.
- Paul said the light was brighter than the sun.
- Paul said the light shone around him and those journeying with him.
26:14
- Paul said they all fell to the ground.
- Paul said he heard a voice speaking to him.
- Paul said the voice spoke in the Hebrew language.
- Paul said the voice called him Saul, Saul.
- Paul said the voice asked why he was persecuting it.
- Paul said the voice told him it was hard for him to kick against the goads.
26:15
- Paul said he asked who the speaker was, calling him Lord.
- Paul said the Lord answered that he was Jesus.
- Paul said the Lord said Paul was persecuting him.
26:16
- Jesus told Paul to rise and stand on his feet.
- Jesus said he had appeared to Paul for this purpose.
- Jesus said it was to appoint Paul a servant and a witness.
- Jesus said Paul would witness of the things he had seen.
- Jesus said Paul would witness of the things in which Jesus would appear to him.
26:17
- Jesus said he would deliver Paul from the people.
- Jesus said he would deliver Paul from the Gentiles.
- Jesus said he was sending Paul to them.
26:18
- Jesus said Paul was sent to open their eyes.
- Jesus said Paul was sent to turn them from darkness to light.
- Jesus said Paul was sent to turn them from the power of Satan to God.
- Jesus said this was so that they might receive forgiveness of sins.
- Jesus said this was so that they might receive an inheritance among those who are sanctified.
- Jesus said that sanctification is by faith in him.
26:19
- Paul addressed Agrippa as king.
- Paul said he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
26:20
- Paul said he declared his message first to those in Damascus.
- Paul said he declared it at Jerusalem.
- Paul said he declared it throughout all the region of Judaea.
- Paul said he declared it to the Gentiles.
- Paul said he told them to repent.
- Paul said he told them to turn to God.
- Paul said he told them to do works worthy of repentance.
26:21
- Paul said the Jews seized him in the temple for these reasons.
- Paul said they tried to kill him.
26:22
- Paul said he had obtained help from God.
- Paul said he had continued to this day.
- Paul said he was testifying to small and great alike.
- Paul said he said nothing other than what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass.
26:23
- Paul said the prophets and Moses said that the Christ would suffer.
- Paul said they said he would be the first to rise from the dead.
- Paul said they said he would proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles.
26:24
- Festus spoke while Paul was making this defense.
- Festus spoke with a loud voice.
- Festus said Paul was out of his mind.
- Festus said Paul's great learning was driving him to madness.
26:25
- Paul said he was not mad.
- Paul addressed Festus as most noble.
- Paul said he was speaking words of truth and soberness.
26:26
- Paul said the king knew about these things.
- Paul said he spoke freely to the king.
- Paul said he was persuaded that none of these things was hidden from the king.
- Paul said this thing was not done in a corner.
26:27
- Paul asked King Agrippa whether he believed the prophets.
- Paul said he knew that Agrippa believed.
26:28
- Agrippa spoke to Paul.
- Agrippa said Paul was persuading him to become a Christian with little, which is ambiguous between a short time and a small degree.
- It is ambiguous whether Agrippa's words are a statement or a question.
26:29
- Paul said he would pray to God.
- Paul said his wish covered both little and much, whether of time or degree.
- Paul said his wish was not only for Agrippa but for all who heard him that day.
- Paul said he wished them to become such as he was.
- Paul excepted his bonds from that wish.
26:30
- Paul had finished speaking.
- The king rose up.
- The governor rose up.
- Bernice rose up.
- Those who sat with them rose up.
26:31
- They withdrew.
- They talked with one another.
- They said this man did nothing worthy of death or of bonds.
26:32
- Agrippa spoke to Festus.
- Agrippa said this man could have been set free.
- Agrippa said the release was prevented because the man had appealed to Caesar.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

26:1: Agrippa is Herod Agrippa II, the last ruling member of the Herod family. Rome had given him a kingdom north and east of Judea, plus the right to appoint the Jewish high priest and oversee the Jerusalem temple, which is why Festus wanted his read on a Jewish case. Stretching out the hand was the conventional gesture of a speaker opening a formal address.
26:2: "I think myself happy" uses happy in its older sense of fortunate or favored by circumstance, not cheerful. Opening a speech by complimenting the presiding official was standard practice in Roman courts.
26:3: "Questions" here means disputed issues argued among Jews, such as the resurrection of the dead or the authority of oral tradition, not questions in the sense of things asked.
26:5: A Pharisee belonged to a party within Judaism known for strict observance of the law of Moses and the traditions built up around it; Pharisees also held that the dead would be raised. "Straitest" means strictest: strait meant narrow or tight, and has nothing to do with straight.
26:6: "Our fathers" means the ancestors of Israel, Abraham and those after him, to whom the promises recorded in the Hebrew scriptures were made.
26:7: The twelve tribes were the descendants of Jacob's twelve sons, and naming them was a standard way of saying the whole Jewish nation. "Instantly" in the King James does not mean immediately; it means intently, with persistent effort.
26:8: "Incredible" is used in its literal older sense: not able to be believed.
26:9: Acting "contrary to the name of Jesus" means acting against everything attached to that name: his claim to be Messiah, and the people who called on him. In this period the name stands for the person and the movement together.
26:10: "Saints" translates a word meaning holy ones or those set apart. In the New Testament it is an ordinary word for members of the group as a whole, not a title for a few exceptional people. The chief priests were the leading priestly families who ran the temple and made up the core of the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem. "I gave my voice against them" means I cast a vote; whether Paul is describing an actual vote in a formal court or simply his expressed approval is debated.
26:11: Synagogues had authority to discipline their own members, including by flogging. To "blaspheme" is to speak insultingly of God or sacred things; forcing that speech meant pressing the accused to renounce the name they had confessed.
26:12: Damascus lay about 135 miles northeast of Jerusalem, in Syria, and had a large Jewish population. The trip took roughly a week.
26:13: Noon is when the sun is at its strongest, so a light outshining it is the point of the detail. Travelers in that climate often rested at midday rather than walking.
26:14: "The Hebrew tongue" covers both Hebrew and Aramaic, the closely related everyday language of Jews in Judea; Aramaic is what is usually meant. "Pricks" are goads, pointed sticks used to drive oxen. An animal that kicked back at the goad only drove the point in harder. The saying was a well-worn proverb in Greek writing for fighting a force stronger than yourself.
26:16: "Minister" in the King James means a servant or attendant, not a member of the clergy in the modern sense.
26:17: Gentiles means everyone who is not Jewish. The English word comes through Latin from a word for the nations, the standard Jewish term for all other peoples. "The people" in the same verse means Paul's own people, the Jews.
26:18: Satan means the adversary or accuser. "Inheritance" carries the image of an allotted share of land, as the tribes of Israel each received a portion; "sanctified" means set apart or made holy.
26:19: Paul saw and heard Jesus while he was wide awake. People called that a vision.
26:20: "Coasts" in the King James means borders or territory and has nothing to do with the sea. "Works meet for repentance" means deeds that are fitting or suitable to it: meet is an old adjective meaning appropriate. Repentance itself means a turning around, a change of mind that redirects behavior.
26:21: The temple in Jerusalem had an outer court open to anyone and inner courts barred to non-Jews on pain of death. Paul was seized in the outer court on the accusation that he had brought a Gentile past that barrier.
26:22: "Small and great" is a standard idiom for people of low and high standing, meaning everyone alike.
26:23: "Christ" is a title, not a surname. It is the Greek word for anointed one and translates the Hebrew word Messiah.
26:24: Festus is Porcius Festus, the Roman governor of the province of Judea, who was holding Paul in custody at Caesarea. "Beside thyself" means out of your mind. The "much learning" is Paul's study of the scriptures and other books.
26:25: "Most noble" renders a formal term of address for a Roman official of rank, closer to your excellency than to a compliment. "Soberness" here means soundness of mind and self-control; it does not refer to drink.
26:26: "Not done in a corner" was a common expression, in both ordinary speech and Greek philosophy, for something carried out in the open where anyone could see it.
26:27: "The prophets" means the prophetic books of the Hebrew scriptures, which Agrippa as a ruler over Jewish affairs would be expected to accept.
26:28: The Greek here is compressed and genuinely disputed. The phrase behind "almost" literally means "in little" or "with little", which can be taken as in a short time, with little effort, or almost. The King James reads it as a sincere near persuasion; most modern translations read it as a question about the shortness of the time, and the tone could be earnest, wry, or dismissive.
26:29: "I would to God" means I wish, or I pray. The "bonds" are the chains Paul is wearing as a prisoner in Roman custody.
26:30: Bernice was Agrippa's sister. She lived in his household and appeared publicly at his side as his consort would, an arrangement Roman writers gossiped about.
26:31: "Bonds" here means imprisonment in chains, the sentence short of death.
26:32: A Roman citizen could appeal his case to the emperor's own court. Once the appeal was formally lodged, a provincial governor no longer had the authority to release the prisoner or decide the case himself; it had to go to Rome.

Read Acts 26