Acts 26

Paul stands before King Agrippa and tells his story: a zealous Pharisee, a fierce persecutor, then a man struck down on the Damascus road and sent by the risen Jesus to the nations. He insists he is preaching only what Moses and the prophets foretold. The chapter ends with Agrippa’s half-serious question, Paul’s heartfelt wish, and the verdict that Paul is innocent.

Acts 26:1

Agrippa gives Paul the floor. Paul raises his hand in the usual gesture of an orator and begins his defense. He is a prisoner, yet he treats the hearing as an opportunity to speak about Christ.

BSA: permission (“are permitted, allowed”): Paul speaks only by the king’s leave, yet God is using that leave to carry the gospel to the powerful.

Greek: ἀπελογεῖτο (apelogeito, G626) — “he made his defense.” This is the root of our word ‘apologetics’. It means answering a charge, and Paul turns his answer into a witness.

Acts 26:2-3

Paul courteously says he is glad to answer before Agrippa, because the king knows Jewish customs and disputes. Agrippa is a rare judge who can understand what this quarrel is really about. Paul asks only for a patient hearing.

BSA: fortunate (“blessed, happy”): Paul counts it a privilege, not a burden, to have such an informed listener. patiently (“with forbearance”): He asks the king to bear with a long answer and not cut him short.

Acts 26:4-5

Paul’s early life was no secret. Jews in Jerusalem had watched him grow up as a Pharisee, the strictest party of the faith. He was no outsider or rebel. He was a man deeply loyal to his people’s religion.

BSA: strictest (“most exact, precise”): The Pharisees were known for careful, detailed obedience to the Law.

See also: Philippians 3:5-6; Galatians 1:13-14.

Acts 26:6-7

Paul’s real offense is his hope: God’s promise to Israel’s fathers of a Messiah and a resurrection. All twelve tribes long for it as they worship day and night. Paul says he is on trial for believing what Israel itself has always hoped for.

BSA: earnestly (“with intense devotion, constantly”): Israel’s worship was meant to be wholehearted and unceasing, driven by this hope.

Greek: ἐκτενείᾳ (ekteneia, G1616) — “intensely, with stretching effort.” The word pictures a person stretched out in earnest effort. It describes Israel’s worship as straining toward the promise.

See also: Acts 23:6.

Acts 26:8

Paul turns to the whole audience with a sharp question. If God made the universe, why should it be unbelievable that He raises the dead? The whole dispute rests here, because the resurrection of Jesus is where Paul’s hope became fact.

BSA: raises (“brings back to life, resurrects”): This is God actually restoring the dead to life, not merely a comforting idea.

See also: Acts 24:15.

Acts 26:9-11

Paul admits he once opposed Jesus with all his strength. He jailed believers, voted for their deaths, had them beaten in synagogues, and pressed them to curse Christ. He pursued them even abroad. He tells this to show how great the change in him was.

BSA: name (“character, authority”): To fight the name of Jesus was to fight everything He is and claims. saints (“holy ones, set apart”): The believers he jailed were people set apart for God, though he saw them as dangerous.

Greek: ψῆφον (psēphon, G5586) — “a pebble used as a vote.” In the ancient world votes were cast with small stones. Paul says he dropped his stone against Christians, so he shared the guilt of their deaths.

See also: Acts 8:3; 1 Timothy 1:13.

Acts 26:11

Paul’s anger is shown as near madness. The word he uses for his rage is the same family as the word Festus later uses against him. Paul had once been the truly frenzied one, and Christ had made him sane.

Greek: ἐμμαινόμενος (emmainomenos, G1693) — “raging madly.” It comes from the word for being mad. Paul calls his old persecuting zeal a kind of insanity, which makes Festus’s later charge in verse 24 ironic.

Acts 26:12-13

On the Damascus road, at midday, a light from heaven shone brighter than the sun. The brilliance fell on Paul and everyone with him. This was no dream in the night. God broke into broad daylight and stopped him in the middle of his mission.

BSA: light (“brilliant radiance”): The glory was so intense that it outshone the desert noon sun.

See also: Acts 9:3-4; Acts 22:6.

Acts 26:14

All fell to the ground, and Jesus spoke in Hebrew, calling ‘Saul, Saul’. To persecute His people is to persecute Him. The goad, a sharp pointed stick for driving oxen, pictures Paul struggling against a pressure he could not win against.

BSA: goads (“pricks, sharp points”): An ox that kicks a goad only hurts itself, so resisting Christ wounds the resister.

Greek: κέντρα (kentra, G2759) — “goads, sharp prods.” This was the stick a farmer used to steer oxen. Jesus suggests that Paul’s conscience was already being pricked and that he was fighting it.

See also: Acts 9:4-5.

Acts 26:15

Paul asks who is speaking, and the answer is stunning: ‘I am Jesus.’ The one Paul thought dead and discredited is alive and Lord. Jesus also says He is united with His people, so what is done to them is done to Him.

See also: Matthew 25:40.

Acts 26:16

Jesus raises Paul to his feet and gives him a commission. He is to be a servant and witness of what he has seen and what Jesus will yet show him. Paul’s calling is to tell what he has really experienced, not to invent a message.

BSA: witness (“one who sees or experiences something and can testify to it”): A witness speaks from firsthand knowledge, and Paul had actually seen the risen Lord.

Greek: ὑπηρέτην (hypēretēn, G5257) — “servant, assistant.” The word originally described an under-rower on a ship, one who rowed at his master’s command. Paul is placed under Christ’s direction.

Acts 26:17

Jesus promises to rescue Paul from his own people and from the Gentiles, and then sends him to both. The mission will bring danger, but the one who sends him also promises to protect him.

BSA: rescue (“delivering, saving”): Christ’s rescue means protection on the way, not an easy road.

Acts 26:18

This verse sums up the gospel as Paul preaches it. People are blind, in darkness, and under Satan’s power. Christ opens their eyes and brings them to light and to God. They receive forgiveness and a place among God’s holy people, all by faith in Jesus.

BSA: sanctified (“made holy, set apart”): Believers are set apart for God as His own people.

Greek: ἡγιασμένοις (hēgiasmenois, G37) — “those who have been made holy.” It is a completed action. God has already set these people apart for Himself, and that is the inheritance they share.

See also: Colossians 1:12-14; Isaiah 42:6-7.

Acts 26:19-20

Paul says he could not disobey the heavenly vision. He preached first in Damascus and Jerusalem, then through Judea, then to the Gentiles. His message was repentance, turning to God, and a changed life to prove it.

BSA: repent (“change their mind, turn away from sin”): Repentance begins as a changed mind and ends as a changed direction.

Greek: μετανοεῖν (metanoein, G3340) — “to change one’s mind.” It means a deep change of thinking that leads to a changed life. Paul adds that deeds must be worthy of it, so repentance shows in how a person lives.

See also: Matthew 3:8.

Acts 26:21

This is why Paul was seized in the temple. Preaching a message that included Gentiles stirred such rage that a mob tried to kill him. He was not charged for any crime. He was attacked for obeying God’s call.

See also: Acts 21:27-31.

Acts 26:22-23

Paul says God has kept him to this day, and he testifies to all, great and small. His message adds nothing new: the Messiah would suffer, rise first from the dead, and bring light to Jews and Gentiles. That is exactly what Moses and the prophets said.

BSA: help (“assistance, aid”): Paul credits God alone for his survival through every plot against him. Christ (“Messiah, anointed one”): The title shows that Jesus is the long-promised King, and that His suffering was foretold.

See also: Luke 24:44-46; Isaiah 49:6; 1 Corinthians 15:20.

Acts 26:24

Festus, a Roman who knows little of Jewish hopes, interrupts loudly. To him, talk of resurrection and a suffering Messiah sounds like madness caused by too much study. People still often misjudge the gospel this way.

BSA: insane (“mad, beside yourself”): Festus thinks Paul has lost his mind.

Greek: μαίνῃ (mainē, G3105) — “you are mad.” It is the word for raving madness. Paul had used the same root for his own old fury in verse 11.

Acts 26:25

Paul answers politely and firmly. He is not mad. His words are true and sound-minded. The gospel is not a fantasy but real events, spoken clearly by a man in his right mind.

BSA: sobriety (“mental soundness, sanity”): Paul claims a clear, level head, not wild excitement.

Greek: σωφροσύνης (sōphrosynēs, G4997) — “soundness of mind, self-control.” It describes a mind that is steady and sensible. Paul says faith in Christ does not make a person unbalanced.

Acts 26:26

Paul turns back to the king. Agrippa knows of the life, death and claims of Jesus, because these events were public and widely talked about. A hidden corner is not where the gospel happened, and it can stand up to inquiry.

BSA: corner (“secretly, privately”): Nothing about Jesus was a secret affair, so any honest listener can examine it.

Acts 26:27

Paul presses Agrippa gently but directly: Do you believe the prophets? Agrippa was Jewish by faith, and Paul says he knows the king does. If the prophets are true, Jesus fulfills them, so the question becomes personal.

See also: Acts 26:22-23.

Acts 26:28

Agrippa’s reply may be sincere, wondering, or sarcastic. Either way, he sees where Paul is leading. The name ‘Christian’ was still new and was often used by outsiders. Agrippa feels the pull of a decision and sidesteps it.

BSA: Christian (“a follower of Christ, disciple of Jesus”): The word marks someone who belongs to Christ and follows Him.

Greek: Χριστιανόν (Christianon, G5546) — “a Christ-follower.” The ending means ‘belonging to’, so the word marks one who belongs to Christ. It appears only a few times in the New Testament.

See also: Acts 11:26.

Acts 26:29

Paul answers with warmth, not triumph. He prays that Agrippa and everyone listening may share what he has found in Christ, whether quickly or slowly. He wishes them everything except the chains. Even while a prisoner, he longs for others to be free.

BSA: chains (“bonds, shackles, restraints”): Paul holds up his chains as a reminder that the faith he offers has cost him dearly, yet he calls it a treasure.

Acts 26:30-32

The king, governor and Bernice leave and agree among themselves that Paul is innocent. Agrippa notes he could have been freed had he not appealed to Caesar. Paul’s innocence is clear, yet God’s plan will carry him to Rome, as He had promised.

See also: Acts 25:11; Acts 23:11.