Acts 26:14

See notes on Acts 9:7 and Acts 22:7, and reading above in β. τῇ Ἑβραΐδι διαλ.: this is intimated in Acts 9:4 and Acts 22:7 by the form Σαούλ, but here the words are inserted because Paul was speaking in Greek, or perhaps he spoke the solemn words, indelible in his memory, as they were uttered, in Hebrew, for Agrippa (Alford). σκληρόν σοι κ. τ. λ.: a proverb which finds expression both in Greek and in Latin literature (see instances in Wetstein): cf. Scholiast on Pind., Pyth., ii., 173: ἡ δὲ τροπὴ ἀπὸ τῶν βοῶν · τῶν γὰρ οἱ ἄτακτοι κατὰ τὴν γεωργίανκεντριζόμενοι ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀροῦντος, λακτίζουσι τὸ κέντρον καὶ μᾶλλον πλήττονται. Cf. also Aesch., Agam., 1633 (cf. Prom., 323), Eur., Bacch., 791, and in Latin, Terence, Phorm., i., 2, 27; Plautus, Truc., iv., 2, 59; and there may have been a similar proverb current among the Hebrews. Blass, Gram., pp. 5, 6, thinks that the introduction of the proverb on this occasion before Festus and Agrippa points to the culture which Paul possessed, and which he called into requisition in addressing an educated assembly. It is not wise to press too closely a proverbial saying with regard to Saul's state of mind before his conversion; the words may simply mean to intimate to him that it was a foolish and inefficacious effort to try to persecute Jesus in His followers, an effort which would only inflict deeper wounds upon himself, an effort as idle as that described by the Psalmist, Psalms 2:3-4. At all events Paul's statement here must be compared with his statements elsewhere, 1 Timothy 1:13; see Witness of the Epistles, p. 389 ff., and Bethge, Die Paulinischen Reden, p. 275.