Acts 26:5

προγιν. με : knowing me beforehand, i.e., ἄνωθεν, from the beginning of my public education in Jerusalem. προγ.: twice elsewhere by Paul, Romans 8:29; Romans 11:2, also in 1 Peter 1:20; 2 Peter 3:17. For ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς and ἅνωθεν cf. Luke 1:2-3, and for the former also 2 Thessalonians 2:13. ἀκριβ.: “the straitest sect,” R.V., on the double accusative in A.V. see Humphry, Commentary on R.V. For this classical form, the only instance of a superlative in - τατος in N.T., see especially Blass, u. s., cf. Acts 26:4; on the term in its close connection with Pharisaism cf. Jos., B.J., i., 5, 2; Ant., xvii., 2, 4, and references above on Acts 22:3. Their “straitness” included not only observance and interpretation of the Mosaic law, but also of the whole παράδοσις τῶν πρεσβυτέρων. αἵρεσιγ, see on Acts 5:17, the word in the sense of “a sect” was rightly applied to the exclusiveness of Pharisaism as in the N.T., cf. Acts 15:5, and in Jos., cf. Vita, 38. θρησκείας : “ cultus religionis, potissimum externus,” Grimm, so here and in the other places where it occurs in N.T., Colossians 2:18; James 1:26-27; twice in Wisdom, Wis 14:18; Wis 14:27, of the worship of idols; in Sir 22:5 the reading is doubtful; in 4Ma 5:6; 4Ma 5:13, of the religion of the Jews. The instances of its use both in Philo and Josephus show that it was plainly, distinguished from εὐσεβεία and ὁσιότης. Thus it is contrasted with the latter by Philo, Quod det. potiori insid., c. 7: θρησκείαν ἀντὶ ὁσιότητος ἡγούμενος; and in Josephus it is frequently used of the public worship of God, worship in its external aspect, cf. Ant., ix., 13, 3; xii., 5, 4; v., 10, 1; xii., 6, 2. It was therefore a very natural word for St. Paul to use, and it is not necessary to suppose that he did so merely for the sake of Festus and the Romans (Blass), although the word was used of one mode of worship when contrasted with another; see further Hatch, Essays in B.G., p. 55; Trench, Synonyms, i., p. 200, and Mayor on James 1:26. φαρισαῖος : emphatic at the end, expressing the “straitest sect” by name, cf. Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:5-6.