Acts 26:1

Acts 26:1. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. On this occasion Agrippa, invested with the royal dignity, although only a subject monarch, sat in the president's place during the hearing. He opens the proceedings; but it is noteworthy to observe that the king does not say, ‘I permit thee to speak' (ε ̓ πιτρε ́ πω), but, ‘Thou art permitted;' literally, ‘It is permitted thee' (ἐπιτπεται σοι), thus courteously remembering the presence of the Roman procurator, to whom really the power in Cæsarea and Jerusalem belonged. The prisoner Paul, it must not be forgotten, on this occasion was not pleading before his judges: the appeal to Cæsar, which had been allowed, had removed him from all provincial jurisdiction; he was simply here asked to give an account of the Nazarene or Christian faith, and to state what was the point at issue between him and the supreme council of the Sanhedrim, by whom he was considered unworthy to live.

Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself. This was a usual gesture on the part of the speaker, especially of one accustomed to address masses of men and public assemblies. Here the effect must have been impressive the hand was chained. ‘ He answered' with arguments not dissimilar at first sight to those used by him when he was arrested in the temple and he spoke to the Jews from the steps leading to the Antonia Tower. On both occasions he rehearses the marvellous story of the Divine appearance which led to his conversion to the faith of Jesus; but now he relates the history not with the view of asserting his own innocence of any of the charges alleged against him, but to show the grounds upon which he delivered his solemn message. He claims to be still a true, loyal Jew, for that the Christianity which he taught was but the realisation of the hopes set forth in the Old Testament prophets. Mr. Humphry well summarises the leading differences between the two speeches of the apostle in the following terms: On the steps of Antonia ‘he addressed the infuriated populace, and made his defence against the charges, with which he was hotly pressed, of profaning the temple and apostatising from the Mosaic law. He now passes by these accusations, and addressing himself to a more intelligent and dispassionate hearer, he takes the highest ground, and holds himself up as the apostle and messenger of God. With this view, therefore, he paints in more striking colours the awful scene of his conversion, and repeats more minutely that heavenly call which was impossible for him to disobey, and in obeying which, though he incurred the displeasure of his countrymen, he continued to receive the Divine support'(Acts 26:22).