Acts 26:3

Acts 26:3. Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Agrippa II., singularly enough, was especially fitted to act as judge in such a cause as that of Paul, accused of treason to the religion and sacred law of his forefathers; for he was not merely a ruler of Jewish lands, and the appointed guardian of the Jerusalem temple, but was also in religion, professedly at least, a Jew. His father, Herod Agrippa I., was famous for his rigid observance of all Jewish customs and rites, and prided himself upon his connection with the chosen people. The young sovereign himself was well versed in the law and the prophets, and even in the more abstruse traditions of the Fathers. The rabbinic writers speak of him as having attained a more than ordinary knowledge of these matters, as having even excelled in a knowledge of the law, and, as it has been well urged by Dr. Hackett, ‘as the traditions which these rabbinic writers follow, who thus speak of King Agrippa II., could not have flowed from this passage, it confirms the representation here by an unexpected agreement.'