The Bible Says
Acts 26:1-8 Meaning

In Acts 26:1-8, Paul will begin to tell his testimony to King Agrippa II, his sister Bernice, and a crowd of Roman commanders and elite citizens of Caesarea.

King Agrippa II had come to Caesarea to meet the new governor, Festus. After hearing about Paul’s imprisonment and appeal to go to Caesar, Agrippa II requested to hear Paul speak. The following day, an audience of nobility and men of import assembled in the auditorium for this hearing.

Paul had appealed to Caesar to avoid being transferred back to Jerusalem, where the Jewish leaders planned to have him killed.

At this hearing, Festus introduced Paul, explaining that he has not been able to determine what to write to Caesar about this prisoner regarding his case, since he does not understand the hostility directed toward Paul’s religious beliefs.

King Agrippa II prompts Paul to begin: Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself” (v. 1).

There will be no interrogation or prosecution. This is not a formal trial nor is it a debate. Paul is simply being permitted to speak for himself.

Paul complies: Then Paul stretched out his hand and proceeded to make his defense: (v. 1)

That Paul stretched out his hand as he began his speech was common in the first century; hand gestures were utilized by orators when speaking to crowds. With the stage yielded to him, Paul proceeded to make his defense. He is not giving a defense in the sense that he is on trial, because he has already appealed to Caesar, and now no Roman court can decide his case other than the Emperor in Rome.

But Paul will successfully argue for his own innocence. He is going to state his case to the earthly king of his own people-the Jews. In arguing his own case he will also argue for the gospel, which is his actual priority. Paul already made clear that he did not value his life, but only obedience to the cause of Christ (Acts 20:24).

Additionally, a large crowd of Caesarea’s elite has gathered in the auditorium to hear Paul testify on his own behalf. Both high-ranking Roman commanders and the prominent men of the city were in attendance. There were possibly also Jews in attendance, accompanying their Jewish king Agrippa II (Acts 25:23).

Paul’s attitude is positive at this opportunity to explain himself and what he believes. He is not only going to defend his actions, but will preach with the hope of persuading his audience toward faith in Jesus Christ. Paul’s purpose in life is to preach the gospel, which he undertook on all occasions willingly and boldly (Acts 9:20, 17:2-3, 22, 20:20-21, Romans 1:14-16, 1 Corinthians 9:16-18). In his letter to the Philippian church, Paul explains that even though some people were preaching the gospel with sinful motivations, he rejoiced that the gospel was being preached.

Paul begins his defense to Agrippa II with a formal, respectful introduction:

“In regard to all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today (v. 2).

Paul explains up front that he will speak In regard to all the things of which he is accused by the Jews, that is, the Jewish leadership of priests and rabbis based in Jerusalem. Agrippa II has learned that the Sanhedrin (the ruling council of Jews) have prosecuted Paul twice (Acts 24:1, 25:7), and that Paul has appealed to Caesar.

The Caesarean elites in attendance probably know this as well, that this man Paul has been accused by the Jews of many different things, though they likely do not know what exactly the accusations are, which is perhaps why they have come to hear Paul speak for himself.

Paul pays respect to King Agrippa II in this introduction, declaring, I consider myself fortunate...that I am about to make my defense before you today. Paul specifies that he feels fortunate that Agrippa is his audience today. He will give reasons why in his next statement. Paul believes Agrippa II of all people will hear his defense with an understanding and discerning mind.

This is how confident Paul is in both his innocence of wrongdoing as well as his faith in God. Paul treats Agrippa II with sincere courtesy. This has always been Paul’s disposition when preaching the gospel. Not only to kings and governors like Agrippa II and Felix (Acts 24:10), but to the mob of Jewish men who wanted to kill him in Jerusalem two years before-men he called “Brethren and fathers” (Acts 22:1).

Paul’s hope, as he will state at the end of this chapter, is for all men and women to be reconciled with God through faith in the Messiah, Jesus (Acts 26:29).

The reason Paul considers himself fortunate to be able to make his defense personally to King Agrippa II is that King Agrippa II is especially the right person to hear Paul’s message:

especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently (v. 3).

Agrippa II is especially a good audience for Paul because he, as the earthly king of the Jews, is an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews. Agrippa II is the chief of the Jews, politically speaking. He is the highest-ranking Jew. Paul speaks to him with a generous belief that Agrippa II is devout and knowledgeable about Judaism, the Law, and all customs and questions which are important to the Jews.

Agrippa II had the authority, granted by Rome, over the temple, and the temple money, and the power to choose the high priest (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XX, Chapter 1.3). He was a student of Jewish history and current affairs, contributing more than sixty letters to Josephus as resources for his Jewish histories.

According to a Jewish tradition, Agrippa (likely II, not his father) was invited to read from the Torah to an assembly, and began shedding tears when he read Deuteronomy 17:15, “you may not put a foreigner over yourselves [as king] who is not your countryman.” He wept because he was descended from Herod the Great, an Idumean, not a Jew. But the assembly comforted him and told him not to worry, that “You are our brother” (Mishnah, Tractate Sotah 41a‑b). If this is true, it reflects that Agrippa II was reverent of the Torah.

Since Agrippa II is an expert in all customs and questions in Judaism, Paul asks Agrippa II to bear with him. He says, therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently. Paul is going to give his defense slowly, step by step, in detail. He will tell his life story in brief, because Paul’s upbringing and career are vital data points in his faith journey.

One of the reasons Paul’s story is so compelling is because he used to be on the other team. He was not a neutral bystander, but an enemy of believers in Christ. He was one of the Jewish elite, he was on his way to becoming an important, powerful Pharisee. He might one day have become a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council, if Jesus had not turned his life around. He was once one of the Jews making accusations against believers in Jesus, persecuting, prosecuting, and sentencing them. Now he stands on the side of the defense and will present an apologetic for Jesus as the Christ.

This is the third account of Paul’s personal testimony recorded in the book of Acts (Acts 9:1-19, 22:3-21). Paul may have given this account in other instances when he preached the gospel. It served as a compelling witness to the power of Jesus Christ, that a murderous Pharisee would give up everything, his prestige, position, and physical safety, to serve Jesus’s cause.

The fact that Luke, the author of Acts, records the telling of Paul’s testimony three times emphasizes how important and powerful Paul’s turnabout was. It argues for his calling as an apostle, which was often in question by false teachers who tried to corrupt the churches Paul planted (Galatians 1:1, 11-12, 1 Corinthians 9:1-3, 2 Corinthians 12:11-12, 10:10, Romans 1:1).

It seems probable that Luke wrote Acts in part to validate Paul’s direct appointment as an apostle by Jesus. The repeated mention of Paul’s conversion underscores that his commission as an apostle came directly from the Lord Himself.

This account in Acts 26 contains several items of information that are not found in the other two accounts. The biblical record contains what God wants us to learn.

Having addressed his key audience member, Agrippa II, Paul begins his life’s story:

“So then, all Jews know my manner of life from my youth up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem (v. 4).

Paul makes an interesting statement up front. He says that all Jews know my manner of life from my youth up. This implies that Paul was well known among the Jewish elite. He was an up-and-comer among the Pharisees (Galatians 1:14). His conversion from Pharisee to an apostle of Jesus of Nazareth was apparently well known, which would make sense, because Paul was the leader of the persecution against believers, and when he “defected,” the Jewish leadership would have learned about it.

Paul’s manner of life, from his youth up, was as a devout young Jewish man training to be a Pharisee. Though Paul was born in Tarsus, Cilicia (in modern-day Turkey), and was a Roman citizen, he was also a Jew. He had spent most of his life in Judea, as a disciple of the prominent rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).

Paul’s youth began in his own nation of Judea and was spent primarily in Judea and at Jerusalem, the capital of the Jews. Paul speaks of this as an established biographical fact that all Jews know. He does not mean all Jews everywhere, but likely all Jews of import. The same Jews who were trying to prosecute him knew Paul and knew his manner of life since his youth.

And since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion (v. 5).

Paul is, in a sense, calling on his accusers to act as witnesses to back up his testimony thus far. These accusers may have returned to Jerusalem by now, but some may have hung around to see if there was any way to destroy Paul before he set sail to Rome.

Paul cites them as evidence, that since they have known about Paul for a long time (his whole life, essentially, since his youth), they could affirm what he is saying regarding his personal history. That if they are willing to testify, they would tell Agrippa II the same thing Paul now claims, that he lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion.

It is not just that Paul lived as a Pharisee during his years from his youth to his adulthood, but that he was one of the most extreme Pharisees. He followed the Law and the Jewish customs according to the observance of the strictest sect of our religion. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul described himself in similar terms, that he was,

“circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.”
(Philippians 3:5-6)

Before going further in his life story, Paul skips to the end. He explains the main reason the Jewish leadership are after him. Having established where he began, Paul explains where he has ended up:

“And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers (v. 6).

This early clarification helps contextualize Paul’s case. It will not be a mystery as he tells his story in detail. It also answers the charge that Paul is somehow blaspheming against the temple, the Law, or Judaism (Acts 21:28, 24:6).

Paul is speaking thematically about Judaism: Agrippa II’s expertise in Jewish customs, Paul’s own upbringing in Judea, his notoriety among the Jewish elites, and his training as a strict Pharisee.

By now speaking as to what the charge is against him, he demonstrates that his faith in Jesus as the promised Messiah of Israel is a continuation and fulfillment of Judaism, not a violation. Paul now, in the present, is standing trial for the hope of the promise made by Yahweh God to the fathers of the Jews. God promised to send a deliverer like Moses to be the Son of David and king of Israel, and Paul will testify that God did just as He said (Deuteronomy 18:18, 2 Samuel 7:12-13). This is why he is on trial, for believing what God said is actually true.

Paul says our fathers-again stressing that he is a Jew, and the patriarchs of Israel are his fathers-just as they are the fathers of his accusers. Paul and his accusers belong to the same nation: Israel. They are of the same family: Israel. They are heirs of the same promise, and it is for believing in this promise that Paul is accused. Paul implies here that it is he who is the true, believing Jew, and his accusers who are the apostates.

The fathers refer to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and more generally to the holy nation of Israel, all the Jews who preceded Paul and his peers. Paul has put his hope in a promise made by God. God made many promises in the Old Testament to the fathers, and many promises are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ (Genesis 3:15, Isaiah 43, Numbers 21:8-9, 2 Samuel 7:12-13, and many more; Luke 24:27, 45-48). (Isaiah’s “My Servant” passages are a key example of messianic predictions; the commentary on Isaiah 42:1 introduces these, as a further reference.)

Paul is speaking about the promise made by God that He would send light (Acts 26:23) which the Messiah proclaims to the earth (Isaiah 49:6). The light is Jesus Himself; He is the good news (gospel) which brings Jews and Gentiles out of darkness into light and reconciliation to God. More specifically, God’s promise hinges on resurrection, the raising of a dead person back to life. This is the central controversy, that Paul’s faith is in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, with hope for a future resurrection when all of God’s people will be raised to new eternal life. All of these things are tied to the resurrection of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:12-19).

Paul explains that his hope for which he is standing trial is in the promise to which our twelve tribes also hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews (v. 7).

Paul is proving that neither he nor the other believers in Jesus have somehow invented a new religion, or worship a different god, or have abandoned the faith and God of their fathers. Paul’s hope of the promise made by God is not unique to Paul, it is the same promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain. Paul says our twelve tribes to include Agrippa II and the Jewish leadership.

This is their shared heritage. The twelve tribes represent all of Israel, every Jew, past and present; the twelve tribes which are descended from the twelve sons of Jacob, whom God named Israel (Genesis 35:10). This is their history. These promises were made to all of them.

This promise which God made to His chosen people is something all Jews have been taught to put their hope in. This promise of a messiah who would bring salvation was made by God in many places in the Hebrew scriptures (Isaiah 42, 44, 61:1-2, Daniel 9:24-26, Zechariah 9:9, Jeremiah 23:5, and more). All of Israel was eagerly expecting God to send an anointed servant to free the Jews from oppression and reestablish Israel as a kingdom under His reign.

We saw evidence of this eager expectation in Acts 1:6 when, after Jesus was raised from the dead and just before He ascended to heaven, the disciples asked Him, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus answered in the next verse “It is not for you to know times or epochs” indicating that their expectation was appropriate, but that only the Father knows the time (Acts 1:7).

The Jews hoped for the Messiah and the eternal kingdom He promised. The Jews earnestly serve God night and day, meaning they are devoted to God; they live their entire lives in submission to God’s Law with the anticipation of God’s promises. To say they serve God night and day emphasizes that the wholeness of their lives is in service to God.

Paul is showing that he is not an enemy of the Jewish people. He is also a Jew. And he knows the Jews earnestly serve God with their lives; he is not casting doubt on anyone’s sincerity in serving God. Not the king to whom he speaks, nor the men who have tried to put him to death many times. Paul is actively and continually inviting all Jews to see that his hope is the same hope of all devout Jews. The only difference is that Paul has put his faith in the actual realization of this hope: Jesus.

And for this hope, O King, Paul addresses Agrippa II personally again, I am being accused by Jews. The Jews by whom Paul is being accused refers to the Jewish leadership, the priests and rabbis in authority over the Jewish people who have accused Paul of blasphemy and of being an enemy of Jewish customs, the temple, and the Law of Moses.

In reality, Paul believes in the true hope of Israel fulfilling God’s promises in the person of Jesus, whom the Jewish leaders have rejected. It is interesting to note that while Paul attributes eager service to God from the Jews as a whole, the leaders of the Jews made a calculated decision to choose their current situation with Rome over Jesus. We can see this in John 11:48-50 where a segment of the council chooses their “place” and “nation” over Jesus, and seek to kill Jesus as a means of preserving the status quo with Rome.

Paul is effectively saying, “God made a promise to the Jews. The Jews hope in this promise. They live their lives hoping in God’s promise. I am a Jew also. I once was a strict Pharisee myself. My hope is in this same promise. This is why I’m being unfairly persecuted by our leaders. They say I’m attacking our traditions. I’m not. My faith is in God’s promise. It has come true.” Paul infers that he believes God’s promise has come to pass, and it is actually his accusers who are out of line.

He is showing that the accusations against him are nonsensical. Paul, throughout his missionary journeys and years of preaching the gospel, is rigorous in his presentation that faith in Christ is a fulfillment of God’s promises, of the prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures, which are the words of God (Acts 13:16-41, 17:2-3, 11, 18:4-5, 1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Faith in Jesus the Nazarene is a fulfillment of scriptures, not something fabricated or contradictory to Judaism. Similarly, the Apostle Peter preached from the Old Testament to demonstrate that Jesus fulfilled God’s promises (Acts 2:14-36, 3:12-26, 4:10-12), as did Apollos (Acts 18:28).

Before continuing the story of how he trained as a Pharisee and eventually became a believer in Jesus, Paul asks a salient question:

“Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead? (v. 8).

This question gets to the heart of why Paul is on trial, and why this attack on him is rooted in hypocrisy and bad faith. It also vindicates all believers in Christ. The accusations against Paul are that he is somehow preaching against God and the Jewish customs, Law, and temple. Paul’s defense is that belief in Jesus as the resurrected Messiah is exactly what the customs, Law, and temple anticipated through God’s promises.

His question displays the simplicity and sanity of believing that Jesus, as Messiah, rose from the dead. It likewise illustrates that those who are opposed to Jesus either lack faith in or misunderstand God’s power and promises. Or that sin has hardened their hearts from recognizing the truth, and they are not being honest about what they have seen and heard.

Again referring to John 11, the same Jewish leaders who were accusing Jesus acknowledged that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, and instead of considering that God was showing His mighty works that they might believe, they fretted that “if we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation” (John 11:48). They saw resurrection firsthand, knew it was true, and still refused to believe.

Paul puts the question to the entire audience, not only Agrippa II, and perhaps to any of his accusers who may have lingered in Caesarea. Why indeed would someone who believes in God Almighty also, in the same breath, scoff at the idea that He could raise the dead? Is He God or not? If God is truly God, there is nothing incredible or unbelievable about the claim that He could raise the dead back to life. He’s God. He can do anything.

This is a primary issue which so many Jewish people during the first century stumbled over-whether or not Jesus came back to life, proving that He was God’s Messiah. Which is why Paul implores them to ponder the question. They believe in God. They believe in the scriptures. But they don’t believe that God did what He said He would do.

Why is it considered incredible among you people (Agrippa II, the priests, the Pharisees, the devout Jewish people, elite or otherwise) if God does raise the dead? “God raised Jesus back to life” is an incredible claim? Why is this tripping them up? That the creator God can raise the dead back to life? Do they believe there are limits to what God can do? It would seem so.

Interestingly, this was also an intense debate among the Jewish leadership. The Sadducees (the priests) did not believe in resurrections, angels, or life after death. The Pharisees (teachers of the scriptures) did believe in God’s ability to raise the dead, in His spiritual messengers, and that all men had spirits which endured after death (Acts 23:8).

For the Sadducees, it was considered incredible that God does raise the dead. They flat out denied this as possible. Though their minds are made up, Paul’s question is incisive and cuts to the core of the issue. What kind of God do they believe in? They have limited their beliefs to this world alone, that there is nothing beyond it for humans. God exists out there somewhere, and the priests are happy to collect money from the Jewish people to make animal sacrifices to Him. But that is effectively all.

Jesus criticized the Sadducees for their lack of understanding and disbelief. When they asked Him an insincere question about the status of marriage among resurrected people (while not believing in resurrection themselves), Jesus told them quite plainly that, “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God” (Matthew 22:23-33).

For the Pharisees, they were open to resurrection, even earnestly hopeful, and yet the majority of them also denied that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Jesus had not met their expectations as God’s Messiah. They could not control Him. He acted apart from their influence. He threatened the status quo with Rome, which also threatened their position and power (John 11:48). He criticized the Pharisees’ interpretations, applications, and hypocrisies regarding God’s Word (Matthew 15:3-9, 16:6, 11-12, 23:1-36, Luke 12:1, John 9:39-41).

The Pharisees believed God could raise the dead if He wanted, but according to the Pharisees’ bias, Jesus was an exception to that rule. They wanted Jesus to remain in the grave, where they helped put Him. But the Son of God had not remained dead.

Paul belonged to the sect of the Pharisees, which he will tell Agrippa II and the crowd in the following section. He will tell in detail how he once hated Jesus and helped put His followers to death, until Jesus spoke directly to Paul. It was then that Paul saw the truth that God does indeed raise the dead, and that Jesus was who He claimed to be.