EvangelistPersuasive witness

Acts 26 — Paul’s defense before Agrippa — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: Acts 1–28 [V2]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

Acts 26 — Paul’s defense before Agrippa

Paul’s upbringing and Israel’s hope

Verse 26:1

Greek–English Translation

Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense:

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:2

Greek–English Translation

“Concerning everything of which I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to make my defense before you today,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:3

Greek–English Translation

especially since you are familiar with all the Jewish customs and disputes. Therefore I ask you to hear me patiently.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:4

Greek–English Translation

All the Jews know my manner of life from my youth, lived from the beginning among my nation and in Jerusalem.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:5

Greek–English Translation

They have known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest party of our religion.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Paul identifies the religion as ours and his former life as Pharisaic, retaining his relationship to the audience’s tradition.

Verse 26:6

Greek–English Translation

Now I stand on trial because of hope in the promise made by God to our fathers,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:7

Greek–English Translation

which our twelve tribes, earnestly worshiping night and day, hope to attain. It is concerning this hope that I am accused by Jews, O king.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Our twelve tribes is Paul’s corporate designation; it is not replaced by a reconstructed tribal census.

Verse 26:8

Greek–English Translation

Why is it judged unbelievable among you that God raises the dead?

Textual and Reception Notes

Persecution and the heavenly commission

Verse 26:9

Greek–English Translation

I myself thought that I must do many things against the name of Jesus the Nazarene.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:10

Greek–English Translation

This I did in Jerusalem: I shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were being killed, I cast my vote against them.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Cast my vote retains katēnenka psēphon, which can describe assent or an actual vote. The verse does not itself establish a particular council membership for Paul.

Verse 26:11

Greek–English Translation

I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to compel them to blaspheme. Raging exceedingly against them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The imperfect compulsion verb is represented as the ongoing attempt; it does not assert that every victim yielded. Foreign cities preserves the movement beyond the local setting.

Verse 26:12

Greek–English Translation

In this pursuit I was traveling to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:13

Greek–English Translation

when at midday, O king, I saw along the road a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those traveling with me.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:14

Greek–English Translation

When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against goads.’

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: All falling and the goads saying are explicit in this account. Neither is retroactively inserted into chapter 9. The source’s Hebrew-language designation is retained, with the same language-identification caution as 21:40.

Verse 26:15

Greek–English Translation

I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ The Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:16

Greek–English Translation

But rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and witness of the things in which you have seen Me and those in which I will appear to you,

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected source explicitly includes Me after you have seen. The paired relative clauses are compressed; in which retains the appearance-related construction without changing it to an independent list of things unrelated to Jesus. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 26:16 lists Me with WH/NA28 and its omission with Treg/RP.

Verse 26:17

Greek–English Translation

rescuing you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Exairoumenos is rescuing or delivering; choosing out is another proposed nuance. This rendering preserves the deliverance sense used elsewhere in Acts and the mission back to the Gentiles.

Verse 26:18

Greek–English Translation

to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from Satan’s authority to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an allotted share among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The two turnings, forgiveness, and allotted share are retained. Faith in Me is explicitly Jesus’ first-person expression within the commission; it is not generalized to unspecified religious sincerity.

Paul’s obedience and prophetic proclamation

Verse 26:19

Greek–English Translation

Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:20

Greek–English Translation

but proclaimed first to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, throughout all the country of Judea, and to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Repent, turn, and the corresponding deeds remain distinct but connected. All the named geographical stages are retained.

Verse 26:21

Greek–English Translation

For these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:22

Greek–English Translation

Having therefore received help from God, I stand to this day, testifying to small and great, saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen:

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:23

Greek–English Translation

that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The Greek frames the prophetic questions with ei, whether or that, within Paul’s affirmed proclamation. The first-from-resurrection expression is retained in its Christological setting, not turned into a denial of earlier restorations to mortal life.

Festus’s interruption and Agrippa’s response

Verse 26:24

Greek–English Translation

As he was making this defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “You are mad, Paul! Your great learning is turning you to madness.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The diagnosis is Festus’s accusation, not the narrator’s assessment.

Verse 26:25

Greek–English Translation

Paul said, “I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but I speak words of truth and sound judgment.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:26

Greek–English Translation

For the king knows about these things, and I speak freely to him. I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:27

Greek–English Translation

King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:28

Greek–English Translation

Agrippa said to Paul, “With so little you are trying to make me a Christian by persuasion.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: En oligō can mean in a short time or with little argument/effort. The active make form is retained in the English causative expression. Agrippa’s tone may be ironic, questioning, or noncommittal; the verse is not unambiguously almost converted. Evidence: SBL-ACTS-APP, 26:28 lists active poiēsai, to make, with WH/Treg/NA28, versus genesthai, to become, with RP.

Verse 26:29

Greek–English Translation

Paul said, “Whether with little or with much, I would pray to God that not only you but also all who hear me today might become as I am, except for these bonds.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Little and much answer Agrippa’s phrase without forcing a single time-versus-effort interpretation. The exception for the bonds is explicit.

Verse 26:30

Greek–English Translation

The king rose, along with the governor, Bernice, and those seated with them.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:31

Greek–English Translation

After withdrawing, they spoke to one another, saying, “This man is doing nothing deserving death or imprisonment.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 26:32

Greek–English Translation

Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: This is Agrippa’s retrospective assessment; the narrative does not cancel the appeal or state that release subsequently occurred.