Acts 26:17 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

From the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee. — The distinct mission to the Gentiles seems, in Acts 22:21, to be connected with the trance in the Temple, three years after the conversion. Galatians 1:15-16, however, agrees with what we find hero in connecting it with the very time when the Son of God was first “revealed in him.” The distinction between “the people,” i.e., Israel, as emphatically entitled to that name, and “nations,” the “Gentiles,” should be noted. (Comp. Note on Acts 4:25.) The relative “whom” probably refers to the latter of the two nouns rather than to both. In the Greek word for “send” (apostello), we find the warrant for St. Paul’s claim to be considered an Apostle “not of men, neither by man,” but by the direct personal call of the Lord Jesus (Galatians 1:1). The word that had been used of the Twelve (Matthew 10:16) was used also of him; and the pronoun “I” is specially emphasised.