“I think myself happy, king Agrippa, that I am to make my defence before you this day touching all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Wherefore I beseech you to hear me patiently.”
Paul begins tactfully and carefully. Yet he states nothing that was not the opinion of all present, for Agrippa had the reputation of being such an expert. He therefore simply acknowledged what all present recognised. No doubt, however, it made the king more friendly disposed towards him. Then, in true oratorical style, he asked for a patient hearing. Paul was not inexperienced in such matters. The hope that he might be overawed by those gathered was not realised. He was far too experienced in awkward situations for that.
The speech begins and ends in a very similar way to his previous testimony before the Jews. This should not surprise us as its purpose is the same. Having said that, however it is different in stress, for in each case when giving his testimony Paul very much has a mind for his audience, and selects from the facts accordingly. Yet in both he begins by laying down the foundations of his Jewishness and ends by proclaiming that he was sent to the Gentiles. We may analyse the speech as follows:
a He commences by declaring himself a good and righteous living Jew (Acts 26:4-5).
b He then asserts the Jewish hope of the resurrection from the dead (Acts 26:6-8).
c He describes the way that as a Jew and Pharisee he had persecuted the church with the very connivance of the leaders who are now condemning him, ensuring that Christians were put to death (Acts 26:9-11).
d He describes how on his way to Damascus the bright light above the brightness of the sun had shone from heaven and how the voice had spoken from heaven and asked him why he was persecuting the speaker.
e He had then asked, ‘Who are you Lord?' and was told, ‘I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting' (Acts 26:15).
f At this stage he was given the Lord's commission for his future, that he was to be a minister and a witness both in respect of his seeing the Lord in His glory, and of the things that would be revealed to him in the future (Acts 26:16).
e He had then been informed that he would be delivered from the hands of those to whom he was being sent (and thus from the kind of persecution that he himself had inflicted on Jesus), being sent by the Lord Jesus (Acts 26:17).
d And that he must turn men from darkness to the light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they might be made holy in Him (Acts 26:18).
c Then he had obediently to the heavenly vision declared this truth throughout Damascus and Judea and among the Gentiles, which was the reason why the Jews had tried to put him to death in the Temple (Acts 26:19-21).
b Although through God's help he had escaped from their hands and now proclaimed the truth revealed by the prophets of the suffering and resurrection of the Messiah (Acts 26:22-23 a).
a Proclaiming light both to the people and to the Gentiles (Acts 26:23 b)
As in the previous testimony he opened in ‘a' with the declaration of his Jewish godliness and ends in the parallel with taking God's light (as the Servant of God) to both Jew and Gentile. In ‘b' he has stressed the truth and hope of the resurrection and in the parallel proclaims the resurrection of Jesus. In ‘c' he had connived with the leaders of the Jews to put Christians to death, in the parallel he himself had been threatened with imminent death by the Jews. In ‘d' he had seen the heavenly light above the brightness of the sun, and in the parallel he was to turn men from darkness to that light. In ‘e' he had asked Who the Lord was and had been told that it was Jesus and that he was persecuting Him in what he was doing, and in the parallel he is being delivered from persecution by the Lord Jesus Who has sent him. In ‘f' comes his central commission, to be a witness of all that he has seen, and has and will hear.
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