Challenges and Rejoinders. That Paul was out of his senses was said of him at Corinth (2 Corinthians 5:13); there is nothing in what he is reported to have said on this occasion that would suggest it even to a heathen, who must have seen various forms of religious enthusiasm. Paul answers that he is in his sober senses, but he turns to Agrippa, in whom he is interested; he is acquainted with the facts about Christ which are notorious; he believes the prophets and must concede that they spoke of Christ. The speech of Agrippa in Acts 26:28 is given in a text which has many variants and which WH (ii. App. 100) despair of restoring. [102] With the reading of Ephraim, given below, Agrippa puts Paul's question aside as a trifling one; of course he believes the prophets, but what then? Paul, on the other hand (Acts 26:29), plays with Agrippa's phrase, and declares his desire that whether in a small matter or a great (or, his words may be taken, whether for a little time or a long time), his hearers might stand where he does, though with better fortune.
[102] The reading underlying AV. to become a Christian, is a correction to escape the difficulty of the older text you are lightly persuaded to make me a Christian (RV), which is unsatisfactory. The use of the term Christian by Agrippa is strange; it originated at Antioch (Acts 11:26); the Palestinian name for the new sect was Nazoraios (Acts 24:5, cf. Acts 2:22 *). In the Armenian Catena the Syrian Father Ephraim omits this term, and reads simply, You are persuading me to a small thing.