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all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews:

3. Especially, because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews:

wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.

Agrippa was the son of Herod Agrippa, a prince who professed a great zeal for the Jewish religion, and who, no doubt, had all his children instructed in it. Beside this advantage which Agrippa enjoyed for becoming acquainted with the manners and customs of the Jews, he had the important posts of commanding the temple, and disposing of the sacred money, as well as of nominating the high-priest;situations which would necessarily lead him to an intimate acquaintance with their affairs, and particularly inform him of the different sects which prevailed in the country. To make his defence before só competent a judge, afforded Faul peculiar satisfaction.

4. My manner of life from my youth, "since my youth," which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews,

5. Which knew me from the beginning, (if they would testify,) that after the most straitest sect, "the strictest sect," of our religion, I lived a Pharisee.

Paul was born at Tarsus in Cilicia, and brought up there till he was a young man, when he came to Jerusalem, to complete his education under Gamaliel.

To the inhabitants of this place, therefore, he might with propriety appeal for his past conduct, and for the truth of the assertion that he was a Pharisee.

6. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers,

7. Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly, rather, " earnestly," serving God, day and night, hope to come; for which hope's sake, “on account of which hope," king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

The hope here referred to seems to be the hope of the Messiah,, who was the subject of expectation among the Jews, at the time when the apostle spoke, as he is at the present day. The doctrine of a resurrection was disbelieved by the Sadducees; the apostle could not, therefore, say that the twelve tribes hoped to come to this promise, when he well knew that only a part of them looked for it. Besides, if he had referred to a resurrection, he could not have asked, as he does in the next verse, why they thought a resurrection from the dead impossible. To this it may be added, that it will be difficult to find any passage in the Old Testament in which a resurrection is promised by God, although intimations may perhaps be found there that it was the faith of some.

The apostle wishes to show Agrippa and the rest of his audience that in believing in the Messiah he admitted nothing but what had been the common hope of the nation. The principal evidence of this fact was, in his judgment, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; but this they thought incredible, as he himself had once thought. He therefore proceeds to show how his unbelief was removed; namely, by his seeing Jesus and receiving a message from him.

8.

Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?

That is, raise to life Jesus who had been put to death. Into this error he acknowledges that he himself had once fallen.

9.

I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name, against the name," of Jesus of Nazareth.

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10. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them.

He speaks of persons in the plural number, as being put to death, as if they were many; but he probably refers only to one, and that Stephen.

11. And I punished them oft, or, "by punishing them oft," in every synagogue, I compelled them to blaspheme," to revile," the name of Jesus; and, being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them, "I was pursuing them," even to strange cities.

12. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus, with authority and commission from the chief priests,

13. At mid-day, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them who journeyed with me.

14. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the goad.

This familiar proverb represented to me the folly and danger of my undertaking.

15. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest:

16. But rise and stand upon thy feet; for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;

More than one instance has already occurred in the course of this history, of Jesus' appearing personally to Paul, agreeably to the declaration which he now makes. It was on some one of these occasions that he received from him the knowledge of the gospel. For he says, I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ*.

• Galatians i. 12.

17.

Delivering thee from the people, i. e. the Jews, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I now send thee,

It appears hence that the apostle had a commission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles from the beginning, although he did not exercise it till some time afterwards.

18. To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified.

By these expressions nothing more is intended than a conversion from heathenism to Christianity. Gentiles are in the New Testament denominated sinners and unholy; they are represented as in a state of darkness, and subject to the authority of Satan, an imaginary being, the supposed patron of wickedness. By their professing faith in Christ, all these characters are reversed; they are transferred into the kingdom of God; they are enlightened, forgiven and sanctified. This language is well illustrated by a parallel passage in the epistle of Paul to the Colossians, i. 12-14. where, speaking of the conversion of that people, he says, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.'

19. Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision;

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