Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 26

Then Paul stretched forth the hand.—The characteristic attitude reminds us of Acts 21:40. Here it acquires a fresh pictorial vividness from the fact that St. Paul now stood before the court as a prisoner, with one arm, probably the left, chained to the soldier who kept guard over him. (Compare Acts 26:29.)

I think myself happy, king Agrippa.—We note the characteristic union of frankness and courtesy. He will not flatter a prince whose character, he must have known, did not deserve praise, but he recognizes that it was good for him that he stood before one who was not ignorant of the relations of Sadducees and Pharisees on the great question of the Resurrection, and of the expectations which both parties alike cherished regarding the coming of a Messiah, and the belief, which some at least of the latter cherished (Acts 15:5; Acts 21:20), that their hopes had been fulfilled in Christ.

Because I shall answer.—Strictly, because I am about to make my defence, or apologia.

Expert in all customs and questions.—The former word is used in its half-technical sense, as including all the precepts of the Law of Moses. (See Notes on Acts 6:14; Acts 21:21.)

My manner of life from my youth.—The Apostle refers, of course, to the time when he first came up to Jerusalem to study the Law and the traditions at the feet of Gamaliel. (Compare his account of the same period in Galatians 1:14; Philippians 3:5–6.)

Know all the Jews.—The noun seems to be used in its more limited meaning, as including chiefly, if not exclusively, the Jews of Judea.

After the most straitest sect.—Better, most rigid, or most precise. The Greek does not contain anything answering to the double superlative of the English. The word for “sect” is the same as that used in Acts 24:5, and translated “heresy” in Acts 24:14.