Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 26:22

"Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand unto this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come;" — Acts 26:22 (ASV)

Having therefore obtained help of God. The Greek noun for “help” is not used elsewhere in the New Testament. It implies the kind of assistance which one friend or ally gives to another of inferior power. It is found in the Greek of Wisdom 13:18. Here, the word seems to have been used because it was more intelligible to those outside the kingdom of God than the more spiritual, more theological “grace” of which the Apostle habitually spoke.

Witnessing both to small and great. The English version provides the correct rendering of the best-supported reading. Some manuscripts, however, have “witnessed to by small and great”; but this reading, besides lacking authority and involving an unusual construction, is at variance with the context.

It was true that St. Paul’s life was spent bearing witness that Jesus was Christ; however, it was not true that he had a good report from all men. The words “small and great” were significant as spoken when he was standing before two men like Festus and Agrippa. This phrase may also be noted as occurring in Acts 8:10, and again in Revelation 11:18; Revelation 13:16; Revelation 19:5; Revelation 19:18; and Revelation 20:12.

The prophets and Moses. The more natural order of “Moses and the prophets” (Luke 16:29; Luke 16:31), and the order of the words in the Greek, which the prophets said should come, and Moses, suggests the thought that the sentence would have stopped naturally at “come.” It also suggests that the name of Moses was added as an instantaneous afterthought to meet the case of those among the hearers who, like the Sadducees, placed the Pentateuch on a higher level of authority than the Prophets.