Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 26:23

"how that the Christ must suffer, [and] how that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles." — Acts 26:23 (ASV)

That Christ should suffer.—Literally, that the Christ was passible—that is, capable of suffering. The great body of the Jews had fixed their thoughts only on the prophetic visions of the glories of the Messiah’s kingdom. Even the disciples of Jesus were slow to receive any other thought than that of conquest and triumph.

Peter’s Be it far from thee, Lord (Matthew 16:22) expressed the horror with which the thought of a suffering Christ at first struck him. It was not until they were led, after the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, into our Lord’s own school of prophetic interpretation (Luke 24:25–26; Luke 24:44), and taught to recognize the undercurrent of types and prophecies that pointed to a righteous Sufferer, as well as to a righteous King, that they were able to receive the truth. So it was that Christ crucified was still to the Jews a stumbling-block (1 Corinthians 1:23). The speech at Antioch in Pisidia (Acts 13:27–35) may be noted as showing the stress which St. Paul laid on this point. The Greek has “if” in both clauses where the English has “that;” but our idiom scarcely allows it to be translated that way.

That he should be the first to rise from the dead.—More literally, that He first by His resurrection from the dead (strictly, out of His resurrection) should show light. It was only through the Resurrection that the hopes of Simeon were fulfilled (Luke 2:32), and that light shone in on those who had been sitting as in the shadow of death. The “people” are, as almost always when the word is so used, God’s people Israel, as distinguished from the Gentiles.