Charles Spurgeon Commentary Acts 26:4-7

"My manner of life then from my youth up, which was from the beginning among mine own nation and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; having knowledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify, that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand [here] to be judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; unto which [promise] our twelve tribes, earnestly serving [God] night and day, hope to attain. And concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, O king!" — Acts 26:4-7 (ASV)

My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

The Jews still had hope concerning the promise of the Messiah, and all the promises in God's covenant with them; and Paul says that for the sake of this hope he had been led to do that which had now brought him as a prisoner before the king. Notice that the fiction concerning "the ten lost tribes" has no foundation in Scripture. There are no lost tribes; several of them are mentioned by name in the New Testament. The apostle James writes to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, and here Paul speaks of them as "our twelve tribes." The Jews who are among us today belong to all of the twelve tribes, as they will tell you if you ask them.

There are no lost tribes yet to be discovered, neither are we, as a nation, those ten tribes that are supposed to have been lost. We are Gentiles, and not Jews. The apostle speaks here concerning the hope of the whole nation of the Jews. We who have believed in Jesus are the inheritors of that grand hope, as we have understood it rightly, and have realized that it is fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the only-begotten Son of God.

My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. (Acts 26:4–6)

Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. (Acts 26:7)

For the Pharisees held very firmly the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and Paul often cites this as the very thing, though no longer a Pharisee, to which he was glad to testify.