Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 26:20

"but declared both to them of Damascus first and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judaea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance." — Acts 26:20 (ASV)

Having been confronted by the risen and glorified Jesus, Paul henceforth knew but one Master and found it impossible to resist his commands. So he told Agrippa how he began preaching about Jesus in Damascus and continued to do so in Jerusalem (cf. 9:20–30). The words “and in all Judea” are grammatically strange and conflict with the evidence of Ac 9:20–30 and Gal 1:18-24 that Paul did not preach the Gospel throughout “all the region of Judea.” Perhaps this phrase was an early gloss that entered the text through a false reading of Ro 15:19. And Paul also preached to the Gentiles a message of repentance and conversion. It was because of his preaching to Gentiles, he insisted, that the Jews were so aggressively opposed to him.