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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 26:10 - 26:10
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
I both shut up many (pollous te katekleisa). Effective aorist active of katakleiō, old word to shut down like a trap door, in N.T. only here and Luk 3:20. Double use of te (both--and).
Having received authority from the chief priests (tēn para tōn archiereōn exousian labōn). “The authority,” he says. Paul was the official persecutor of the saints under the direction of the Sanhedrin. He mentions “chief priests” (Sadducees), though a Pharisee himself. Both parties were co-operating against the saints.
And when they were put to death (anairoumenōn te autōn). Genitive absolute with present passive participle of anaireō.
I gave my vote against them (katēnegka psēphon). “I cast down my pebble” (a black one). The ancient Greeks used white pebbles for acquittal (Rev 2:17), black ones for condemnation as here (the only two uses of the word in the N.T.). Paul’s phrase (not found elsewhere) is more vivid than the usual katapsēphizō for voting. They literally cast the pebbles into the urn. Cf. sumpsēphizō in Act 19:19, sugkatapsephizo in Act 1:26. If Paul’s language is taken literally here, he was a member of the Sanhedrin and so married when he led the persecution. That is quite possible, though he was not married when he wrote 1Co 7:7., but a widower. It is possible to take the language figuratively for approval, but not so natural.