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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Acts 26:9 - 26:11
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act_26:9-11
9"So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. 11And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities."
Act_26:9 Paul (egô, "I" and emautô, "myself") confesses his misdirected religious enthusiasm, which he now realizes was not the will of God (cf. 1Ti_1:13). He thought that by persecuting the followers of Jesus he was serving God and pleasing God. Paul's world and worldview totally changed on the Damascus road (cf. Acts 9).
▣ "the name" This Semitic idiom means "ther person of" (cf. Act_3:6; Act_3:16). This is no magic formula, but a personal relationship!
▣ "Jesus of Nazareth" See Special Topics at Act_2:22.
Act_26:10 "the saints" Literally this is "the holy ones." Paul knew now exactly whom he had persecuted and killed, God's people! What a shock, sorrow, and enlightenment Paul's Damascus vision must have been, a total reorientation of thought and life!
For "saints" see Special Topic at Act_9:13.
▣ "having received authority" Paul was the "official" persecutor for the Sanhedrin.
▣ "when they were being put to death" This shows the intensity of the persecution. The "Way" was not a minor issue; it was a life-and-death issue and it still is!
▣ "cast my vote against them" This is the technical word in Greek for an official vote either in the Sanhedrin or a local synagogue. But because no local synagogue could/would vote on death issues, it was probably the Sanhedrin. If it was in the Sanhedrin, then Paul had to have been married. The term originally meant "a pebble," which was used to cast a vote—either a black one or a white one (cf. Rev_2:17)
Act_26:11 "tried to force" This is an imperfect tense of a Greek term that means to force or compel (cf. Act_28:19), but here it is used in the sense of tried. It refers to a repeated action in past time.
▣ "to blaspheme" Saul attempted to force them to publicly affirm their faith in Jesus as the Messiah and then condemn them. In later persecutions, believers were forced to reject faith in Christ, but this context is a different cultural situation.
NASB "being furiously enraged"
NKJV "being exceedingly enraged"
NRSV "I was so furiously enraged"
TEV "I was so furious"
NJB "my fury against them was so extreme"
This is a very intense adverb ("much more") and participle (present middle [deponent]). Festus uses the same root for Paul (i.e., rave in Act_26:24)