26:1 So Agrippa 3 said to Paul, “You have permission 4 to speak for yourself.” Then Paul held out his hand 5 and began his defense: 6
1 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
2 tn Or “In a short time you will make me a Christian.” On the difficulty of the precise nuances of Agrippa’s reply in this passage, see BDAG 791 s.v. πείθω 1.b. The idiom is like 1 Kgs 21:7 LXX. The point is that Paul was trying to persuade Agrippa to accept his message. If Agrippa had let Paul persuade him, he would have converted to Christianity.
sn The question “In such a short time are you persuading me to become a Christian?” was probably a ploy on Agrippa’s part to deflect Paul from his call for a decision. Note also how the tables have turned: Agrippa was brought in to hear Paul’s defense, and now ends up defending himself. The questioner is now being questioned.
3 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
4 tn Grk “It is permitted for you.”
5 tn Or “extended his hand” (a speaker’s gesture).
6 tn Or “and began to speak in his own defense.”
7 tn The verb is implied by the context but not expressed; Grk “but if as a Christian.”
8 tn These are third-person imperatives in Greek (“if [one of you suffers] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed…let him glorify”), but have been translated as second-person verbs since this is smoother English idiom.
9 tn Grk “in this name.”