Acts 26


Acts 26 is the twenty-sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the period of Paul's imprisonment in Caesarea. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but Holman states that "uniform Christian tradition affirms that Luke wrote both" this book as well as the Gospel of Luke, as supported by Guthrie based on external evidence.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 32 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
The events in this chapter took place in Caesarea.

Theme

Paul took up the invitation to speak: "Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself" with an account of his early life, conversion and faith. Luke presents two contrasting responses:
The phrase τὰ πολλά σε γράμματα is translated here as "great learning" rather than the possibly more literal "many books". If the latter had been the intention the word βιβλία probably would have been used.

Verse 28

King James Version:
New International Version:
While the first translation is the more literal, the king, a rich and secular man, is possibly speaking ironically.
Methodist founder John Wesley preached a sermon entitled "The Almost Christian", based on this verse, at St. Mary's, Oxford, on 25 July 1741. It is sermon 2 in his standard collection of sermons. Wesley's companion George Whitefield also preached a sermon with the same title referring to the same verse.
A "Christian" : this is the third mention of the term in the New Testament. The first use was in Antioch, where the writer of Acts refers to the novelty of the term, and the term is also used by Peter in : If anyone suffers as a Christian.... All three usages are considered to reflect a derisive element referring to the followers of Christ who did not acknowledge the emperor of Rome.