25:23 So the next day Agrippa 4 and Bernice came with great pomp 5 and entered the audience hall, 6 along with the senior military officers 7 and the prominent men of the city. When Festus 8 gave the order, 9 Paul was brought in.
26:1 So Agrippa 10 said to Paul, “You have permission 11 to speak for yourself.” Then Paul held out his hand 12 and began his defense: 13
1 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
2 sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.
3 tn Grk “said.”
4 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
5 tn Or “great pageantry” (BDAG 1049 s.v. φαντασία; the term is a NT hapax legomenon).
6 tn Or “auditorium.” “Auditorium” may suggest to the modern English reader a theater where performances are held. Here it is the large hall where a king or governor would hold audiences. Paul once spoke of himself as a “spectacle” to the world (1 Cor 4:8-13).
7 tn Grk “the chiliarchs” (officers in command of a thousand soldiers). In Greek the term χιλίαρχος (ciliarco") literally described the “commander of a thousand,” but it was used as the standard translation for the Latin tribunus militum or tribunus militare, the military tribune who commanded a cohort of 600 men.
8 sn See the note on Porcius Festus in 24:27.
9 tn Grk “and Festus ordering, Paul was brought in.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was begun in the translation, and καί (kai) has not been translated. The participle κελεύσαντος (keleusanto") has been taken temporally.
10 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
11 tn Grk “It is permitted for you.”
12 tn Or “extended his hand” (a speaker’s gesture).
13 tn Or “and began to speak in his own defense.”
14 sn “Do you believe the prophets?” Note how Paul made the issue believing the OT prophets and God’s promise which God fulfilled in Christ. He was pushing King Agrippa toward a decision not for or against Paul’s guilt of any crime, but concerning Paul’s message.
15 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
16 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
17 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.