Acts 26:1

Paul Offers His Defense

26:1 So Agrippa ¹  said to Paul, “You have permission ²  to speak for yourself.” Then Paul held out his hand ³  and began his defense: ⁴ 

Deuteronomy 17:4

17:4 When it is reported to you and you hear about it, you must investigate carefully. If it is indeed true that such a disgraceful thing ⁵  is being done in Israel,

Deuteronomy 19:17-18

19:17 then both parties to the controversy must stand before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges ⁶  who will be in office in those days. 19:18 The judges will thoroughly investigate the matter, and if the witness should prove to be false and to have given false testimony against the accused, ⁷ 

Proverbs 18:13

18:13 The one who gives an answer ⁸  before he listens ⁹  –

that is his folly and his shame. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 18:17

18:17 The first to state his case ¹¹  seems ¹²  right,

until his opponent ¹³  begins to ¹⁴  cross-examine him. ¹⁵ 

John 7:51

7:51 “Our law doesn’t condemn ¹⁶  a man unless it first hears from him and learns ¹⁷  what he is doing, does it?” ¹⁸ 

¹ sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.

² tn Grk “It is permitted for you.”

³ tn Or “extended his hand” (a speaker’s gesture).

⁴ tn Or “and began to speak in his own defense.”

⁵ tn Heb “an abomination” (תּוֹעֵבָה); see note on the word “offensive” in v. 1.

⁶ tn The appositional construction (“before the Lord, that is, before the priests and judges”) indicates that these human agents represented the Lord himself, that is, they stood in his place (cf. Deut 16:18-20; 17:8-9).

⁷ tn Heb “his brother” (also in the following verse).

⁸ tn Heb “returns a word”; KJV “He that answereth a matter.”

⁹ sn Poor listening and premature answering indicate that the person has a low regard for what the other is saying, or that he is too absorbed in his own ideas. The Mishnah lists this as the second characteristic of the uncultured person (m. Avot 5:7).

¹⁰ tn Heb “it is folly to him and shame.” The verse uses formal parallelism, with the second colon simply completing the thought of the first.

¹¹ tn Heb “in his legal case”; NAB “who pleads his case first.”

¹² tn The term “seems” does not appear in the Hebrew but is supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness (cf. KJV “seemeth”).

¹³ tn Heb “his neighbor”; NRSV “the other.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “comes and.” The Kethib is the imperfect יָבֹא (yavo’), and the Qere is the conjunction with the participle/perfect tense form וּבָא (uva’). The latter is reflected in most of the ancient versions. There is not an appreciable difference in the translations, except for the use of the conjunction.

¹⁵ sn The proverb is a continuous sentence teaching that there must be cross-examination to settle legal disputes. There are two sides in any disputes, and so even though the first to present his case sounds right, it must be challenged. The verb הָקַר (haqar, translated “cross-examines”) is used for careful, diligent searching and investigating to know something (e.g., Ps 139:1).

¹⁶ tn Grk “judge.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “knows.”

¹⁸ tn Questions prefaced with μή (mh) in Greek anticipate a negative answer. This can sometimes be indicated by using a “tag” at the end in English (here the tag is “does it?”).