Acts 26:14-17

26:14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ¹  ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself ²  by kicking against the goads.’ ³  26:15 So I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord replied, ⁴  ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 26:16 But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance ⁵  as a servant and witness ⁶  to the things ⁷  you have seen ⁸  and to the things in which I will appear to you. 26:17 I will rescue ⁹  you from your own people ¹⁰  and from the Gentiles, to whom ¹¹  I am sending you

¹ tn Grk “in the Hebrew language.” See Acts 22:7 and 9:4.

² tn Grk “It is hard for you.”

³ tn “Goads” are pointed sticks used to direct a draft animal (an idiom for stubborn resistance). See BDAG 539-40 s.v. κέντρον 2.

⁴ tn Grk “said.”

⁷ tn L&N 30.89 has “‘to choose in advance, to select beforehand, to designate in advance.’”

⁸ sn As a servant and witness. The commission is similar to Acts 1:8 and Luke 1:2. Paul was now an “eyewitness” of the Lord.

⁹ tn BDAG 719 s.v. ὁράω A.1.b states, “W. attraction of the relative ὧν = τούτων ἅ Lk 9:36; Ac 22:15. The attraction may be due to colloq. breviloquence in μάρτυρα ὧν τε εἶδες με ὧν τε ὀφθήσομαί σοι a witness to the things in which you saw me and to those in which I shall appear to you Ac 26:16b.”

¹⁰ tc ‡ Some mss read “of the things in which you have seen me.” The accusative object με (me, “me”) is found after εἶδές (eide") in B C*^vid 614 945 1175 1505 1739 1891 2464 pc sy sa; it is lacking in Ì⁷⁴ א A C² E Ψ 096 Ï latt bo. The external evidence is relatively evenly divided, though there is a slight preference for the omission. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

¹⁰ tn Grk “rescuing.” Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, the participle ἐξαιρούμενος (exairoumeno") has been translated as a finite verb and a new sentence started in the translation at the beginning of v. 17.

¹¹ tn That is, from the Jewish people. Grk “the people”; the words “your own” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.

¹² tn The antecedent of the relative pronoun is probably both the Jews (“your own people”) and the Gentiles, indicating the comprehensive commission Paul received.