Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers, which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa! Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
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Acts 26:6-8 sits inside this longer paragraph.
“Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem; having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers, which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa! Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
Parallel Translations
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Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,
which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa!
Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
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And now I stond and am iudged for the hope of the promes made of God vnto oure fathers:
vnto which promes oure.xii. tribes instantly servynge God daye and nyght hope to come. For which hopes sake kynge Agrippa am I accused of the Iewes.
Why shuld it be thought a thinge vncredible vnto you that god shuld rayse agayne the deed?
Show all 3 translations
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And now I stand and am accused for the hope of the promise made of God vnto our fathers.
Whereunto our twelue tribes instantly seruing God day and night, hope to come: for the which hopes sake, O King Agrippa, I am accused of the Iewes.
Why should it be thought a thing incredible vnto you, that God should raise againe the dead?
Cross-references (88)
- 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 (v8) Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But…
- James 1:1 (v7) James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
- Titus 2:13 (v6) looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
- Daniel 7:13-14 (v6) “I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of…
- Acts 4:2 (v8) being upset because they taught the people and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
Show all 87 cross-references
- Acts 17:31-32 (v8) because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given…
- Acts 24:15 (v6) having hope toward God, which these also themselves look for, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.
- Acts 28:20 (v6) For this cause therefore I asked to see you and to speak with you. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”
- Luke 18:27 (v8) But he said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
- Acts 10:40-42 (v8) God raised him up the third day, and gave him to be revealed, not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen before by God, to us,…
- Romans 15:8 (v6) Now I say that Christ has been made a servant of the circumcision for the truth of God, that he might confirm the promises given to the…
- Philippians 3:11 (v7) if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
- Philippians 3:21 (v8) who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to…
- 1 Timothy 5:5 (v7) Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.
- Acts 23:6 (vv6, 8) But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men and brothers, I am a…
- Genesis 12:3 (v6) I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treats you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through…
- Genesis 18:14 (v8) Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”
- Genesis 22:18 (v6) All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring, because you have obeyed my voice.’ ”
- Genesis 26:4 (v6) I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and will give all these lands to your offspring. In your offspring all the nations…
- Deuteronomy 18:15 (v6) Yahweh your God will raise up to you a prophet from among you, of your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him.
- Ezra 6:17 (v7) They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all…
- Job 19:25-27 (v6) But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. In the end, he will stand upon the earth. After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in…
- Isaiah 9:6-7 (v6) For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,…
- Micah 5:2 (v6) But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose…
- Zechariah 13:7 (v6) “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep…
- Matthew 19:28 (v7) Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the…
- Luke 22:30 (v7) that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. You will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
- John 5:28-29 (v8) Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and will come out; those who have done…
- Acts 13:30-31 (v8) But God raised him from the dead, and he was seen for many days by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his…
- Acts 13:32-33 (v6) We bring you good news of the promise made to the fathers, that God has fulfilled this to us, their children, in that he raised up Jesus.…
- Acts 25:19 (v8) but had certain questions against him about their own religion, and about one Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:10 (v7) night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?
- Genesis 3:15 (v6) I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise…
- Genesis 49:10 (v6) The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs. To him will the…
- 2 Samuel 7:12-13 (v6) When your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body,…
- Ezra 8:35 (v7) The children of the captivity, who had come out of exile, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel,…
- Psalms 2:6-12 (v6) “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.” I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your…
- Psalms 40:6-8 (v6) Sacrifice and offering you didn’t desire. You have opened my ears. You have not required burnt offering and sin offering. Then I said,…
- Psalms 98:2 (v6) Yahweh has made known his salvation. He has openly shown his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
- Psalms 110:1-4 (v6) Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.” Yahweh will send out the rod of…
- Psalms 132:11 (v6) Yahweh has sworn to David in truth. He will not turn from it: “I will set the fruit of your body on your throne.
- Psalms 132:17 (v6) I will make the horn of David to bud there. I have ordained a lamp for my anointed.
- Psalms 134:1-2 (v7) Look! Praise Yahweh, all you servants of Yahweh, who stand by night in Yahweh’s house! Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise Yahweh!
- Psalms 135:2 (v7) you who stand in Yahweh’s house, in the courts of our God’s house.
- Isaiah 4:2 (v6) In that day, Yahweh’s branch will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the beauty and glory of the survivors of…
- Isaiah 7:14 (v6) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
- Isaiah 11:1-5 (v6) A shoot will come out of the stock of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots will bear fruit. Yahweh’s Spirit will rest on him: the spirit of…
- Isaiah 40:9-11 (v6) You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it…
- Isaiah 42:1-4 (v6) “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.…
- Isaiah 53:10-12 (v6) Yet it pleased Yahweh to bruise him. He has caused him to suffer. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring. He…
- Isaiah 61:1-3 (v6) The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken…
- Jeremiah 23:5-6 (v6) “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will…
- Jeremiah 33:14-17 (v6) “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning…
- Ezekiel 17:22-24 (v6) “The Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will also take some of the lofty top of the cedar, and will plant it. I will crop off from the topmost of its…
- Ezekiel 21:27 (v6) I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. This also will be no more, until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it.” ’
- Ezekiel 34:23-25 (v6) I will set up one shepherd over them, and he will feed them, even my servant David. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd. I,…
- Ezekiel 37:24 (v6) “ ‘ “My servant David will be king over them. They all will have one shepherd. They will also walk in my ordinances, and observe my…
- Daniel 2:34-35 (v6) You saw until a stone was cut out without hands, which struck the image on its feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.…
- Daniel 2:44-45 (v6) “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, nor will its sovereignty be left to…
- Daniel 9:24-26 (v6) “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make…
- Hosea 3:5 (v6) Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and…
- Joel 2:32 (v6) It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape,…
- Amos 9:11-12 (v6) In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it…
- Obadiah 1:21 (v6) Saviors will go up on Mount Zion to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom will be Yahweh’s.
- Micah 7:20 (v6) You will give truth to Jacob, and mercy to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.
- Zephaniah 3:14-17 (v6) Sing, daughter of Zion! Shout, Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem. Yahweh has taken away your…
- Zechariah 2:10-11 (v6) Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell within you,’ says Yahweh. Many nations shall join themselves to…
- Zechariah 6:12 (v6) and speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies says, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: and he shall grow up out of his place; and he…
- Zechariah 9:9 (v6) Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King comes to you! He is righteous, and having salvation;…
- Zechariah 13:1 (v6) “In that day there will be a spring opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
- Malachi 3:1 (v6) “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the…
- Malachi 4:2 (v6) But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, and leap like calves of the…
- Matthew 22:29-32 (v8) But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry,…
- Luke 1:37 (v8) For nothing spoken by God is impossible.”
- Luke 1:69-70 (v6) and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been…
- Luke 2:25 (v7) Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and…
- Luke 2:36-38 (v7) There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher (she was of a great age, having lived with a husband seven…
- Luke 7:19-20 (v7) John, calling to himself two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are you the one who is coming, or should we look for another?”…
- Acts 3:24 (v6) Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who followed after, as many as have spoken, they also told of these days.
- Acts 20:31 (v7) Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
- Acts 24:21 (v6) unless it is for this one thing that I cried standing among them, ‘Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged before you…
- Acts 26:2 (v7) “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you today concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews,
- Acts 26:8 (v6) Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
- Galatians 3:17-18 (v6) Now I say this: A covenant confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, the law, which came four hundred thirty years after, does not annul, so…
- Galatians 4:4 (v6) But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
- 1 Peter 1:11-12 (v6) searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and…
- Revelation 7:4-8 (v7) I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel: of the…
87 distinct cross-references across this passage (88 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (19 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. For the hope of the promise. He doth…
6. For the hope of the promise. He doth now descend into the cause, to wit, that he laboreth for the principal point of faith. And though he seem to have spoken generally of the resurrection, yet we may gather out of the text, that he beginneth with a farther point, and that he did comprehend those circumstances which did properly appertain unto the faith of the gospel. He complaineth that the Jews did accuse him, because he maintained the hope of the promise made to the fathers. Therefore, this was the beginning and also the issue of the matter, that the covenant which God had made with the fathers is referred unto eternal salvation. Wherefore this was the sum of the disputation, that the Jewish religion was nothing worth unless they took heed to the heavens, and did also lift up their eyes unto Christ, the author of the new life. They did boast that they were chosen from among all people of the word. But their adoption did profit them nothing, unless they did trust to the promised Mediator, and look unto the inheritance of the kingdom of God. Therefore, we must conceive much more than Luke doth plainly express. And surely his narration tendeth to no other end, save only that we may know of what things Paul intreated. But what this was, and in what words he uttered it, we cannot tell. Nevertheless, it behoveth us to gather out of a brief sum those things which appertain unto this disputation, which was freely handled before Agrippa, when Paul had free liberty granted to him to plead his own cause.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 There are three chief and principal witnesses of true…
There are three chief and principal witnesses of true doctrine, God, the true Fathers, and the consent of the Church.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6 And now I stand and am judged for…
6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:
Ver. 6. For the hope of the promise] The goodness of his cause made much for his comfort. It is one thing to suffer as a martyr, and another thing to suffer as a malefactor. Ibi erat Christus, ubi latrones: similis poena, dissimilis causa. Christ and the thieves were in the like condemnation, but their cause was not alike. (Angustin.) Samson died with the Philistines by the fail of the same house; simili quidem poena, sed dissimili culpa, et diverso fine ac fato, but for another end, and by a different destiny. (Bucholcer.) Together with the Lord Cromwell was beheaded the Lord Hungerford; neither so Christianly suffering, nor so courageously dying for his offence committed against nature. (Speed.) Blessed are they that suffer "for righteousness’ sake," Mat 5:10; and, "for thy sake are we slain all the day long," Psa 44:22. And, O beata Apocalypsis, quam bene mecum, agitur qui comburar tecum? said a certain martyr when he saw the Revelation cast into the fire with him. (Fox.) So might St Paul say by that hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers, for the which he now stood and was judged.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv6–8 I stand; the posture of such as are held…
I stand; the posture of such as are held for guilty.
The hope of the promise; St. Paul brings in the discourse of the resurrection, which, as hath been observed, is the foundation of all religion, 1Co 15:14; Act 23:6; 24:15; and now it is called
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the hope of the promise, because God’s promise did raise them up to this hope: for God having promised to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, gave them rather less than others in this world; neither had they any propriety in all the Promised Land, but only to a burying place; whence they might certainly infer, that there was another life to be expected, in which God would make this his word good. Paul was also
judged for the hope of the promise, taking this hope for the salvation which Christ did purchase, and Paul preach, which was also promised unto the fathers, though mostly under types and obscure representations. The sum is, Paul was judged for one of those two articles of our faith, viz. the resurrection of the body, or a life everlasting.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 Our apostle had vindicated his life before, his doctrine…
Our apostle had vindicated his life before, his doctrine now: he tells Agrippa, That for believing, expecting, and preaching the doctrine of the resurrection, he was questioned of the Jews; this he calls the hope of the promise made by God unto the fathers.
Others understand it of the promise of the Messias, which was made unto the fathers and was generally depended upon by the most pious among the twelve tribes scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth; and in the faith and expection whereof they fervently served God night and day.
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Learn thence, 1. That the pious and godly among the Jews lived in hopes of the Messias’ appearing, of a glorious resurrection by him, and of an eternal life and salvation with him.
2. That their hope of this promised mercy did cause them to serve God instantly day and night. Hope is the great exciter of industry and endeavour, expectation puts it upon action; hope of obtaining is the motive to every undertaking: the Christian’s hope, or thing hoped for, is great and excellent in the esteem is high, the endeavour will be strong.
The Christian, who has a well-grounded belief and hope of a life to come, will serve God with an unwearied diligence and industry; if by any means he may attain the fruition and enjoyment of it: Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–8 And now I stand, and am judged,.... Before the…
And now I stand, and am judged,.... Before the Roman governor, and in the presence of Agrippa:
for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers; either for the hope of righteousness, life, and salvation, by the Messiah; who was promised to the Jewish fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and others; see Gen 22:18 or for the hope of the resurrection of the dead, and eternal life; of which there are various testimonies in the writings of the Old Testament, committed to the people of the Jews. Job 19:26 and others; and both these senses may be very well joined together, for it was for asserting that the promised Messiah was come, and that Jesus of Nazareth was he; that he was risen from the dead, and that all the dead will be raised by him; and that life and righteousness, salvation, and everlasting glory and happiness, are only by him; for asserting these things, I say, the apostle was now a prisoner, and stood at the bar of a Roman judge, being accused by the Jews.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv6–8 And now - This and the two following verses…
And now - This and the two following verses are in a kind of ver. 6, 7, 8 parenthesis, and show that what the Pharisees rightly taught concerning the resurrection, Paul likewise asserted at this day. The ninth verse is connected with the fifth. For Pharisaism ver. 9, 5 impelled him to persecute. I stand in judgment for the hope of the promise - Of the resurrection. So it was in effect. For unless Christ had risen, there could have been no resurrection of the dead. And it was chiefly for testifying the resurrection of Christ, that the Jews still persecuted him.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 Verse 6. For the hope of the promise] This…
Verse 6. For the hope of the promise] This does not appear to mean, the hope of the Messiah, as some have imagined, but the hope of the resurrection of the dead, to which the apostle referred in Ac 23:6, where he says to the Jewish council, (from which the Roman governor took him,) of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question: see the notes there. And here he says, I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise, c., and to which, he says, Ac 26:7, the twelve tribes hope to come. The Messiah had come, and was gone again, as Paul well knew and what is here meant is something which the Jews hoped to come to, or attain; not what was to come to them; and this singular observation excludes the Messiah from being meant. It was the resurrection of all men from the dead which Paul's words signified; and this the Jews had been taught to hope for, by many passages in the Old Testament. I shall only add, that when, in the next verse, this hope of the promise is mentioned as what the Jews did then hope, καταντηοαι, to come to, it is the very same word which Paul, in Php 3:11, uses to express the same thing: If by any means, (says he) καταντησω, I might attain to, the resurrection of the dead. Bp. Pearce.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v8 Act 26:8-11. Why should it be thought a thing…
Act 26:8-11. Why should it be thought a thing incredible — (It was thought so by Festus, Act 25:19, to whom Paul answers as if he had heard him discourse;) that God — A Being of infinite perfections, and the original author of the human frame; should raise the dead — And continue their existence in a future state? Will not his Almighty power enable him to do it? and will not the honour of his moral attributes be hereby illustrated and vindicated? And if it be credible, is it not important enough to deserve the most attentive regard? I verily thought, &c. — That is, when I was a Pharisee; that I ought to do many things (which he now enumerates) contrary to the name — Destructive of the cause and religion; of Jesus of Nazareth — Or, Jesus the Nazarene, whom under that title I once impiously derided, esteeming all his pretences to be the Messiah at once false and contemptible. He now proceeds to give an account of the extraordinary scenes through which he had passed, and which had occasioned a change in his views and conduct. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem — Where many, now living, were witnesses of my rage against the Christians; and many of the saints — Persons not only innocent, but just, good, and holy; I shut up in prison — Φυλακαις, in prisons; having received authority from the chief priests to do it; and when they were put to death — Were condemned to die; I gave my vote against them — I joined with those who condemned them. It does not appear that Paul had any vote in the sanhedrim: and we do not certainly know that, before Paul’s conversion, any more than Stephen were put to death for Christianity, in whose condemnation there was no voting at all. But the meaning plainly is, that he instigated the people against them as much as he could, in that instance, and in others which possibly might occur, whether at Jerusalem or elsewhere, though not recorded in the New Testament. Accordingly the Syriac renders it, I joined with those that condemned them; and Grotius observes, that the original phrase, κατηνεγκα ψηφον, has evidently sometimes this general signification. And I punished them oft in every synagogue — Wherever I met with them; and — When I could possibly effect it, I compelled them to blaspheme — The name of the Lord Jesus, and openly to renounce all faith in him, and subjection to him. This was the most dreadful of all the sinful acts which he committed; and, it seems, grieved him most: and no guilt can lie heavier upon persecutors, than that of forcing men’s consciences, and triumphing over them, by putting them to the torture, and thereby compelling them to abjure their religion. How light soever they may make of such guilt, and even rejoice in the proselytes they gain by their acts of violence and cruelty, awful, sooner or later, will be the condition of all such! For if Spira, who was compelled, suffered so terribly, what will become of those who compel like Saul, but do not repent like him? And being exceedingly mad against them — Περισσως εμμαινομενος, beyond measure furious; I persecuted them even unto strange cities — To which some of them had fled, to avoid or escape my outrageous cruelty, pursuing and hunting out the poor refugees, and endeavouring to drive them, not only out of their country, but out of the world.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6–8 And now I stand - I stand before the…
And now I stand - I stand before the tribunal. I am arraigned.
And am judged - Am tried with reference to being judged. I am undergoing a trial on the point in which all my nation are agreed.
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For the hope - On account of the hope; or because, in common with my countrymen, I had entertained this hope, and now believe in its fulfillment.
Of the promise ... - See the references in the margin. It is not quite certain whether Paul refers here to the promise of the Messiah or to the hope of the resurrection of the dead. When he stood before the Jewish Sanhedrin Act 23:6, he said that he was called in question on account of holding the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. But it may be observed that in his view the two things were closely united. He hoped that the Messiah would come, and he hoped therefore for the resurrection of the dead. He believed that he had come, and had risen, and therefore he believed that the dead would rise. He argued the one from the other. And as he believed that Jesus was the Messiah, and that he had risen from the dead, and that he had thus furnished a demonstration that the dead would rise, it was evident that the subject of controversy between him and the Jews involved everything that was vital to their opinions and their hopes. See Act 26:8.
Made of God - Made by God. See the marginal references. The promises had been made to the fathers of a Messiah to come, and that embraced the promise of a future state, or of the resurrection of the dead. It will help us to understand the stress which Paul and the other apostles laid on the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead to remember that it involved the whole doctrine of the separate existence of the soul and of a future state. The Sadducees denied all this; and when the Pharisees, the Saviour, and the apostles opposed them, they did it by showing that there would be a future state of rewards and punishments. See the argument of the Saviour with the Sadducees explained in the notes on Mat 22:23-32.
Unto our fathers - Our ancestors, the patriarchs, etc.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 For the hope of the promise. That is, of…
For the hope of the promise. That is, of the promised Messias, and of salvation by him. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv6–8 I . . . am judged for the hope…
I . . . am judged for the hope of the promise made . . . to our fathers--"for believing that the promise of Messiah, the Hope of the Church (Act 13:32; Act 28:20) has been fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv6–7 6. And now—In accordance with and springing from this…
6. And now—In accordance with and springing from this deep Judaism.
I stand—A phrase of manly firmness.
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Promise—Namely, of the Messiah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. And now I stand and am judged] Rev.…
6. And now I stand and am judged] Rev. Ver. “And now I stand here to be judged.” The idea is “I am on my trial.”
for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers] i.e. because I entertain the hope that the promise which God made to the patriarchs and to David shall be fulfilled to us. The “promise” must be of the Messiah and of His coming into the world as King. For this is what the ten tribes were looking for. But this in St Paul’s view embraced the doctrine of the resurrection, because that was God’s assurance to the world (Act_17:31) that He who was so raised up was to be the judge of quick and dead.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–8 (6) For the hope of the promise made of…
(6) For the hope of the promise made of God. The words include the whole expectation of a divine kingdom of which the Christ was to be the head, as well as the specific belief in a resurrection of the dead.
Unto our fathers.—Some of the better MSS. have simply, “to the fathers.” The Received text is, perhaps, more in harmony with St. Paul’s usual manner of identifying himself with those to whom he speaks. He will claim even Agrippa as of the stock of Abraham. (Comp. in this connection the anecdote as to Agrippa I. given in Note on Act_12:21.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Here to be judged for and am judged, A.V..…
Here to be judged for and am judged, A.V.. To be judged (esthka krinomenov); rather, I stand on my trial. The A.V. seems to give the sense well. The hope of the promise. The hope of the kingdom of Christ, which necessarily implies the resurrection of the dead. This hope, which rested upon God"s promise to the fathers, Paul clung to; this hope his Sadducean persecutors denied. He, then, was the true Jew; he was faithful to Moses and the prophets; he claimed the sympathy and support of all true Israelites, and specially of King Agrippa.
Vers. 6-8. The hope of the promise.
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It is a thing of deepest interest and significance that we can note so clearly, so repeatedly, what it was ever lay so close to the heart that craved the better, that was not dead, that reached towards light. It was ever that one transporting hope that grows out of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the hope of future and eternal life, the vista of an abiding city, a heavenly Canaan, and for their behoove "a house not made with hands," We learn here that, under whatever various aspects and with whatever needful accompaniments
I THE OLD ORIGINAL REVELATION WAS A REVELATION OF WHAT SHOULD BE THE CONTRADICTION OF SIN"S PRONOUNCED WORK, DEATH. The hope of the promise was the hope of eternal life and of heaven.
II THAT THIS FIRST REAL REVELATION SHAPED ITSELF IN THE FORM OF A "PROMISE," "MADE OF GOD," TO A CERTAIN FEW, WHO WOULD HALLOW IT ABOVE ALL ELSE THEY HAD.
III THAT IT WAS ONE LONG REMEMBERED, CLUNG TO TENACIOUSLY, AND IN THESE RESPECTS WELL JUSTIFYING ITS DIVINE ADAPTATION.
IV THAT, MISUNDERSTOOD THOUGH IT MIGHT BE, IT TURNED ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, IN ONE TREMENDOUS INSTANCE OF IT, NAMELY, THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS.
V THAT, THE FATAL WEAKNESS AND SIN OF THOSE TO WHOM THIS PROMISE, AN HEIRLOOM SO PRECIOUS, WAS GIVEN, REVEALED THEMSELVES, WHEN THE VERY HOUR OF UNSPEAKABLE GLORY CAME, AND WITH IT THE TEST CAME, AND NATURE REGARDED REVELATION AS INCREDIBLE, AND THE EYES OF NATURE DISCREDITED THEIR OWN TESTIMONY, THOUGH THE DIVINE FACT WAS THERE, THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. One of the correctest commentaries on the letter and the spirit of this striking and beautiful passage and the similar parallel passages, is found in the exquisite little poem of J. H. Newman, entitled "Moses seeing the Land.
My father"s hope! my childhood"s dream! The promise from on high! Long waited for I its glories beam Now when my death is nigh.
My death is come, but not decay; Nor eye nor mind is dim; The keenness of youth"s vigorous day Thrills in each nerve and limb.
Blest scene! thrice welcome after toil If no deceit I view; Oh, might my lips but press the soil, And prove the vision true!
Its glorious heights, its wealthy plains, Its many-tinted groves, They call! But he my steps restrains Who chastens whom he loves.
Ah! now they melt... they are but shades... I die! yet is no rest, O Lord! in store, since Canaan fades But seen, and not possest? B.
The Messianic promise.
words of this verse include the whole expectation of a Divine kingdom, of which the Christ was to be the Head, as well as the specific belief in a resurrection of the dead." It is said of the early revelations of God, by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners" (Revised Version). And the presentation of Messiah in the Old Testament Scriptures has been likened to the painting of a great picture, on which, during the many ages, many hands have worked. At first we have but the barest outline figure, drawn by God himself in the promise to our first parents. Then patriarch, lawgiver, judge, king, poet, and prophet in their turn become artist-painters, and help to fill in the wondrous outline, until in the later days of Isaiah the Messiah stands forth full and clear before us, the suffering, conquering King. Dealing with the scriptural promise of Messiah, the Prince and Savior, we note
I THAT IT WAS EARLY GIVES. In the world"s very morning. In the first hem"s of the world"s sin and woe. Almost before the shadow of man"s sin could fall upon his life, God sent forth this great ray of hope.
II THAT IT WAS OFTEN RENEWED. For every generation; for every new set of circumstances. In ever-varied forms. With a gracious advancing clearness and fullness. The actual instances provide the illustrations. For lists of them, see appendices to modern Bibles.
III THAT IT WAS STRANGELY MISCONCEIVED. Because men would not take the Messianic figure as a whole, but chose the parts of it which they preferred. And because men did not take the revelation in its simplicity, but read it in the light of their circumstances, and especially of their temporal necessities. So a nation whose liberty had been taken from them only saw in Messianic promise a liberator, a Judas Maccabeus, a triumphing prince, after the pattern indicated by Daniel. Messiah is for men, not for Jews only, for sinners, and not for an enslaved nation only. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v8 Why should it be thought a thing incredible with…
Act_26:8
Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?
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Why is the resurrection incredible
I. Incredulity has many causes and justifies itself with many reasons. It has never seen a resurrection, and it thinks it believes only what it sees. There have been plenty of funerals, but nothing more, so far as its experience goes. Some appear to have merely the rudiments of a soul, and are scarcely conscious of superiority to the brute creation. One such said to a minister, Your preaching does me no good; I have no soul; I want no one to talk to me about an imaginary hereafter; I shall die like a dog. Others shrink from the righteous retributions of the future. They resist the evidences of judgment, and fight the thought of justice. The sophistries of self-sufficiency; the solicitations of curious and overweening ambition; the deceptions of pride; the superstitions of the ignorant and credulous; the whisperings that emanate from the father of lies; all marshal their forces to crucify hope. There are those who count the thought of resurrection too good to be true. Others dwell so narrowly upon the mechanical and material side of life, that they forget the spirit. Natural science and its literature are fettered with earthly limitations.
II. Natural religion balances the improbability with its own probability. Negative evidence is worthless. Fifty millions of people did not see Garfield shot, but they could not clear Guiteau. Love is not measured with a yard stick, or focused under a microscope, but that does not breed scepticism. The soul expects immortality, and hungers for it with a Divine and deathless famine. Analogies prefigure it. It seems within the boundary of the thinkable to say that the Creator has power to recreate. It taxes no ones faith to believe that the watchmaker is able to repair his handiwork. Probabilities prevail on a priori grounds. Pantheism with its impersonal mysticism, has its Nirvana. Hellenic verse has its Elysian fields. The Arctic Circle has its Walhalla. The antipodal aborigines have their happy hunting grounds; and Judaea had its Paradise.
III. Christ brings many infallible proofs to corroborate and confirm the hopes of benighted peoples. It is very common to demonstrate that certain things are impossible, but that amounts to nothing in the presence of facts. While science was showing that the Sirius could not carry coal enough to take her over the Atlantic, she crossed. While men were proving that lightning rods, railroads, gas, telegraphs, cables, and telephones were visionary, inventors were realising their dreams. No fair and honest man can discredit the witness of the best book on earth, nor can he invalidate the testimony of the only sinless man who ever lived. What does this history and this witness prove? Christ answered the hopes of the patriarchs. Job stood on the chasm between the quick and the dead, saying, I know that my Redeemer lives. Christ promised to rise again. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up again. The empty tomb is evidence. The soldiers could not account for it. The Romans were baffled. The Jews were nonplussed. The disciples were most amazed of all. Witnesses testified to what they knew. Their testimony could not be silenced. There is absolutely nothing to discredit their story. Their testimony convinced the prosecution. Within fifty days three thousand men changed front. The Sabbath is evidence of the resurrection. The first day of every week is an Easter. Christendom is evidence. It is a nineteenth century miracle. (J. B. Donaldson.)
The resurrection of the dead
It would be difficult to explain how the identity of the body can be preserved while the matter composing it is changed; but our difficulty in explaining can present no reason for denying the fact.
I. It is neither against the power, the wisdom, nor the will of God. God wills nothing that is not wise and good, and whatever He wills He has the power to accomplish. He has performed greater things than raising the dead.
II. We see vital exemplifications of it daily. The matter of our bodies undergoes a change every seven years, yet our bodys identity is preserved. Look at trees and plants in winter time, and see them when the breath of spring has touched them into life. Study the insect, at first a crawling worm. The hour arrives when it bursts its cerements and becomes a pure-winged, beautiful creature, sailing in sunny skies. Paul saw our grave in the furrow of the plough; our burial in the corn dropped in the soil; and our resurrection in the grain bursting its sheath to wave its head in summer sunshine.
III. The resurrection of the body is less inexplicable than its creation. It is not the same thing to rekindle an extinguished lamp and to show fire that has never yet appeared.
IV. The Lord Jesus Christ purposely rose again in His human body as a pattern and first fruit of our resurrection. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The resurrection of the dead
The strength of Christian evidence consists in this--that its leading truths rest on facts, and that those facts rest chiefly on sonic form of sensible demonstration. The resurrection respects a fact of which the witnesses must have been competent to speak if they were but honest; and dishonesty in the first Christians is out of the question. If it were so, it was a dishonesty which sought everyones good but their own. And as far from all rational probability is the alternative supposition that the witnesses were incompetent to testify concerning this fact. In the mouth of two witnesses shall every word be established, it is declared. What, then, shall it he in the mouth of five hundred? Why should it he thought incredible?
I. It supposes no greater amount of miraculous power than is required for the ordinary operations of nature. It is no greater miracle that a body should have a second existence, than that it should have a first; that dry bones should, at Gods bidding, put on holy and bright forms, than that a dead seed should have power to fill the air with perfume, or a torpid chrysalis burst forth into new activity and life. The only difference is that the one is a familiar miracle, the other we have yet to see.
II. It puts honour on that human nature which the son of God condescended to assume. The work of redemption throughout may be called a work of substitution and interchange of relations between Christ and His people. He took the form of a servant that we might receive the adoption of sons; He is made sin for us that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him; He is humbled by assuming the fashion of our bodies; we are to be exalted by being fashioned into His. Noble therefore as our body is by the original designation of its Author, nobler still as it has become by association with incarnate Godhead, it is, until it has put on its resurrection form.
III. The deliverance of the body from death is necessary to the completeness of Christs victory. The redemption of man may be considered either as virtual or as actual. We are virtually redeemed when the covenanted price has been paid, but actual redemption takes place only on the complete liberation of the captive. The former of these describes our present condition. We are bought with a price; we are the freedmen of Christ; but actually liberated we are not, because we are waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body; when the spoils of death shall be given up, and the captive of the grave shall be set free, and, with the rising of saints that sleep, shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Indeed we cannot conceive of Christs taking away sin without taking away also the death that came by sin. The enemy must have nothing--not even mans dust.
IV. It is necessary to the confirmation of our hopes of a blessed immortality. I mean not to say that there could have been no immortality to the soul without the body rising, but that the body being raised is to be to us an assurance that the soul should live also. I much doubt whether ignorance on the part of the ancients of this doctrine did not lie at the foundation of all that troubledness, and obscurity, and myth which we see connected with all merely philosophical views of a life to come. Their conscious, intelligent life was connected with a visible substance, and that substance they saw went to decay, and had received no intimation that that decay could ever pass away? How, then, was this snapped thread of personal identity to be joined again? Can we, then, marvel to find in every page of the New Testament traces of the godly jealousy entertained by the apostles about this one doctrine? They felt it was the very keystone of the Christian arch--the life, and power, and strength of our revealed system--the one visible door opening into immortality. Matthias might be a great man and a good, but he must not be of the number of the apostles unless he had been a witness of the resurrection. The Corinthians might have strong faith and good preachers, but faith and preaching were alike vain if Christ were not risen. (Daniel Moore, M. A.)
The credibility of the resurrection
The resurrection is credible because--
I. Possible. It is exhibited in the Bible, not as a speculative truth which must be believed because taught, but as so intimately bound up with our salvation that to prove it false were to prove the human race unredeemed. If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. The question is, whether there lie such objections against its possibility as justify us in rejecting the testimony of Scripture. But, then, nothing short of distinct impossibility would bear us out in such rejection. It is not its stupendousness, nor that it countlessly outmatches all finite ability, which will warrant our questioning it. The alone point is, Can we demonstrate that the effecting of it would surpass the Omnipotent? If the Bible had ascribed it to a finite agent the disproportion between the thing done and the doer would furnish ground enough for rejecting it. But will anyone say that it exceeds the capabilities of Him who is to achieve it? We cannot see why the work should be reckoned too great for God, unless we are prepared to say the same of the other works confessedly His. I look out on the wonder workings of creative wisdom and might, and I gather from the magnificent spectacle witness in abundance that a resurrection is possible. It is possible that that august Being, who cannot be perplexed by the multiplicity of concerns, may, yea, and must, take cognisance of each atom of dust, as well as of every planet and of every star; and why should He be unable to distinguish what hath belonged to man, and to appropriate to each individual his own?
II. It rests on sufficient evidence. Christ rose, why should not we? It is impossible that the apostles wilfully propagated a lie. Who would undertake the advocacy of falsehood, if, instead of being a gainer, he was certain to be a loser? We have only then to decide whether their belief rested on sufficient proof. The length of their previous acquaintance, and the ample opportunity of after identification, concurred to secure them against taking a person for Christ who was not Christ. If, then, they were neither deceivers nor deceived, we prove, with a kind of mathematical precision, that they must have been both rightly intentioned and informed. And when you add to this, that the number of these witnesses is greater than is required for the establishment of a matter in a court of assize, we think that the vindication of the credibility of their testimony is to be set aside by nothing short of an obstinacy which will not, or an infatuation which cannot, be convinced.
III. In the details which are given as to the body in which the dead shall appear. The grand characteristic of the resurrection body is to be likeness to the glorified body of Christ, seeing that St. Paul declares of the Saviour that He shall change our vile body, etc., and there is every reason for concluding that Christ, when transfigured, appeared in that glorified humanity in which He now sits at the Fathers right hand. And if so, we learn that our bodies, though made wondrously radiant, shall be distinguished as now, the one from the other, by their characteristic features. We, then, shall be changed, but not so changed as to interfere with recognition. And if we would examine more minutely into the change which shall pass upon our bodies, enough is told us by St. Paul in 1Co_15:1-58, to satisfy all but a presumptuous curiosity. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption, etc. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The resurrection of the dead
I. The credibility of this doctrine.
1. The resurrection of the dead is not in any way incompatible with the power of God, by which, according to the representation of the Scriptures, it is to be accomplished. Where, we ask, a few years ago, were the particles which now exist, organised and animated in the person of any individual in this assembly? Were they not as scattered as ever death and the grave can make them?
2. However great and amazing as an event, the resurrection of the dead is not dissimilar to many of those renewals which we witness in nature. Doth God take care for flowers? and will He abandon man, His last, His fairest, His most loved workmanship, to an everlasting winter in the tomb?
3. The resurrection of the dead is indispensable in order to give rectitude and perfection to the retributive government of God.
4. Stupendous as this event must be, it has already in some instances taken place. How big with instruction, how confirmatory of our faith, are those examples recorded by the evangelists!
5. The resurrection of the dead forms one of the leading and peculiar doctrines of the new covenant dispensation, taught by many unequivocal, incontrovertible words, as well as by historical record.
II. The consolation which this doctrine is calculated to afford. This great truth, ever delightful and consolatory to reflect upon, is especially so on two very solemn and important occasions.
1. The first of these is the loss of our friends by death. Is there in this assembly a mother who, in the course of providence, has been called to part for a term of years with her little son, to be apprenticed or educated far from home, or perhaps to go on the long, long voyage. It was not without a struggle of feeling, not without many tears, that she could take the parting look at the lad, although she knew that his absence was both for his and for her advantage. During that absence many a thought, many a wish, is sent after him; the months and the weeks are counted; and their slow advance is cheered by the reflection he will return, and every day brings it nigher. At length the day arrives; the youth enters his parents dwelling, and stands fair and full in his mothers view. What that mother feels as her eye wanders in ecstasy over his figure--so much taller, so much stouter, so much improved! what that mother feels as in transports of tender delight she presses her offspring to her bosom! that or something like that! that or something more pure, more exquisite, more Divine, is what we shall feel when in the day of God we shall meet with those who are gone before, and meet to part no more!
2. The second occasion on which the strong and holy consolations of this doctrine will doubtless be required is the season of our own death. With a conscience washed in the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, and a soul firmly believing His resurrection, and ours through Him, we shall be prepared to meet sickness, and death, and the grave, with sweet composure and holy triumph. Oh! grave! I have misconceived thy character! Since Jesus has descended into thy dreary regions, the passage to them is smoothed, they are illumined, they are sanctified. Oh! how is thy character changed! Thine is now the sweetest pillow on which the wearied head ever reclined! Thine the safest retreat till this storm be over-past! Soon wilt thou faithfully return the inestimable deposit, and return it to glory, and honour, and immortality. (James Bromley.)
The resurrection credible
Concerning the souls of our departed Christian friends we suffer no distress. Our main trouble is about their bodies. Even the perfect Man could not restrain His weeping at Lazarus tomb. The doctrine of the Resurrection teaches us that we need have no trouble about the body, it has not gone to annihilation. The Lords love to His people is a love towards their entire manhood. He took into union with His Deity both soul and body, and redeemed both, and both are sanctified by the Divine indwelling. So our complete manhood shall have it in its power to glorify Him forever. This being our hope, we nevertheless confess that sometimes the evil heart of unbelief cries, Is it possible? At such times the text is needful.
I. Let us look this difficulty in the face. We rejoice in the fact that there will be a great change in the body; that its materialism will have lost all its grossness and corruption, and that it will be adapted for higher purposes; but there shall be an identity between the body in which we die and the body in which we rise. Not, however, that identity is the same thing as absolute sameness of substance and continuance of atoms. We are living in the same bodies which we possessed twenty years ago; yet no single atom remains that was in it then. Admit the like identity in the resurrection, and it is all we ask. Now this hope is naturally surrounded with many difficulties, because:--
1. The large majority of dead bodies have been utterly dissolved.
2. Think how widely diffused are the atoms which once built up living forms.
3. The difficulty increases when we reflect that all men will rise again. Think of the myriads who have passed away in countries like China, of those who have perished by shipwreck, plague, and war.
4. The wonder increases when we remember in what strange places many of these bodies now are. In fact, where are not mans remains? Blows there a single wind down our streets without whirling along particles of what once was man?
5. And, moreover, to make the wonder extraordinary beyond conception, they will rise at once, or perhaps in two great divisions (Rev_20:5-6). Where shall they stand? What plains of earth shall hold them?
6. And then this resurrection will not be a mere restoration, but in the case of the saints will involve a remarkable advance. We put into the ground a bulb, and it rises as a golden lily; we drop into the mould a seed, and it comes forth an exquisite flower; even thus, the bodies, which are sown in burial, shall spring up by Divine power into outgrowths, surpassing all imagination in beauty.
7. One of the difficulties of believing it is, that there are positively no full analogies in nature by which to support it. Some have seen in sleep the analogy of death, and in our awakening the resurrection. But a continuance of life is manifest to the man in his dreams and to all onlookers. The development of insects is quoted as a striking analogy. But there is life in the chrysalis, organisation, in fact, the entire fly. Nor is the analogy of the seed much more conclusive, for a life germ always remains, and the crumbling organisation becomes its food from which it builds itself up again. The resurrection stands alone; and, concerning it, the Lord might well say, Behold, I do a new thing in the earth. Here, then, is the difficulty. Is it a credible thing that the dead should be raised?
II. Remove the difficulty. It might seem incredible that the dead should be raised, but why should it seem incredible that God should raise the dead? Grant that God is, that He is omnipotent, and that He has said the dead shall be raised, and belief is no longer hard but inevitable. Difficulty is not in the dictionary of the Godhead. Is anything too hard for the Lord?
1. When Paul uttered our text he was speaking to one to whom he could say, Believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest! It was, therefore, good reasoning to say, Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you? etc. For, as a Jew, Agrippa had the testimony of Job--For I know that my Redeemer liveth; and of David (Psa_16:1-11); of Isaiah (Isa_26:19); of Daniel (Dan_12:2-3); of Hosea (Hos_13:14).
2. To us as Christians there has been granted yet fuller evidence (Joh_5:28; Joh_6:30; Rom_8:11; Php_3:21; 1Co_15:1-58).
3. At the same time it may be well to look around us, and note what helps the Lord has appointed for our faith.
(1) There are many wonders which we should not have believed by mere report, if we had not come across them by experience. The electric telegraph, e.g. When our missionaries in tropical countries have told the natives of ice, the natives have refused to believe. After the resurrection we shall regard it as a Divine display of power as familiar to us as creation and Providence now are.
(2) Will resurrection be a greater wonder than creation? To create out of nothing is quite as marvellous as to call together scattered particles and refashion them.
(3) Christ rose again and He is the cause of your resurrection, the type of it, the foretaste of it, the guarantee of it.
(4) Remember also, that you who are Christians have already experienced as great a work as the resurrection, for you have risen from the dead as to your innermost nature.
III. Our relation to this truth
1. Comfort one another with these words. You have lost those dear to you. Sorrow ye must, but sorrow not as those that are without hope.
2. Let us cheer our hearts in prospect of our own departure.
3. Expecting a blessed resurrection, let us respect our bodies. Bodies that are to dwell forever in heaven, should not be subjected to pollution here below.
4. The ungodly are to rise again, but it will be to a resurrection of woe. Fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv6–8 See notes on verse 4
See notes on verse 4
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v6 General Information:
General Information:
Here "you" is plural and refers to the people who were listening to Paul. (See: Forms of You)
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Now
This word marks a shift from Paul discussing his past to talking about himself in the present.
I stand here to be judged
This can be stated in active form. AT: "I am here, where they are putting me on trial" (See: Active or Passive)
of my certain hope in the promise made by God to our fathers
This speaks about a promise as if it were something a person could look for and see. AT: "I am waiting expectantly for God to do what he promised our forefathers he would do" (See: Metaphor)
For this is the promise that our twelve tribes sought to receive
The phrase "our twelve tribes" stands for the people in those tribes. AT: "This is also what our fellow Jews in the twelve tribes were waiting for" (See: Metonymy)
the promise ... sought to receive
This speaks about a promise as if it were an object that can be received. (See: Metaphor)
worshiped God night and day
The extremes "night" and "day" mean they "worshiped God continually." (See: Merism)
that the Jews
This does not mean all the Jews. AT: "that the leaders of the Jews" (See: Synecdoche)
Why should any of you think it is unbelievable that God raises the dead?
Paul uses a question to challenge the Jews present. They believe God can raise the dead but do not think God brought Jesus back to life. This can be expressed as a statement. AT: "None of you think it is unbelievable that God raises the dead." (See: Rhetorical Question)
raises the dead
Here to raise up is an idiom for causing someone who has died to become alive again. AT: "makes dead people come alive again"
translationWords
judge
promise
God
ancestor
twelve tribes of Israel
hope
worship
king
Jew
accuse
raise
die
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.