Acts 26:27Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Turning to Agrippa, he called upon him himself as a witness, since he too had to know what had not taken place in secret, but publicly, in Jerusalem.

Firmly convinced that in all this only the predictions of the prophets were being fulfilled, he said to the king: "Surely you believe the prophets. Yes, I know that you believe."

Agrippa, taking these words unfavorably, answered him: "Indeed, in a few minutes you have made me a Christian!"

Then the Apostle, with chains on his hands and conscious within himself of something far greater than all the glory of the world is worth, pronounced these great words: "Would to God that, whether soon or not soon, not only you, O king, but all who hear me today might become what I am, except for these chains."

Therefore, having appealed to the king's knowledge of these events, he also appeals to the king's faith in the prophecies. In the strong emotion of his speech, he expresses this through an unexpected question addressed directly to the king: does he believe the prophets?

And at once he answers himself with confidence: "I know that you believe." Thus the matter is carried into the realm of the king's faith and conscience. As appears from what follows, this deeply troubled him.

A Jew is everywhere a Jew. Agrippa, though raised at the court of the Roman emperor, surely remained a Jew in his soul and, in the depth of his conscience, believed his prophets.

Perhaps he did so without clear awareness and while behaving frivolously before an educated Roman official and his subordinates. Does not the completion under him of the Jerusalem temple, begun by his great-grandfather, testify to this?

It shows that in his soul there was a feeling of Jewish religiosity, though perhaps buried far away. The Apostle's penetrating gaze perceived it and awakened it so powerfully that the king was troubled, especially in these circumstances.

In other circumstances, this appeal to the king's conscience might have had a different outcome. But now he was before the Roman governor of the province.

This governor regarded him, in his convictions, not as a Jew, but as a good pagan, alien to "Jewish superstitions" (see note on Acts 25:19). He also stood before other educated Romans.

How, then, could he admit that he believed the prophecies? And so the awakened feeling of the Jew is forcibly suppressed by a false fear and shame of appearing such before educated Romans.

It passes into hypocrisy and bursts out in a worldly, frivolous witticism: "You almost, just barely, persuade me to become a Christian."

Earlier Paul had also said for him that he knows much else, meaning what pertains to Christianity. Christianity was growing everywhere, not somewhere in secret. Therefore a person such as King Agrippa could not have heard nothing.

But Agrippa diplomatically preferred to remain silent about everything. All the more, Paul's special address to him evidently aroused Festus's jealousy and indignation. Agrippa did not wish to do anything unpleasant to him.

A Jew is everywhere a Jew. Though raised at the court of the Roman emperor, Agrippa surely remained a Jew in his soul and believed the prophets in the depth of his conscience.

"Does not the completion under him of the Jerusalem temple, begun by his great-grandfather, testify that in his soul there was a feeling of Jewish religiosity, though perhaps deeply buried? The Apostle's penetrating gaze perceived it and awakened it so powerfully that the king was troubled, especially in the circumstances in which he found himself."