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Selected Verse: Acts 26:8 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Ac 26:8 |
King James |
Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
Why should it be thought a thing incredible . . . that God should raise the dead?--rather, "Why is it judged a thing incredible if God raises the dead?" the case being viewed as an accomplished fact. No one dared to call in question the overwhelming evidence of the resurrection of Jesus, which proclaimed Him to be the Christ, the Son of God; the only way of getting rid of it, therefore, was to pronounce it incredible. But why, asks the apostle, is it so judged? Leaving this pregnant question to find its answer in the breasts of his audience, he now passes to his personal history. |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Why should it be thought ... - The force of this question will be better seen by an exclamation point after why τί ti. "What! is it to be thought a thing incredible?" etc. It intimates surprise that it should be thought incredible, or implies that no reason could be given why such a doctrine should be unworthy of belief.
A thing incredible - A doctrine which cannot be credited or believed. Why should it be regarded as absurd?
With you - This is in the plural number, and it is evident that Paul here addressed, not Agrippa alone, but those who sat with him. There is no evidence that Agrippa doubled that the dead could be raised, but Festus, and those who were with him, probably did, and Paul, in the ardor of his speech, turned and addressed the entire assembly. It is very evident that we have only an outline of this argument, and there is every reason to suppose that Paul would dwell on each part of the subject at greater length than is here recorded.
That God should raise the dead - Why should it be regarded as absurd that God - who has all power, who is the creator of all, who is the author of the human frame should again restore man to life and continue his future existence? The resurrection is no more incredible than the original creation of the body, and it is attended with no greater difficulties. And as the perfections of God will be illustrated by his raising up the dead; as the future state is necessary to the purposes of justice in vindicating the just and punishing the unjust, and as God is a righteous moral governor, it should not be regarded as an absurdity that he will raise up those who have died, and bring them to judgment. |
Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
That God should raise the dead (εἰ ὁ Θεὸς νεκροὺς ἐγείρει)
Much better, as Rev., if God raises the dead. He does not put it as a supposition, but as a fact: if God raises the dead, as you admit that he has the power to do, and as your own writings tell you that he has done. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Is it judged by you an incredible thing - It was by Festus, Act 25:19, to whom Paul answers as if he had heard him discourse. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
That God should raise the dead? - As Agrippa believed in the true God, and knew that one of his attributes was omnipotence, he could not believe that the resurrection of the dead was an impossible thing; and to this belief of his the apostle appeals; and the more especially, because the Sadducees denied the doctrine of the resurrection, though they professed to believe in the same God. Two attributes of God stood pledged to produce this resurrection: his truth, on which his promise was founded; and his power, by which the thing could be easily affected, as that power is unlimited.
Some of the best critics think this verse should be read thus: What! should it be thought a thing incredible with you, if God should raise the dead? |
19 But had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.