NOTES for Act 26:1-32
Different people react very differently to the message about Christ, quite apart from the fact that the message itself may be heard by them in very different ways. For the governor Festus, it is the madness of an innocent Jewish prisoner; for King Agrippa, it is an occasion to reflect on the meaning of his native tradition. For some, Christianity is the enemy of human civilization; for others, it guarantees the preservation of moral foundations or a political system. This does not prevent the apostle Paul from wishing that everyone might become as he is, apart from his chains. Why is this so? How can all the diverse ideologies that people will always associate with Christianity coexist? Evidently, the answer lies in his own “experience of faith,” in his account of meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul himself tells us several times about this encounter in the pages of the New Testament, and even more has been written about it in various commentaries and studies of Paul and his letters. What is far more important for us is to read his account once again and understand what he believed and what he would want from us.