26:8
“Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, the Sadducees did not. When in Athens Paul’s hearers were ready to listen up to the point where he started to speak about the resurrection. Now everyone knew that resurrections do not normally happen, but the gospel is not speaking about them happening “normally”, but about God raising Christ, and at His return, raising us. God is the creator of the whole universe, He is God, so there is nothing surprising about Him being able to raise the dead!
26:9-11
As I’ve mentioned before, Paul’s having been a deeply committed Jew made things all the worse as far as the Jews were concerned. Paul (or Saul) sought to do all he could “to oppose the name of Jesus”. He persecuted the church in Jerusalem, though note now that he refers to it as “opposing Jesus”. Paul had people thrown into prison, with the authority of the chief priests. He was also happy to have them put to death. He loved to go from one synagogue to another. In fact, there was no end to his zeal.
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