Acts 26:8

Why is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead?

This identified Paul's principal accusers as being the Sadducees who denied the resurrection; and his affirmation that Jesus had risen from the dead further identified them as murderers of the Son of God. Their hatred, therefore, "was principally instigated by his preaching the resurrection, and preaching it through Christ."[12]

Lange, Hackett, Howson, and other able scholars give what is thought to be a better rendition of this verse, as follows: "What! Is it judged incredible, etc.?"[13] This avoids the categorical declaration that Paul's hearers made such a judgment, although of course Festus certainly did so.

[12] J. W. McGarvey, Commentary on Acts (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company), 2p. 251.

[13] John Peter Lange, Commentary on Acts (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House), p. 441.