Acts 26:1

Paul apparently stretched out his hand assuming the pose of an orator. The phrase "stretched out his hand" in Greek differs from the similar ones in Acts 13:16 and Acts 21:40. This defense is Paul’s fullest, most formal, and climactic of all the ones Luke recorded in Acts (cf. Acts 22:1-21; Acts 23:1-6; Acts 24:10-21; Acts 25:8; Acts 25:10-11). It is quite similar to the one he delivered from the steps of the Antonia Fortress (Acts 22:1-21), but he selected his words here carefully to appeal to Agrippa and the other Romans present. [Note: See Witherington, pp. 735-36.]