Acts 26:28

28. Almost It is now wisely agreed among scholars that the Greek εν ολιγω , literally, in little, cannot signify almost. This fact, indeed, destroys the fitness of the passage as a text for such sermons as Dr. Samuel Clarke and Mr. Wesley have preached upon it. And commentators have greatly differed about its meaning, according as they have supplied the noun implied after the adjective little. There are three supposable nouns, implying either time, instrument, or amount, and each of these three have had their advocates. Time, as Wetstein shows, is most frequently implied in the phrase in classic authors, and that fact has misled some commentators into an error. In little time thou persuadest me, besides making a jejune sense, requires persuade to be the future. Nor can the same meaning reappear in the phrase in Paul’s reply without the utmost awkwardness. Supplying instrument as understood, Thou persuadest me with little means or effort, has less philological support and no more plausibility. The third implication, namely, amount, we have not the slightest doubt is the true. Indeed, the word little, without any supplied complement, implies amount. The same phrase is used by Paul in Ephesians 3:3, and signifies neither time nor instrument, but amount, namely, of writing. The meaning then clearly is, In slight degree do you persuade me to be a Christian. And this meaning, as we shall show, is required in Paul’s response. Did Agrippa speak this ironically and negatively, or affirmatively? The latter meaning would be, You do in a small degree persuade me to be a Christian. The former would mean, But slightly [that is, not at all ] do you persuade me to be a Christian. This last is the true construction. And Paul’s response is, I wish you were not only slightly, but largely, that is, entirely, a Christian. There is no reason to suppose that this word Christian, on Agrippa’s lips, was other than the most respectful. Had he meant disparagement he would have used, as Tertullus did, the current contemptuous epithet, Nazarene, Acts 24:5. On the contrary, Christian embodies the highest human title known to the Jews, Messiah. The adjective was formed according to a regular philology, and had a beauty and dignity, not only which every follower of Jesus could accept, but which a Jewish king could hardly bestow otherwise than respectfully. Agrippa did give Paul a negative, but not a discourteous reply.