⁴ tn Or “and began to speak in his own defense.”

⁴ sn Any defense made with clay would crumble on impact.

³ tn That is, “you have nothing to say in your own defense” (so translated by TCNT).

² sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

¹ sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

¹ sn The city wall symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

¹ sn The bar on the city gate symbolizes the city’s defenses and security.

¹ tn Heb “rocky cliff” (cf. ASV, NASB “rock”), viewed metaphorically as a place of defense and security.

⁶ tn Or “fields.” For a defense of the translation “terraces,” see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 285.

³ tn There is a division of opinion on the source of this word. Some take it from “answer,” related to Arabic, Aramaic, and Syriac words for “answer,” and so translate it “responses” (JB). Others take it from a word for “back,” with a derived meaning of the “boss” of the shield, and translate it “bulwark” or “defenses” (NEB, RSV, NIV). The idea of “answers” may fit the parallelism better, but “defenses” can be taken figuratively to refer to verbal defenses.

² sn “Because…defense.” Paul also paid an indirect compliment to the governor, implying that he would be fair in his judgment.

³ sn Teacher, you have spoken well! The scribes, being Pharisees, were happy for the defense of resurrection and angels, which they (unlike the Sadducees) believed in.

³ tn Grk “about how or what you should say in your defense,” but this is redundant with the following clause, “or what you should say.”

³ sn The city’s towers, defenses, and fortresses are outward reminders and tangible symbols of the divine protection the city enjoys.

¹ tn The Hebrew text does not contain the term “arguments,” but this verb has been used already for preparing or arranging a defense.

¹ sn Listen to my defense. This is the first of several speeches Paul would make in his own defense: Acts 24:10ff.; 25:8, 16; and 26:1ff. For the use of such a speech (“apologia”) in Greek, see Josephus, Ag. Ap. 2.15 [2.147]; Wis 6:10.

² sn The term טִירָה (tirah, “battlement, turret”) refers to the row of stones along the top of a fortress wall, set for the defense and stability of the wall (Ezek 46:23; cf. HALOT 374 s.v. טִירָה). This structure is connected with military operations set in defense of a siege.

³ tn The phrase “for the right hand and for the left” possibly refers to a combination of an offensive weapon (a sword for the right hand) and a defensive weapon (a shield for the left).

² sn I was not disobedient. Paul’s defense is that he merely obeyed the risen Jesus. He was arrested for obeying heavenly direction and preaching the opportunity to turn to God.

⁵ sn A second part of Paul’s defense is that he did nothing while he was in Jerusalem to cause unrest, neither arguing nor stirring up a crowd in the temple courts or in the synagogues or throughout the city.