My voice against them

With reference to Acts 26:10—In the English version it reads, "I will give him a white stone." In the original the word is !greek! psephon not lithon. The latter word is used in 1 Pet. ii. 5, where he says that the saints are the living stones of a building. It signifies stone in general as opposed to wood; while the former is something of a lithic nature which is small and receivable. The !greek! psephos was the pebble used by the ancients in voting, and which was thrown into the voting urn, or as we should say, into the ballot box. Hence it is used for the vote itself. But the voting by psephos, ballot, must be carefully distinguished from that by kuamos, or lot; the former being used in trials, the latter in the election of various officers. The psaphoi of condemnation or acquittal were sometimes distinguished by being respectively bored, or whole; but kuamoi never. In Acts xxvi. 10, it is said of Paul speaking before Agrippa, "and when the saints were put to death, I paid down a pebble," rendered in the E.V. "I gave my voice against them." His was a pebble of condemnation. The nature of the vote was determined by the color of the pebble; a white pebble denoted acquittal, a black one, condemnation. A psaphos was also a token given to the victors in the public games.