Acts 26

¹And Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense:

²“I consider myself blessed, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews,

³especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions of the Jews. Therefore I implore you to hear me patiently.

⁴“All the Jews know my manner of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem.

⁵They have known about me from the beginning, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived as a Pharisee.

⁶And now I stand here to be judged for the hope that is based on the promise made by God to our fathers,

⁷to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, earnestly serving God night and day. And concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, O king!

⁸Why is it thought unbelievable by any of you that God raises the dead?

⁹“Indeed, I myself considered that it was necessary to do many hostile things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And I did this in Jerusalem, and having received authority from the chief priests I both locked up many of the holy ones in prisons and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.

¹¹And many times, in all the synagogues, by punishing them I tried to force them to blaspheme the Lord, and being extremely furious with them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

¹²“On one such occasion, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

¹³when at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, greater than the brightness of the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.

¹⁴And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard on you to be kicking against the goads.’

¹⁵And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose—to appoint you a minister and a witness both of the things that you have seen, and of the things about which I will appear to you.

¹⁷I will deliver you from the People, and from the Gentiles to whom I send you,

¹⁸to open their eyes, so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of the Adversary to God, so that they receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are made holy by their trust in me.’

¹⁹“For this reason, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but declared both to those in Damascus first, and also in Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works that are consistent with repentance.

²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

²²So to this day, having obtained help from God, I stand testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen,

²³that the Christ must suffer and that by being first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to the People and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are raving mad, your much learning is turning you to raving madness.”

²⁵But Paul said, “I am not raving mad, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

²⁶For the king knows of these things, to whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from him, for this has not been done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”

²⁸And Agrippa said to Paul, “You are trying to persuade me to become a Christian very quickly.”

²⁹And Paul said, “I pray to God that whether in a short or a long time, not only you but also all who hear me this day would become the same as I am, except for these bonds.”

³⁰And the king got up, and the governor, and Bernice, and those who sat with them,

³¹and when they had withdrawn, they spoke one to another, saying, “This man is doing nothing worthy of death or prison.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”