Acts 26

¹ Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You are permitted to speak for yourself." So Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:

² "King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that it is before you I am to make my defense today against all the charges the Jews bring against me,

³ especially since you are an expert in all the customs and controversies of the Jews. So I beg you to hear me patiently.

⁴ All the Jews know the way I have lived from my youth, the life I led from the start among my own people and in Jerusalem.

⁵ They have known me a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I lived as a Pharisee, following the strictest party of our religion.

⁶ And now I stand on trial because of my hope in the promise God made to our ancestors—

⁷ the promise our twelve tribes hope to see fulfilled as they earnestly worship night and day. It is for this hope, Your Majesty, that I am accused by Jews.

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

⁹ I myself was once convinced that I ought to do everything possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰ And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With authority from the chief priests I locked many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.

¹¹ Many times I went from synagogue to synagogue to punish them and tried to force them to blaspheme. In my raging fury against them I even hunted them down in foreign cities.

¹² On one such mission I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

¹³ About midday, Your Majesty, I was on the road when I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my traveling companions.

¹⁴ We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'

¹⁵ "I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord replied, 'I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.

¹⁶ But get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen of me and of what I will show you.

¹⁷ I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you

¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, and receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those made holy by faith in me.'

¹⁹ "So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

²⁰ First to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, then throughout the whole region of Judea, and to the Gentiles, I proclaimed that they should repent and turn to God, proving their repentance by their deeds.

²¹ That is why the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.

²² But to this very day I have had God's help, and so I stand here testifying to small and great alike. I say nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen:

²³ that the Messiah must suffer, and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles."

²⁴ At this point in Paul's defense, Festus shouted, "You are out of your mind, Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane!"

²⁵ "I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus," Paul replied. "What I am saying is true and reasonable.

²⁶ The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.

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

²⁸ Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to become a Christian?"

²⁹ Paul answered, "Whether it takes a little or much, I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today might become what I am—except for these chains."

³⁰ The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those seated with them.

³¹ As they were leaving they said to one another, "This man is doing nothing that deserves death or imprisonment."

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