Acts 26:1-16 ▼

1 So Agrippa said to Paul, |You have permission to speak for yourself.| Then Paul held out his hand and began his defense:

2 Regarding all the things I have been accused of by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that I am about to make my defense before you today,

3 because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversial issues of the Jews. Therefore I ask you to listen to me patiently.

4 Now all the Jews know the way I lived from my youth, spending my life from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem.

5 They know, because they have known me from time past, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.

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

7 a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly serve God night and day. Concerning this hope the Jews are accusing me, Your Majesty!

8 Why do you people think it is unbelievable that God raises the dead?

9 Of course, I myself was convinced that it was necessary to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus the Nazarene.

10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem: Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons by the authority I received from the chief priests, but I also cast my vote against them when they were sentenced to death.

11 I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to force them to blaspheme. Because I was so furiously enraged at them, I went to persecute them even in foreign cities.

12 While doing this very thing, as I was going to Damascus with authority and complete power from the chief priests,

13 about noon along the road, Your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining everywhere around me and those traveling with me.

14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself by kicking against the goads.'

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

16 But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance as a servant and witness to the things you have seen and to the things in which I will appear to you.