Acts 26:1-18 ▼

1 And Agrippa said to Paul, “It is permitted to you to speak for yourself”; then Paul having stretched forth the hand, was making a defense:

2 “Concerning all things of which I am accused by Jews, King Agrippa, I have thought myself blessed, being about to make a defense before you today,

3 especially knowing you to be acquainted with all things—both customs and questions—among Jews; for this reason, I implore you to hear me patiently.

4 The manner of my life then, indeed, from youth—which from the beginning was among my nation, in Jerusalem—all the Jews know,

5 knowing me before from the first (if they may be willing to testify), that after the most exact sect of our worship, I lived a Pharisee;

6 and now for the hope of the promise made to the fathers by God, I have stood judged,

7 to which our twelve tribes, intently serving night and day, hope to come, concerning which hope I am accused, King Agrippa, by the Jews;

8 why is it judged incredible with you if God raises the dead?

9 I indeed, therefore, thought with myself that it was necessary [for me] to do many things against the Name of Jesus of Nazareth,

10 which I also did in Jerusalem, and I shut up many of the holy ones in prison, having received the authority from the chief priests; they also being put to death, I gave my vote against them,

11 and in every synagogue, often punishing them, I was constraining [them] to speak evil, being also exceedingly mad against them, I was also persecuting [them] even to strange cities.

12 In which things, also, going on to Damascus—with authority and commission from the chief priests—

13 at midday, I saw in the way, O king, out of Heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining around me a light—and those going on with me;

14 and we all having fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking to me, and saying in the Hebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? [It is] hard for you to kick against goads!

15 And I said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus whom you persecute;

16 but rise, and stand on your feet, for this I appeared to you, to appoint you an officer and a witness both of the things you saw, and of the things [in which] I will appear to you,

17 delivering you from the people, and the nations, to whom I now send you,

18 to open their eyes, to turn [them] from darkness to light, and [from] the authority of Satan to God, for their receiving forgiveness of sins, and a lot among those having been sanctified by faith that [is] toward Me.