Acts 26:1-18 ▼

1 Agrippa sayde vnto Paul: thou arte permitted to speake for thy selfe. Then Paul stretched forth the honde and answered for him selfe.

2 I thynke my selfe happy kynge Agrippa because I shall answere this daye before the of all the thinges wherof I am accused of ye Iewes

3 namely because thou arte experte in all customes and questions which are amonge the Iewes. Wherfore I beseche the to heare me paciently.

4 My lyvynge of a chylde which was at the fyrst amoge myne awne nacion at Ierusalem knowe all the Iewes

5 which knew me from ye beginnynge yf they wolde testifie it. For after the most straytest secte of oure laye lyved I a pharisaye.

6 And now I stond and am iudged for the hope of the promes made of God vnto oure fathers:

7 vnto which promes oure .xii. tribes instantly servynge God daye and nyght hope to come. For which hopes sake kynge Agrippa am I accused of the Iewes.

8 Why shuld it be thought a thinge vncredible vnto you that god shuld rayse agayne the deed?

9 I also verely thought in my selfe that I ought to do many cotrary thinges clene agaynst the name of Iesus of Nazareth:

10 which thinge I also dyd in Ierusalem. Where many of the sainctes I shut vp in preson and had receaved auctorite of ye hye prestes. And whe they were put to deeth I gave the sentence.

11 And I punysshed them ofte in every synagoge and compelled them to blaspheme: and was yet more mad apon them and persecuted the even vnto straunge cities.

12 About the which thinges as I went to Damasco with auctorite and licence of the hye Prestes

13 even at myddaye (o kynge) I sawe in ye waye a lyght from heven above the brightnes of the sunne shyne rounde about me and them which iorneyed with me.

14 When we were all fallen to the erth I hearde a voyce speakynge vnto me and sayinge in ye Hebrue tonge: Saul Saul why persecutest thou me? It is harde for the to kicke agaynste the pricke.

15 And I sayde: Who arte thou lorde? And he sayde I am Iesus whom thou persecutest.

16 But ryse and stond vp on thy fete. For I have apered vnto the for this purpose to make the a minister and a witnes both of tho thinges which thou hast sene and of tho thinges in the which I will appere vnto the

17 delyverynge the from the people and from ye gentyls vnto which nowe I sende the

18 to open their eyes that they myght turne from darcknes vnto lyght and from the power of Satan vnto God that they maye receave forgevenes of synnes and inheritauce amonge the which are sanctified by fayth in me.