Acts 26–28

26Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and ^aanswered for himself:

²I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall ^aanswer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am ^baccused of the Jews: ³Especially because I know thee to be expert in all ^ccustoms and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. ⁴My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; ⁵Which knew me ^dfrom the beginning, if they would testify, ^ethat after ^fthe most straitest sect of our ^greligion I lived ^ha Pharisee. ⁶And now I stand and am judged for ⁱthe hope of ^jthe promise made of God unto our fathers: ⁷Unto which promise ^kour twelve tribes, ^linstantly serving ^mGod ^†day and night, hope ⁿto come. For which hope’s sake, king Agrippa, I am ^baccused of the Jews. ⁸Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? ⁹I verily thought with myself, ^othat I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ^10pWhich thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the ^qsaints did I shut up in prison, having ^rreceived authority from the chief priests; and ^swhen they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. ¹¹And ^tI punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and ^ubeing exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. ^12wWhereupon ^xas I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, ¹³At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. ¹⁴And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in ^ythe Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. ¹⁵And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. ¹⁶But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to ^zmake thee ^aa minister and a ^bwitness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; ¹⁷Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, ^cunto whom now I send thee, ^18dTo open their eyes, and to turn them ^efrom darkness to light, and from the ^fpower of Satan unto God, that they may receive ^gforgiveness of sins, and ^hinheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. ¹⁹Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: ²⁰But shewed ⁱfirst unto them of Damascus, and ^kat Jerusalem, and ^lthroughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then ^mto the Gentiles, that they should repent and ⁿturn to God, and do works ^omeet for repentance. ²¹For these causes ^pthe Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me. ²²Having therefore obtained ^qhelp of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to ^rsmall and great, saying none other things than those which ^sthe prophets and ^sMoses did say should come: ²³That Christ ^tshould suffer, and that he should be ^uthe first that should rise from the dead, and should shew ^xlight unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

²⁴And as he thus ^yspake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, ^zthou art beside thyself; much ^alearning doth make thee mad. ²⁵But he said, I am not ^zcmad, ^bmost noble Festus; but speak forth the words of truth and ^csoberness. ²⁶For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I ^dspeak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner. ²⁷King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. ²⁸Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a ^eChristian. ²⁹And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except ^fthese bonds. ³⁰And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and ^gthe governor, and ^hBernice, and ^hthey that sat with them: ³¹And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, ⁱThis man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. ³²Then said Agrippa unto Festus, ^jThis man might have been set at liberty, if he had not ^kappealed unto Caesar.

27And when ^ait was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus’ ^bband. ²And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of ^cAsia; one ^dAristarchus, a Macedonian of ^eThessalonica, being with us. ³And the next day we touched at ^fSidon. And Julius ^gcourteously entreated Paul, and ^hgave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself. ⁴And when we had launched from thence, we ⁱsailed under ^jCyprus, because the winds were contrary. ⁵And when we had sailed over the sea of ^kCilicia and ^lPamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of ^mLycia. ⁶And there the centurion found ⁿa ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy; and he put us therein. ⁷And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were come over against ^mCnidus, ^othe wind not suffering us, we ⁱsailed under ^||pCrete, over against Salmone; ⁸And, hardly ^qpassing it, came unto a place which is called The fair havens; nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea. ⁹Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because ^*the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them, ¹⁰And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with ^||rhurt and much ^rdamage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. ¹¹Nevertheless the centurion believed the ^smaster and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul. ¹²And because the haven was not commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to Phenice, and there to winter; which is an haven of ^pCrete, and lieth toward the south west and north west. ¹³And when the south wind blew softly, supposing that they had obtained their ^tpurpose, loosing thence, they ^qsailed close by ^pCrete. ¹⁴But not long after there ^||arose ^uagainst it a tempestuous wind, called Euroclydon. ¹⁵And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up into the wind, we let her drive. ¹⁶And running under a certain island which is called Clauda, we had much work to come by the boat: ¹⁷Which when they had taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship; and, fearing lest they should ^vfall into the quicksands, strake sail, and so were driven. ¹⁸And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they ^wlightened the ship; ¹⁹And the third day we ^wcast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship. ²⁰And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away. ²¹But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ^xye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from ^pCrete, and to have gained this ^rharm and ^rloss. ²²And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship. ²³For ^ythere ^zstood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and ^awhom I serve, ²⁴Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath ^bgiven thee all them that sail with thee. ²⁵Wherefore, sirs, ^cbe of good cheer: ^dfor I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. ²⁶Howbeit ^ewe must be ^fcast upon a certain island.

²⁷But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country; ²⁸And sounded, and found it twenty fathoms: and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again, and found it fifteen fathoms. ²⁹Then fearing lest we should have ^ffallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day. ³⁰And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down ^gthe boat into the sea, ^hunder colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship, ³¹Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. ³²Then the soldiers cut off the ⁱropes of the boat, and ^jlet her ^ffall off. ³³And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. ³⁴Wherefore I pray you to take some meat: for this is for your health: for ^kthere shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you. ³⁵And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and ^lgave thanks to God in presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat. ³⁶Then were they all ^cof good cheer, and they also took some meat. ³⁷And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen ^msouls. ³⁸And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, and cast out the wheat into the sea. ³⁹And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship. ⁴⁰And when they had ^||taken up ^othe anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and ^ploosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore. ⁴¹And falling into a place where two seas met, ^qthey ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. ⁴²And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape. ⁴³But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land: ⁴⁴And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came…