Acts 26

CHAPTER 26

^1aNow Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul, stretching out his hand, began to make his defense:

²“Concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I regard myself blessed, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today;

³¹especially because you are an expert in all ^acustoms and ²questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“So then, all Jews know ^amy manner of life from my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem;

⁵since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a ^aPharisee ^baccording to the strictest ^csect of our religion.

⁶“And now I am standing here being tried ^afor the hope of ^bthe promise made by God to our fathers;

⁷the promise ^ato which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this ^bhope, O King, I am being ^caccused by Jews.

⁸“Why is it considered unbelievable among all of you ^aif God does raise the dead?

⁹“So then, ^aI thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to ^bthe name of Jesus the Nazarene.

¹⁰“And this is ¹just what I ^adid in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the ²saints in prisons, having ^breceived authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I ^ccast my vote against them.

¹¹“And ^aas I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being ^bfuriously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them ^ceven to ¹foreign cities.

Paul Tells of His Conversion

¹²“¹While so engaged ^aas I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,

¹³at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, ¹brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.

¹⁴“And when we had ^aall fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the ^1bHebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? ²It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵“And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹⁶‘But rise up and ^astand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to ^bappoint you a ^cservant and ^da witness not only to the things which you have ¹seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you;

^17arescuing you ^bfrom the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you,

¹⁸to ^aopen their eyes so that they may turn from ^bdarkness to light and from the authority of ^cSatan to God, that they may receive ^dforgiveness of sins and an ^einheritance among those who have been sanctified by ^ffaith in Me.’

¹⁹“So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

²⁰but kept declaring both ^ato those of Damascus first, and also ^bat Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even ^cto the Gentiles, that they should ^drepent and turn to God, practicing deeds ^eappropriate to repentance.

²¹“For this reason some Jews ^aseized me in the temple and were trying ^bto put me to death.

²²“Therefore, having obtained help from God to this day, I stand here ^abearing witness both to small and great, stating nothing but what ^bthe Prophets and Moses said was going to take place;

^231athat the ²Christ was ³to suffer, and ⁴that ^bas first of the resurrection from the dead, He was going to proclaim ^clight both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

²⁴Now while ¹Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus ^*said in a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind! ²Great ^alearning is driving you out of your mind.”

²⁵But Paul ^*said, “I am not out of my mind, ^amost excellent Festus, but I utter words ¹of sober truth.

²⁶“For the king ^1aknows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a ²corner.

²⁷“King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know you believe.”

²⁸But Agrippa replied to Paul, “¹In such short time ²are you persuading me to become a ^aChristian?”

²⁹And Paul said, “I would pray to God, that whether ¹in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these ^achains.”

^30aAnd the king stood up and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them,

³¹and when they had gone aside, they began talking to one another, saying, “^aThis man is not doing anything worthy of death or ¹imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been ^aset free if he had not ^bappealed to Caesar.”