Acts 26:9–20

⁹‘I, indeed, therefore, thought with myself, that against the name of Jesus of Nazareth it behoved me many things to do, ¹⁰which also I did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I in prison did shut up, from the chief priests having received the authority; they also being put to death, I gave my vote against them, ¹¹and 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 unto strange cities.

¹²‘In which things, also, going on to Damascus—with authority and commission from the chief priests— ¹³at mid-day, I saw in the way, O king, out of heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me a light—and those going on with me; ¹⁴and we all having fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why me dost thou persecute? hard for thee against pricks to kick!

¹⁵‘And I said, Who art thou, Lord? and he said, I am Jesus whom thou dost persecute; ¹⁶but rise, and stand upon thy feet, for for this I appeared to thee, to appoint thee an officer and a witness both of the things thou didst see, and of the things in which I will appear to thee, ¹⁷delivering thee from the people, and the nations, to whom now I send thee, ¹⁸to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the authority of the Adversary unto God, for their receiving forgiveness of sins, and a lot among those having been sanctified, by faith that is toward me.

¹⁹‘Whereupon, king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, ²⁰but to those in Damascus first, and to those in Jerusalem, to all the region also of Judea, and to the nations, I was preaching to reform, and to turn back unto God, doing works worthy of reformation;