OET-RV ACTs Chapter 26

26 So then Agrippa told Paul, “Ok, you can give your side now then.”

So Paul gestured with his hand and began:

2 “Concerning all the charges which have been brought against me by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate 3 because you’re an expert on Jewish customs and issues, so I ask you to listen to me patiently.

4 “All the Jews know about my early life, from my upbringing in my own country and then in Yerusalem. 5 They also know, and could even testify to you if they would admit it, that I followed our religious laws very closely as a member of the Pharisees party. 6 Yet now I stand judged for believing in the same hope as our ancestors—that hope promised by our God 7 who we twelve tribes diligently serve day and night in order to obtain—the hope, oh king, for which I’m being indicted. 8 So why do you all find it unbelievable that God can raise the dead?

9 “I too originally thought it necessary to do many things to oppose the cause of this Yeshua from Nazareth. 10 So in Yerusalem I worked to have many of these innocent believers locked up in prison with the authority of the chief priests, or if they were to be killed, I would add my vote against them. 11 And in all the Jewish meeting halls, when I found believers I punished them and forced them to curse God and treated them with extreme anger, even travelling to further away towns.

12 So it was one time travelling to Damascus carrying permission letters from the chief priests 13 that in the middle of the day, oh king, I saw a bright light from the sky—even brighter than the sun—and it shone on me and my companions. 14 All of us fell down to the ground and I heard a voice speaking to me in Hebrew saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Life will be difficult for you if resist me.” 15 “Who are you, master?” I asked.

And the master responded, “I am Yeshua, the one you’re persecuting. 16 Now get up, because I let you see me in order to appoint you as my servant and my witness—to tell the people what you’ve seen and what you will be shown. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the non-Jews that I’m sending you out to, 18 to open their minds and for them to turn back from darkness to light and from Satan’s power to God, so that they can be forgiven for their sins and receive an inheritance among the ones who’ve been made guiltless by their faith in me.”

19 “So then, King Agrippa, I couldn’t disobey that vision 20 so I preached first to those in Damascus and then in Yerusalem and all of Yudea, and then in the towns of the non-Jews. I preached about turning from their sins and turning back to God, and then actually living like people who had repented. 21 It was because of these things that the Jews grabbed me in the temple and tried to do me in. 22 So it is that with God’s help until this very day I have stood testifying to commoners and leaders, teaching nothing other than what Moses and the prophets had already written that would happen—23 that the messiah would come and suffer and as the first of the dead to come back to life, he is going to be proclaiming light to both Jews and non-Jews.”

24 Then speaking about Paul’s defence, Governor Festus said, “Paul, you’re stark, raving mad! All your education has turned you into an idiot.”

25 But Paul said, “I haven’t gone mad, most excellent Festus, but I’m speaking the truth in all seriousness. 26 The king knows what I’m talking about and that’s why I’m speaking boldly, because none of these things were done in a corner and I’m sure that none of it has escaped his notice. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe what the prophets wrote? Yes, I’m sure you do.

28 But Agrippa answered Paul, “Do you think you can talk me into becoming a follower of the messiah in just that short time?”

29 “I hope to God”, said Paul, “whether it takes a short time or a long time, that both you and the others listening today will become just like me except for these chains.”

30 Then the king and the governor both stood, along with Bernice and the others sitting with them 31 and as they left they were saying to each other, “That man hasn’t done anything deserving of death or imprisonment.”

32 “Yes, he could have been set free,” replied Agrippa, “if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar.”