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The Acts of the Apostles 26

26 And Agrippa said to Paul, “It is permitted to you to speak about yourself.” Then Paul, stretching out his hand, was defending himself:

2 “Concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa, I consider myself blessed to be about to defend myself before you today, 3 especially you being an expert in all the customs and controversies among the Jews. So I ask you to hear me patiently. 4 Indeed, then, all the Jews know the manner of my life from my youth, having happened from the beginning in my nation and in Jerusalem, 5 knowing me from the beginning, if they wished to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived as a Pharisee. 6 And now I stand here being judged because of hope of the promise made to our fathers by God, 7 to which our 12 tribes hope to attain, serving in earnestness night and day, concerning which hope I am being accused by the Jews, O King. 8 Why is it judged unbelievable among you if God raises the dead? 9 Indeed, for myself, I thought it to be necessary to do many things opposed to the name of Jesus the Nazarene, 10 which I did even in Jerusalem, and I even locked up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were being executed, I cast my vote against them. 11 And often punishing them in all the synagogues, I forced them to blaspheme, and being greatly enraged against them, I persecuted them even as far as to other cities, 12 in which things, traveling to Damascus with authority and a commission from the chief priests, 13 in the middle of the day, along the road, I saw, O King, a light from heaven, beyond the brightness of the sun, shining around me and the ones traveling with me. 14 And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against a goad.’ 15 And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 16 But get up and stand on your feet, because for this I have appeared to you, to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things in which you have seen me and of the things in which I will be shown to you, 17 rescuing you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes to turn from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, for them to receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among the ones having been sanctified by faith in me.’ 19 Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but first to the ones in Damascus and also in Jerusalem and the whole region of Judea and to the Gentiles I declared to repent and turn to God, doing deeds worthy of repentance. 21 Because of these things, the Jews, having seized me in the temple, were trying to kill me. 22 Therefore, having received help from God up to this day, I stand, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except the things that both the prophets and Moses said were going to happen— 23 if the Christ would be a sufferer, if he, the first from the resurrection of the dead, was going to proclaim light both to the people and to the Gentiles.”

24 And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus says in a loud voice, “Paul, you are insane! Great learning is turning you to insanity.” 25 But Paul says, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking words of truth and of sanity. 26 For the king knows about these things—to whom indeed, speaking boldly, I am talking—for I am not persuaded at all that any of these things eludes him, for this has not been done in a corner. 27 Do you believe the prophets, King Agrippa? I know that you believe.” 28 But Agrippa said to Paul, “In little are you persuading me to make me a Christian?” 29 But Paul replied, “I would wish to God, either in little or in much, that not only you but also all the ones hearing me today would become such as I also am—without these chains.”

30 Then the king got up, and the governor and Bernice and the ones sitting with them, 31 and having left, they were talking to one another, saying, “This man is not doing anything worthy of death or of chains.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man was able to have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

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