26 So then Agrippa told Paul, “Okay, 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 Yerushalem. 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, your majesty, 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 Yerushalem 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.