Acts
26
- Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You have
permission to speak for yourself." So Paul motioned with his hand and
began his defense:
- "King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate
to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations
of the Jews,
- and especially so because you are well acquainted
with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen
to me patiently.
- "The Jews all know the way I have lived
ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country,
and also in Jerusalem.
- They have known me for a long time and can
testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our
religion, I lived as a Pharisee.
- And now it is because of my hope in what
God has promised our fathers that I am on trial today.
- This is the promise our twelve tribes are
hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. O king,
it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me.
- Why should any of you consider it incredible
that God raises the dead ?
- "I too was convinced that I ought to
do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
- And that is just what I did in Jerusalem.
On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison,
and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
- Many a time I went from one synagogue to
another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In
my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.
- "On one of these journeys I was going
to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.
- About noon, O king, as I was on the road,
I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my
companions.
- We all fell to the ground, and I heard a
voice saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is
hard for you to kick against the goads.'
- "Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?'
"'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied.
- 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have
appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have
seen of me and what I will show you.
- I will rescue you from your own people and
from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them
- to open their eyes and turn them from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness
of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'
- "So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient
to the vision from heaven.
- First to those in Damascus, then to those
in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they
should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.
- That is why the Jews seized me in the temple
courts and tried to kill me.
- But I have had God's help to this very day,
and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing
beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen
--
- that the Christ would suffer and, as the
first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to
the Gentiles."
- At this point Festus interrupted Paul's defense.
"You are out of your mind, Paul!" he shouted. "Your great learning
is driving you insane."
- "I am not insane, most excellent Festus,"
Paul replied. "What I am saying is true and reasonable.
- The king is familiar with these things, and
I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his
notice, because it was not done in a corner.
- King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?
I know you do."
- Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think
that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian
?"
- Paul replied, "Short time or long--I
pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become
what I am, except for these chains."
- The king rose, and with him the governor
and Bernice and those sitting with them.
- They left the room, and while talking with
one another, they said, "This man is not doing anything that deserves
death or imprisonment."
- Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could
have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar."
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