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said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”
So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defence: 2 “I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I will make my defence before you today against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 especially since you are an expert in all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
4 “All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem. 5 They have previously known me for a long time, and if they were willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. 6 And now I stand here on trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. 7 This is the promise our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly serve God day and night. O king, it is for the sake of this hope that I am accused by the Jews. 8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
9 “Indeed, I myself thought that I must do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. When I had received authority from the chief priests, I locked up many of the saints in prison. Then when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 I often went from synagogue to synagogue to force punishment on them, and if I was able, to make them blaspheme. And because I was so enraged with them, I even pursued them to foreign cities to persecute them.
12 “So on one of these journeys I was travelling to Damascus with authority and a commission from the chief priests. 13 About midday while I was on the road, O king, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads’.
15 “So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’
“The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen, and of the things in which I will appear to you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes that they may turn 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’.
19 “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. 20 I preached first to those in Damascus, and then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works that prove their repentance. 21 For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. 22 But I have received help from God to this very day, and I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would take place— 23 that the Christ would suffer, and that as the first to rise from the dead, He would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.”
24 While Paul was delivering his defence this way, Festus exclaimed in a loud voice, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you mad!”
25 But Paul replied, “I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking the sober truth. 26 For the king knows about these matters, and to him I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner! 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”
28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Are you to going to quickly persuade me to become a Christian?”
29 Paul replied, “I wish before God that whether easily or with difficulty not only you, but also everyone who hears me today might become such as I am, except for these chains.”
30 Then the king got up, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them, 31 and when they had left the room, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing that deserves death or chains.”
32 Then Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”