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The Acts of the Emissaries, Chapter 26
{26:1} Agrippa said to Paul, "You may speak for yourself."
Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense. {26:2} "I
think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before
you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the
Judeans, {26:3} especially because you are expert in all customs and
questions which are among Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me
patiently.
{26:4} "Indeed, all Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which
was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem; {26:5}
having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that
after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. {26:6}
Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God
to our fathers, {26:7} which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving
night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by
the Judeans, King Agrippa! {26:8} Why is it judged incredible with
you, if God does raise the dead?
{26:9} "I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many
things contrary to the name of Yeshua of Nazareth. {26:10} This I also
did in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the holy ones in prisons,
having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were
put to death I gave my vote against them. {26:11} Punishing them often
in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being
exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign
cities.
{26:12} "Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and
commission from the chief priests, {26:13} at noon, O king, I saw on
the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me
and those who traveled with me. {26:14} When we had all fallen to the
earth, 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.'
{26:15} "I said, 'Who are you, Lord?'
"He said, 'I am Yeshua, whom you are persecuting. {26:16} But arise,
and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose:
to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you
have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you; {26:17}
delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send
you, {26:18} to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to
light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive
remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by
faith in me.'
{26:19} "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the
heavenly vision, {26:20} but declared first to them of Damascus, at
Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the
Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy
of repentance. {26:21} For this reason Jews seized me in the temple,
and tried to kill me. {26:22} Having therefore obtained the help that
is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great,
saying nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said would happen,
{26:23} how the Messiah must suffer, and how, by the resurrection of
the dead, he would be first to proclaim light both to these people and
to the Gentiles."
{26:24} As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice,
"Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!"
{26:25} But he said, "I am not crazy, most excellent Festus, but
boldly declare words of truth and reasonableness. {26:26} For the king
knows of these things, to whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded
that none of these things is hidden from him, for this has not been
done in a corner. {26:27} King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I
know that you believe."
{26:28} Agrippa said to Paul, "With a little persuasion are you
trying to make me a Messianic?"
{26:29} Paul said, "I pray to God, that whether with little or with
much, not only you, but also all that hear me this day, might become
such as I am, except for these bonds."
{26:30} The king rose up with the governor, and Bernice, and those
who sat with them. {26:31} When they had withdrawn, they spoke one to
another, saying, "This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds."
{26:32} Agrippa said to Festus, "This man might have been set free if
he had not appealed to Caesar."
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