Acts, Chapter 26
{26:1} Agrippa said to Sha'ul, "You may speak for yourself."
Then Sha'ul 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 whereof I am accused by the
Yehudim, {26:3} especially because you are expert in all customs and
questions which are among the Yehudim. Therefore I beg you to hear me
patiently.
{26:4} "Indeed, all the Yehudim know my way of life from my youth
up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at
Yerushalayim; {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 Parush. {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 Yehudim, King Agrippa! {26:8} Why is it
judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
{26:9} "I most assuredly thought with myself that I ought to do many
things contrary to the name of Yeshua of Natzeret. {26:10} This I also
did in Yerushalayim. I both shut up many of the holy ones in prisons,
having received authority from the chief [1>]Kohanim[<1], 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 journeyed to Dammesek with the authority and
commission from the chief [2>]Kohanim[<2], {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 [3>]eretz[<3], I heard a voice saying to me in the
Hebrew language, 'Sha'ul, Sha'ul, why do you persecute me? It is hard
for you to kick against the goad.' {26:15} I said, 'Who are you,
Lord?' He said, 'I am Yeshua, whom you persecute. {26:16} But arise,
and stand on your feet, for to this end have I appeared to you, 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 Goyim, to whom I send you, {26:18}
to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from
the power of Hasatan 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 Dammesek, at
Yerushalayim, and throughout all the country of Yehudah, and also to
the Goyim, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy
of repentance. {26:21} For this reason the Yehudim 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 Moshe did say
should come, {26:23} how the Messiah must suffer, and how he first by
the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to these
people and to the Goyim."
{26:24} As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice,
"Sha'ul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!"
{26:25} But he said, "I am not crazy, most excellent Festus, but
speak forth words of truth and soberness. {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 Sha'ul, "With a little persuasion are you
trying to make me a Messianic?"
{26:29} Sha'ul 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, and 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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Footnotes:
[1] {26:10} priests
[2] {26:12} priests
[3] {26:14} earth
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