Acts 26 — ULB
26Verse 1So Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense.Verse 2“I regard myself as happy, King Agrippa, to make my case before you today against all the accusations of the Jews;Verse 3especially, because you are an expert in all the Jewish customs and questions. So I ask you to hear me patiently.Verse 4Truly, all the Jews know how I lived from my youth in my own nation and at Jerusalem.Verse 5They knew me from the beginning and they should admit that I lived as a Pharisee, the strictest party of our religion.Verse 6Now I stand here to be judged because of my certain hope in the promise made by God to our fathers.Verse 7For this is the promise that our twelve tribes sought to receive as they earnestly worshiped God night and day. It is for this certain hope, King Agrippa, that the Jews accuse me.Verse 8Why should any of you think it is unbelievable that God raises the dead?Verse 9Now indeed, I myself thought that I should do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.Verse 10I did these in Jerusalem. I locked up many of the saints in prison by the authority I received from the chief priests, and when they were killed, I cast my vote against them.Verse 11I punished them many times in all the synagogues and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was furiously enraged against them and I persecuted them even to foreign cities.Verse 12While I was doing this, I went to Damascus with authority and orders from the chief priests;Verse 13and on the way there, at midday, King, I saw a light from heaven that was brighter than the sun and it shone around both me and the men who were traveling with me.Verse 14When we all fell to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me that said in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick a goad.'Verse 15Then I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' The Lord replied, 'I am Jesus whom you persecute.Verse 16Now get up and stand on your feet; because for this purpose I appeared to you, to appoint you to be a servant and a witness concerning the things that you know about me now and the things that I will show to you later;Verse 17and I will rescue you from the people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you,Verse 18to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive from God the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance that I give to them who are sanctified by faith in me.'Verse 19Therefore, King Agrippa, I did not disobey the heavenly vision;Verse 20but, to those in Damascus first, and then at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, I gave them the message that that they should repent and turn to God, doing deeds worthy of repentance.Verse 21For this cause the Jews arrested me in the temple and tried to kill me.Verse 22God has helped me until now, so I stand and testify to the common people and to the great ones about nothing more than what the prophets and Moses said would happen—Verse 23that Christ must suffer and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to our own people and to the Gentiles.”Verse 24As Paul completed his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are insane; your great learning makes you insane.”Verse 25But Paul said, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus, but what I am declaring is true and rational.Verse 26For the king knows about these things; and so, I speak freely to him, for I am persuaded that none of this is hidden from him; for this has not been done in a corner.Verse 27Do you believe the prophets, King Agrippa? I know that you believe.”Verse 28Agrippa said to Paul, “In a short time would you persuade me and make me a Christian?”Verse 29Paul said, “I pray to God, that whether in a short or long time, not you only, but also all that hear me today, would be like me, but without these prison chains.”Verse 30Then the king stood up, and the governor, and Bernice also, and those who were sitting with them;Verse 31when they left the hall, they talked to one another and said, “This man does nothing worthy of death or of bonds.”Verse 32Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been freed if he had not appealed to Caesar.”