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          DASV: Acts 26    

1 Agrippa said to Paul, "You are permitted to speak for yourself."
Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense:
2 "I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am able
to make my defense before you today against all the accusations
I am accused of by the Jews,
3 especially because you are expert in all customs and
controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg your patience
as you listen to me.
4 All the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which
was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem.
5 They have known me for a long time, if they are willing
to admit it, that I lived according to the strictest sect
of our religion as a Pharisee.
6 Now I stand here to be judged for my hope in the promise
made by God to our forefathers,
7 to the promise our twelve tribes hope to attain as they
earnestly worship God day and night. It is concerning this
hope that I am accused by the Jews, O king!
8 Why is it considered incredible to any of you, that God
raises the dead?
9 Truly I myself thought that I ought to do many things against
the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 And that is exactly what I did in Jerusalem. I both
locked up many of the saints in prisons, having received
authority from the chief priests. I cast my vote against
them when they were being sentenced to death.
11 I often punished them in all the synagogues, I tried to
force them to blaspheme; and being in a furious rage against
them, I persecuted them even in foreign cities.

12 It was for that reason I was traveling to Damascus with the
authority and commission of the chief priests;
13 at midday, O king, I saw on the road a light from heaven,
brighter than the sun, shining around me and my traveling
companions.
14 When we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice
saying to me in Aramaic, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting
me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'
15 I replied, 'Who are you, Lord?' The Lord said, 'I am Jesus
whom you are persecuting.
16 But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to
you for this reason, to appoint you both as a minister and
a witness of the things you have seen of me and what I will
show you.
17 I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles,
to whom I am sending 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 an inheritance among those
who are sanctified by faith in me.'

19 Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the
heavenly vision,
20 but declared first to those of Damascus and then at
Jerusalem, and throughout all Judea, and also to the
Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God,
performing works worthy of repentance.
21 For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple, and
tried to kill me.
22 Therefore having obtained help from God, I stand here
today testifying to both small and great, saying nothing
but what the prophets and Moses predicted was going to
happen:
23 how that the Messiah must suffer, and that he would be
the first to rise from the dead to proclaim light to
both the Jewish people and the Gentiles."

24 As he was making his defense, Festus shouted, "Paul,
you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving
you crazy."
25 But Paul said, "I am not insane, most excellent Festus;
but speak words of truth and soberness.
26 For the king knows about these things, so I am able to
speak freely with him. For I am persuaded that none of
these things has been hidden from him; for this has not
been done in a corner.
27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that
you do."
28 Agrippa said to Paul, "In such a short time are you
able to persuade me to become a Christian?"
29 Paul replied, "I would to God, that whether with little
or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me
today, might become like I am, except for these chains."

30 Then the king got up, along with the governor and
Bernice, and those who were sitting with them.
31 When they had withdrawn, they spoke to each other,
saying, "This man is not doing anything worthy of
death or imprisonment."
32 Agrippa said to Festus, "This man might have been
set free, if he had not appealed to Caesar."

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