Acts 25:23-26:23 — Legacy Standard Bible

Paul Before Agrippa and Bernice

²³So, on the next day when ^aAgrippa came ¹together with ^bBernice amid great pomp, and entered the hall ²accompanied by the ³commanders and the prominent men of the city, at the order of Festus, Paul was brought in. ²⁴And Festus *said, “King Agrippa, and all you gentlemen here present with us, you see this man about whom ^aall the people of the Jews appealed to me, both at Jerusalem and here, loudly declaring that ^bhe ought not to live any longer. ²⁵“But I found that he had committed ^anothing worthy of death, and since he himself ^bappealed to ¹the Emperor, I decided to send him. ²⁶“¹Yet I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the investigation has taken place, I may have something to write. ²⁷“For it seems absurd to me in sending a prisoner, not to indicate also the charges against him.”

26^aNow Agrippa said to Paul, “You are ¹permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul, stretching out his hand, began to make his defense:

²“Concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I regard myself blessed, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today; ³¹especially because you are an expert in all ^acustoms and ²questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.

⁴“So then, all Jews know ^amy manner of life from my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem; ⁵since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a ^aPharisee ^baccording to the strictest ^csect of our religion. ⁶“And now I am standing here being tried ^afor the hope of ^bthe promise made by God to our fathers; ⁷the promise ^ato which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this ^bhope, O King, I am being ^caccused by Jews. ⁸“Why is it considered unbelievable among all of you ^aif God does raise the dead?

⁹“So then, ^aI thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to ^bthe name of Jesus the Nazarene. ¹⁰“And this is ¹just what I ^adid in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the ²saints in prisons, having ^breceived authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I ^ccast my vote against them. ¹¹“And ^aas I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being ^bfuriously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them ^ceven to ¹foreign cities.

Paul Tells of His Conversion

¹²“¹While so engaged ^aas I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, ¹³at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, ¹brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. ¹⁴“And when we had ^aall fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the ¹^,^bHebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? ²It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ ¹⁵“And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶‘But rise up and ^astand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to ^bappoint you a ^cservant and ^da witness not only to the things which you have ¹seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; ¹⁷^arescuing you ^bfrom the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, ¹⁸to ^aopen their eyes so that they may turn from ^bdarkness to light and from the authority of ^cSatan to God, that they may receive ^dforgiveness of sins and an ^einheritance among those who have been sanctified by ^ffaith in Me.’

¹⁹“So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, ²⁰but kept declaring both ^ato those of Damascus first, and also ^bat Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even ^cto the Gentiles, that they should ^drepent and turn to God, practicing deeds ^eappropriate to repentance. ²¹“For this reason some Jews ^aseized me in the temple and were trying ^bto put me to death. ²²“Therefore, having obtained help from God to this day, I stand here ^abearing witness both to small and great, stating nothing but what ^bthe Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; ²³¹^,^athat the ²Christ was ³to suffer, and ⁴that ^bas first of the resurrection from the dead, He was going to proclaim ^clight both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”