King James Version › Acts › 26

Acts

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1 Then Agrip­pa said unto Paul, Thou art per­mit­ted to speak for thy­self. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and an­swered for him­self: 2 I think my­self hap­py, king Agrip­pa, be­cause I shall an­swer for my­self this day be­fore thee touch­ing all the things where­of I am ac­cused of the Jews: 3 Es­pe­cial­ly be­cause I know thee to be ex­pert in all cus­toms and ques­tions which are among the Jews: where­fore I be­seech thee to hear me pa­tient­ly. 4 My man­ner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own na­tion at Jerusalem, know all the Jews; 5 Which knew me from the be­gin­ning, if they would tes­ti­fy, that af­ter the most straitest sect of our re­li­gion I lived a Phar­isee. 6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fa­thers: 7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, in­stant­ly serv­ing God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrip­pa, I am ac­cused of the Jews. 8 Why should it be thought a thing in­cred­i­ble with you, that God should raise the dead? 9 I ver­i­ly thought with my­self, that I ought to do many things con­trary to the name of Je­sus of Nazareth. 10 Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, hav­ing re­ceived au­thor­i­ty from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. 11 And I pun­ished them oft in ev­ery syn­a­gogue, and com­pelled them to blas­pheme; and be­ing ex­ceed­ing­ly mad against them, I per­se­cut­ed them even unto strange cities. 12 Where­upon as I went to Dam­as­cus with au­thor­i­ty and com­mis­sion from the chief priests, 13 At mid­day, O king, I saw in the way a light from heav­en, above the bright­ness of the sun, shin­ing round about me and them which jour­neyed with me. 14 And when we were all fall­en to the earth, I heard a voice speak­ing unto me, and say­ing in the He­brew tongue, Saul, Saul, why per­se­cutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 15 And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Je­sus whom thou per­se­cutest. 16 But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have ap­peared unto thee for this pur­pose, to make thee a min­is­ter and a wit­ness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will ap­pear unto thee; 17 De­liv­er­ing thee from the peo­ple, and from the Gen­tiles, unto whom now I send thee, 18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from dark­ness to light, and from the pow­er of Sa­tan unto God, that they may re­ceive for­give­ness of sins, and in­her­i­tance among them which are sanc­ti­fied by faith that is in me. 19 Where­upon, O king Agrip­pa, I was not dis­obe­di­ent unto the heav­en­ly vi­sion: 20 But shewed first unto them of Dam­as­cus, and at Jerusalem, and through­out all the coasts of Ju­daea, and then to the Gen­tiles, that they should re­pent and turn to God, and do works meet for re­pen­tance. 21 For these caus­es the Jews caught me in the tem­ple, and went about to kill me. 22 Hav­ing there­fore ob­tained help of God, I con­tin­ue unto this day, wit­ness­ing both to small and great, say­ing none oth­er things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: 23 That Christ should suf­fer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the peo­ple, and to the Gen­tiles. 24 And as he thus spake for him­self, Fes­tus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art be­side thy­self; much learn­ing doth make thee mad. 25 But he said, I am not mad, most no­ble Fes­tus; but speak forth the words of truth and sober­ness. 26 For the king knoweth of these things, be­fore whom also I speak freely: for I am per­suad­ed that none of these things are hid­den from him; for this thing was not done in a cor­ner. 27 King Agrip­pa, be­lievest thou the prophets? I know that thou be­lievest. 28 Then Agrip­pa said unto Paul, Al­most thou per­suadest me to be a Chris­tian. 29 And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both al­most, and al­to­geth­er such as I am, ex­cept these bonds. 30 And when he had thus spo­ken, the king rose up, and the gov­er­nor, and Ber­nice, and they that sat with them: 31 And when they were gone aside, they talked be­tween them­selves, say­ing, This man doeth noth­ing wor­thy of death or of bonds. 32 Then said Agrip­pa unto Fes­tus, This man might have been set at lib­er­ty, if he had not ap­pealed unto Cae­sar.