1 Turning to Paul, Agrippa said:
“You are at liberty to speak for yourself.”
Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defence.
2 “I have been congratulating myself, King Agrippa,” he
said, “that it is before you that I have to make my defence today,
with regard to all the charges brought against me by
Jews,
3 especially as you are so well-versed in all the customs
-- --
and questions of the Jewish world. I beg you therefore to
give me a patient hearing. ⪆⪆
4 My life, then, from youth
upwards, was passed, from the very first, among my own
nation, and in Jerusalem, and is within the knowledge of
all Jews;
5 and they have always known—if they choose to give
evidence—that, in accordance with the very strictest form of
our religion, I lived a true Pharisee.
6 Even now, it is because
of my hope in the promise given by God to our ancestors that
I stand here on my trial—a promise which our Twelve Tribes,
7
by earnest service night and day, hope to see fulfilled. It is
for this hope, your Majesty, that I am accused—and by Jews
themselves!
8 Why do you all hold it incredible that God
should raise the dead? ⪆⪆
9 I myself, it is true, once
thought it my duty to oppose in every way the Name of
Jesus of Nazareth;
10 and I actually did so at Jerusalem.
Acting on the authority of the Chief Priests, I myself threw
many of the People of Christ into prison, and, when it was proposed
to put them to death, I gave my vote for it.
11 Time after
time, in every Synagogue, I tried by punishments to force
them to blaspheme. So frantic was I against them, that I
pursued them even to towns beyond our borders. ⪆⪆
12 It
was while I was travelling to Damascus on an errand of this
kind,
13 entrusted with full powers by the Chief Priests, that at
mid-day, your Majesty, I saw right in my path, coming from
the heavens, a light brighter than the glare of the sun, which
shone all round me and those travelling with me.
14 We all fell
to the ground, and then I heard a voice saying to me in
Hebrew—‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? By
kicking against the goad you are punishing yourself.’
15 ‘Who
are you, Lord?’ I asked. And the Lord said: ‘I am Jesus,
whom you are persecuting;
16 but get up and stand upright;
for I have appeared to you in order to appoint you a servant
and a witness of those revelations of me which you have
already had, and of those in which I shall yet appear to you, note
17 since I am choosing you out from your own people and from
the Gentiles, note
18 to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, and
to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of
Satan to God; so that they may receive pardon for their sins,
and a place among those who have become God's People, by
faith in me.’ note ⪆⪆
19 After that, King Agrippa, I did not fail to
obey the heavenly vision;
20 on the contrary, first to those at
Damascus and Jerusalem, and then through the whole of
Judaea, and to the Gentiles as well, I began to preach repentance
and conversion to God, and a life befitting that repentance.
21 This is why the Jews seized me in the Temple, and made
attempts upon my life.
22 However I have received help from
God to this very day, and so stand here, and bear my
testimony to high and low alike—without adding a word to
-- --
what the Prophets, as well as Moses, declared should happen
—that the Christ must suffer,
23 and that, by rising from the
dead, he was destined to be the first to bring news of Light, not
only to our nation, but also to the Gentiles.”
24 While Paul was making this defence, Festus called out
loudly:
“You are mad, Paul; your great learning is driving you
mad.”
25 “I am not mad, your Excellency,” he replied; “on the
contrary, the statements that I am making are true and sober.
26 Indeed, the King knows about these matters, so I speak
before him without constraint. I am sure that there is
nothing whatever of what I have been telling him that has
escaped his attention; for all this has not been done in a
corner.
27 King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know
you do.”
28 But Agrippa said to Paul:
“You are soon trying to make a Christian of me!”
29 “Whether it is soon or late,” answered Paul, “I would to
God that not only you, but all who are listening to me, might
to-day become just what I am myself—except for these
chains!”
30 Then the King rose, with the Governor and Bernice and
those who had been sitting with them,
31 and, after retiring, discussed
the case among themselves.
“There is nothing,” they said, “deserving death or imprisonment
in this man's conduct”;
32 and, speaking to Festus,
Agrippa added:
“The man might have been discharged, if he had not
appealed to the Emperor.”
Twentieth Century [1904], THE TWENTIETH CENTURY NEW TESTAMENT A TRANSLATION INTO MODERN ENGLISH Made from the Original Greek (Westcott & Hort's Text) (The Fleming H. Revell Company, NEW YORK & CHICAGO) [word count] [B14200].