Acts 26:3-9

³especially 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.

⁴My 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;

⁵and 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.

⁶Even now, it is because of my hope in the promise given by God to our ancestors that I stand here on my trial —

⁷A promise which our twelve tribes, 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!

⁸Why do you all hold it incredible that God should raise the dead?

⁹I myself, it is true, once thought it my duty to oppose in every way the name of Jesus of Nazareth;