Acts 26:4-18

⁴My manner of life, then, from my youth, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem, all Jews know:

⁵and they know, if they are willing to testify, that from the first, according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee.

⁶And now I stand on trial for the hope of the promise made by God to the fathers,

⁷which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God day and night, hope to obtain; concerning which hope, O king, I am accused by Jews.

⁸Why is it judged incredible with you if God raiseth the dead?

⁹I indeed thought with myself that I ought to do many things in opposition to the name of Jesus the Nazarene.

¹⁰Which I also did in Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I myself shut up in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.

¹¹And I punished them often in all the synagogues, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.

¹²And as I was going to Damascus on this business, with authority and a commission from the chief priests,

¹³at mid-day, on the road, O king, I saw a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining around me and those who were journeying with me.

¹⁴And when we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking to me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.

¹⁵And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.

¹⁶But arise and stand upon thy feet; for I have appeared to thee for this purpose, to prepare thee as a minister and a witness both of the things which thou sawest, and of those on account of which I will appear to thee;

¹⁷delivering thee from the people, and from the gentiles, to whom I send thee,

¹⁸to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among the sanctified, by faith in me.