Acts 26:4-19

⁴Truly, all the Jews know how I lived from my youth in my own nation and at Jerusalem.

⁵They knew me from the beginning and they should admit that I lived as a Pharisee, the strictest party of our religion.

⁶Now I stand here to be judged because of my certain hope in the promise made by God to our fathers.

⁷For this is the promise that our twelve tribes sought to receive as they earnestly worshiped God night and day. It is for this certain hope, King Agrippa, that the Jews accuse me.

⁸Why should any of you think it is unbelievable that God raises the dead?

⁹Now indeed, I myself thought that I should do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰I did these in Jerusalem. I locked up many of the saints in prison by the authority I received from the chief priests, and when they were killed, I cast my vote against them.

¹¹I punished them many times in all the synagogues and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was furiously enraged against them and I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

¹²While I was doing this, I went to Damascus with authority and orders from the chief priests;

¹³and on the way there, at midday, King, I saw a light from heaven that was brighter than the sun and it shone around both me and the men who were traveling with me.

¹⁴When we all fell to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me that said in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick a goad.'

¹⁵Then I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' The Lord replied, 'I am Jesus whom you persecute.

¹⁶Now get up and stand on your feet; because for this purpose I appeared to you, to appoint you to be a servant and a witness concerning the things that you know about me now and the things that I will show to you later;

¹⁷and I will rescue you from the people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you,

¹⁸to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive from God the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance that I give to them who are sanctified by faith in me.'

¹⁹Therefore, King Agrippa, I did not disobey the heavenly vision;