1 Agrippa, then, to Paul, said, “ˢYou have permission to speak on your own behalf.” Paul, then, stretching out his hand, began to present his defense: 2 “In regard to all the things of which I am being accused by the Jewish authorities, King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate that it is ˢyou before whom I am about to make my defense today, 3 exceptionally familiar as ˢyou are with all the Jewish customs and controversies. That is why I beg ˢyou to listen to me patiently.

4 “While, therefore, on the one hand, my manner of life from the time I was young, which took shape among my own people and in Jerusalem from my earliest days, is well-known to all the Jewish authorities, 5 knowing about me as they have for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that it was according to the standard of the strictest party of our religion that I lived my life as a Pharisee, 6 at present it is because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers that I am standing here on trial, 7 in whose fulfillment our twelve tribes, as they serve God so earnestly day and night and night and day, are hoping to share, in regard to which hope I am being accused by the Jewish leaders, O king. 8 Why do ᵖyou find it so impossible to believe that God raises the dead?

9 “While I myself, therefore, thought it my duty to do absolutely everything I could, on the one hand, to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth, 10 that I did in fact do in Jerusalem, on the other; many of the Lord’s holy people I had locked up in prisons, having received authority to do this from the chief priests themselves, and when they were being sentenced to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 From one synagogue to the next giving orders for them to be punished, I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so insanely angry at them, in fact, that I went even to cities outside the country to persecute them. 12 On one such occasion, while I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and full permission of the high priests, 13 at midday, as I was on the road, I saw shining all around me and my traveling companions, O king, a light from heaven, brighter than the sun. 14 When all of us had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,+ ‘Saul, Saul, why are ˢyou persecuting me? You’re only hurting yourself by your resistance, like an ox kicking against the goads.’

15 “ ‘Who are ˢyou, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘I am Jesus, whom ˢyou are persecuting,’ replied the Lord.16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet! For this is why I have appeared to ˢyou: To appoint ˢyou in advance as a trusted servant and as a witness to the things you have seen and those in which I will appear to you, 17 rescuing ˢyou from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending ˢyou, 18 to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness for their sins and an inheritance with those who have been set apart to God by faith in me.’

19 “And so, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. 20 On the contrary, to those in Damascus first, and then to those in Jerusalem and throughout the entire region of Judea and to the Gentiles, I declared that they must repent and turn to God, performing deeds that prove their repentance. 21 This is why, with respect to myself, some Jews seized me in the temple courts and were trying to kill me.

22 “Having experienced up to this day the help, therefore, that comes from God, I stand here bearing solemn witness to both lowly and powerful alike, declaring nothing at all outside of what the prophets and Moses themselves said was going to happen, 23 namely, that the Messiah was destined to suffer, and that as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

24 These things Paul was saying in his defense, when Festus shouted, “ˢYou have lost your mind, Paul! This great learning of ˢyours is driving you mad!”

25 “I haven’t lost my mind, Most Honorable Festus,” Paul replied. “No, it is words full of truth and good judgment that I am speaking with God’s help. 26 Indeed, the king is familiar with these matters, to whom I am speaking, too, quite freely and openly, since I cannot bring myself to believe that any of these things has escaped his notice. It isn’t some hidden away corner, after all, in which these events have taken place. 27 Do ˢyou believe, King Agrippa, what the prophets wrote? I know ˢyou do.”

28 “In such a short time me will ˢyou persuade to become a Messiah-follower?” Agrippa said to Paul.

29 “Whether short time or long,” Paul replied, “my prayer to God is that not only ˢyou, but indeed all those who are listening to me today, would become what I myself am—except for these chains.”

30 Then the king stood up, and with him the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them. 31 When they had left the room, they began talking with one another. “This man is doing nothing,” they said, “deserving of the death penalty or imprisonment.”

32 Agrippa, then, said to Festus, “This man could have been released if he had not appealed to the Emperor.”