Paul Tells Agrippa About His Conversion
Acts 26Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.”
Then Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense. “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate today that it is before you that I am about to make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are an expert in all the Jewish customs and debates. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
“Indeed, all the Jews know the way I have lived from my youth, which was from the beginning among my own ethnic group and in Jerusalem. They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I lived as a Pharisee, the strictest sect of our religion. And now because of the hope in God’s promise to our ancestors, I stand on trial today. Our twelve tribes earnestly serve night and day hoping to attain this promise. It is for this hope that I am being accused by the Jews, King Agrippa! Why is it so unbelievable to y’all that God raises the dead?
“Seriously, I myself was convinced that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did this in Jerusalem: after receiving authority from the chief priests, I locked up many of the saints in prisons, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. In all the synagogues, I regularly punished them and tried to make them blaspheme. I was so enraged against them that I went to persecute them in foreign cities.
“Then, while I was traveling to Damascus on the authority and commission from the chief priests, about noon along the road, I saw, O King, a light in the sky that was brighter than the sun, shining around me and those traveling with me. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
“I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
“He replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you a servant and a witness both of what you have seen and when I will appear to you, rescuing you from your people and from the ethnic groups. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
“So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven, but first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and all throughout Judea, then also to the ethnic groups, I proclaimed that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of repentance. For this reason some of the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. And so, having received help from God to this day, I stand and testify to both small and great, saying nothing other than what the prophets and Moses said would happen: that the Christ would suffer, and that as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light to our people and to the ethnic groups.”
As Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus exclaimed loudly, “Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you insane!”
“I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “Actually, I am speaking words of truth and reason. For the king knows about these things, and I am speaking openly with him. For I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, since this was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.”
Then Agrippa said to Paul, “In such a short time, are you going to persuade me to become a Christian?”
Paul replied, “I pray to God that whether in a short or long time, not only you but everyone who is listening to me today might become such as I am, except for these chains.”
The king stood up along with the governor, Bernice, and those who were seated with them. After they left the room, they said to one another, “This man has done nothing worthy of death or imprisonment.” Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”