26 Agrippa said to Paul, “You’re free to speak for yourself.”

Paul acknowledged King Agrippa and then began his defense. ² “King Agrippa, I think I’m fortunate today to stand in front of you and defend myself against every charge that the Jews brought against me. ³ I say this since you are especially familiar with every custom and controversy in Judaism. So I ask you to listen patiently to me.

⁴ “All the Jews know how I lived the earliest days of my youth with my own people and in Jerusalem. ⁵ They’ve known me for a long time and can testify, if they’re willing, that I followed the strictest party of our religion. They know that I lived my life as a Pharisee.

⁶ “I’m on trial now because I expect God to keep the promise that he made to our ancestors. ⁷ Our twelve tribes expect this promise to be kept as they worship with intense devotion day and night. Your Majesty, the Jews are making accusations against me because I expect God to keep his promise. ⁸ Why do all of you refuse to believe that God can bring dead people back to life?

⁹ “I used to think that I had to do a lot of things to oppose the one named Yeshua of Nazareth. ¹⁰ That is what I did in Jerusalem. By the authority I received from the chief priests, I locked many Christians in prison. I voted to have them killed every time a vote was taken. ¹¹ I even went to each synagogue, punished believers, and forced them to curse the name of Yeshua. In my furious rage against them, I hunted them down in cities outside Jerusalem.

¹² “I was carrying out these activities when I went to the city of Damascus. I had the power and authority of the chief priests. ¹³ Your Majesty, at noon, while I was traveling, I saw a light that was brighter than the sun. The light came from the sky and shined around me and those who were with me. ¹⁴ All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice asking me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me? It’s hard for a mortal like you to resist God.’

¹⁵ “I asked, ‘Who are you, sir?’

“The Lord answered, ‘I am Yeshua, the one you’re persecuting. ¹⁶ Stand up! I have appeared to you for a reason. I’m appointing you to be a servant and witness of what you have seen and of what I will show you. ¹⁷ I will rescue you from the Jewish people and from the non-Jewish people to whom I am sending you. ¹⁸ You will open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from Satan’s control to God’s. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and a share among God’s people who are made holy by believing in me.’

¹⁹ “At that point I did not disobey the vision I saw from heaven, King Agrippa. ²⁰ Instead, I spread the message that I first told to the Jewish people in Damascus and Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea. I spread the same message to non-Jewish people. Both groups were expected to change the way they thought and acted and to turn to God. I told them to do things that prove they had changed their lives. ²¹ For this reason the Jews took me prisoner in the temple courtyard and tried to murder me.

²² “God has been helping me to this day so that I can stand and testify to important and unimportant people. I tell them only what the prophets and Moses said would happen. ²³ They said that the Messiah would suffer and be the first to come back to life and would spread light to Jewish and non-Jewish people.”

²⁴ As Paul was defending himself in this way, Festus shouted, “Paul, you’re crazy! Too much education is driving you crazy!”

²⁵ Paul replied, “I’m not crazy, Your Excellency Festus. What I’m saying is true and sane. ²⁶ I can easily speak to a king who knows about these things. I’m sure that none of these things has escaped his attention. None of this was done secretly. ²⁷ King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe them!”

²⁸ Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think you can quickly persuade me to become a Christian?”

²⁹ Paul replied, “I wish to God that you and everyone listening to me today would quickly and completely become as I am (except for being a prisoner).”

³⁰ The king, the governor, Bernice, and the people who were sitting with them got up. ³¹ As they were leaving, they said to each other, “This man isn’t doing anything for which he deserves to die or be put in prison.”

³² Agrippa told Festus, “This man could have been set free if he hadn’t appealed his case to the emperor.”