Acts 24:10-21

New Testament for Everyone

A defense of the Hope

¹⁰ The governor motioned to Paul to speak.

“I understand that you have been governor of this nation for several years,” he began, “and therefore I am all the more pleased to make my defense before you. ¹¹ You will be able to discover that it is not more than twelve days since I came up to worship at Jerusalem. ¹² They didn’t find me disputing with anybody in the Temple; nor was I stirring up a crowd, either in the synagogues or elsewhere in the city. ¹³ They can provide no proof of any of the charges they are now bringing against me.

¹⁴ “But this much I will confess to you: it is true that I do worship the God of my ancestors according to the Way which they call a ‘sect.’ I believe everything which is written in the law and the prophets, ¹⁵ and I hold to the hope in God, for which they also long, that there will be a resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous. ¹⁶ For that reason I make it my settled aim always to have a clear conscience before God and all people.

¹⁷ “For several years I have been collecting alms and offerings to bring to my nation. ¹⁸ That was the business I was engaged in when they found me purified in the Temple, without any crowds and without any riot. ¹⁹ There were some Jews from Asia there; they are the ones who should appear before you and bring any accusations against me that they may have. ²⁰ Or let these people themselves say what wrong they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin— ²¹ unless it is about this one thing, which I shouted out as I was standing among them: ‘It’s because of the resurrection of the dead that I am being judged before you today.’ ”