¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.”

¹⁵ for I will give you words^[a] and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.^(A)

²⁰ for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.^(A)

⁸ Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders,^(A)

¹⁰ But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit^[a] with which he spoke.^(A)

¹¹ Then the Lord said to him, “Who gives speech to mortals? Who makes them mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?^(A)

⁵⁵ But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.^(A)

² And Stephen replied:

“Brothers^[a] and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,^{(A) 3} and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land that I will show you.’^{(B) 4} Then he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God had him move from there to this country in which you are now living.^{(C) 5} He did not give him any of it as a heritage, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as his possession and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child.^{(D) 6} And God spoke in these terms, that his descendants would be resident aliens in a country belonging to others, who would enslave them and mistreat them during four hundred years.^{(E) 7} ‘But I will judge the people whom they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’^{(F) 8} Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham^[b] became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac did likewise to Jacob and Jacob to the twelve patriarchs.^(G)

⁹ “The patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him^{(H) 10} and rescued him from all his afflictions and enabled him to win favor and to show wisdom when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.^{(I) 11} Now there came a famine throughout Egypt and Canaan and great suffering, and our ancestors could find no food.^{(J) 12} But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there on their first visit.^{(K) 13} On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.^{(L) 14} Then Joseph sent and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five in all;^{(M) 15} so Jacob went down to Egypt. He himself died there as well as our ancestors,^{(N) 16} and their bodies^[c] were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.^(O)

¹⁷ “But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied^{(P) 18} until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. ¹⁹ He dealt craftily with our people and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die.^{(Q) 20} At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house, ²¹ and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. ²² So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.^(R)

²³ “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his kinfolk, the Israelites.^{(S) 24} When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. ²⁶ The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?’ ²⁷ But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses^[d] aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? ²⁸ Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ ²⁹ When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.

³⁰ “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. ³¹ When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he approached to look, there came the voice of the Lord: ³² ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.^{(T) 33} Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.^{(U) 34} I have surely seen the mistreatment of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’^(V)

³⁵ “It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.^{(W) 36} He led them out, having performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.^{(X) 37} This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from your own people as he raised me up.’^{(Y) 38} He is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to us.^{(Z) 39} Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt, ⁴⁰ saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead the way for us; as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’^{(AA) 41} At that time they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands.^{(AB) 42} But God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, as God^[e] directed when he spoke to Moses, ordering him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.^{(AD) 45} Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the peoples whom God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David,^{(AE) 46} who found favor with God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.^{[f](AF) 47} But it was Solomon who built a house for him. ⁴⁸ Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with human hands;^[g] as the prophet says,^(AG)

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.^{(AI) 52} Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.^{(AJ) 53} You are the ones who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”^(AK)

Paul Defends Himself before Agrippa

26 Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began to defend himself:^(A)

² “I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, ³ because you are especially familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews; therefore I beg of you to listen to me patiently.^(B)

⁴ “All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem.^{(C) 5} They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I have belonged to the strictest sect of our religion and lived as a Pharisee.^{(D) 6} And now I stand here on trial on account of my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors,^{(E) 7} a promise that our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship day and night. It is for this hope, Your Excellency,^[a] that I am accused by Jews!^{(F) 8} Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?^(G)

⁹ “Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.^{[b](H) 10} And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death.^{(I) 11} By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme, and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.^(J)

Paul Tells of His Conversion

¹² “With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,^{(K) 13} when at midday along the road, Your Excellency,^[c] I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. ¹⁴ When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew^[d] language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’^{(L) 15} I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶ But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me^[e] and to those in which I will appear to you.^{(M) 17} I will rescue you from your people and from the gentiles—to whom I am sending you^{(N) 18} to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’^(O)

Paul Tells of His Preaching

¹⁹ “After that, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision ²⁰ but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance.^{(P) 21} For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.^{(Q) 22} To this day I have had help from God, and so I stand here, testifying to both small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would take place:^{(R) 23} that the Messiah^[f] must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the gentiles.”^(S)

Paul Appeals to Agrippa to Believe

²⁴ While he was making this defense, Festus exclaimed, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Too much learning is driving you insane!”^{(T) 25} But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking the sober truth.^{(U) 26} Indeed, the king knows about these things, and to him I speak freely, for I am certain that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this was not done in a corner. ²⁷ King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe.” ²⁸ Agrippa said to Paul, “Are you so quickly persuading me to become a Christian?”^{(V) 29} Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that not only you but also all who are listening to me today might become such as I am—except for these chains.”^(W)

³⁰ Then the king got up and with him the governor and Bernice and those who had been seated with them, ³¹ and as they were leaving they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”^{(X) 32} Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to the emperor.”^(Y)