Book of Common Prayer

26 Then Agrippa said to Paul, `You may speak for yourself.' So Paul put out his hand and began to speak.

² `King Agrippa, I am happy to speak for myself before you today. I will talk about all the things the leaders of the Jews have said against me.

³ You know all the ways of the Jews. You know what they believe. So please take time to listen to me.

⁴ `All the Jews know the way I lived from the time I was young. From the beginning I lived with my own people at Jerusalem.

⁵ They have known me for a long time. They know, if they would tell it, that I lived like the Pharisee group. They obey the law better than any others who worship God the way we do.

⁶ I believe that God will keep the promise that he made to our fathers long ago. That is why I am standing here being judged today.

⁷ All the people of our twelve tribes serve God faithfully day and night. They do this because they believe they will receive what he has promised. Because I believe this, king Agrippa, the Jewish leaders are talking against me.

⁸ Why is it so hard for any of you to believe that God should raise the dead?

⁹ `I used to think that I must do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰ I did this in Jerusalem. The chief priests gave me power. I put many of God's people in prison. And when they were killed, I agreed to it.

¹¹ Often I punished them in all the meeting places. I tried to make them say wrong things about Christ. I was very, very angry. I even went to other cities to trouble them.'

¹² `And so I was on my way to the city of Damascus. The chief priests had given me power and a letter.

¹³ I was on the road at midday, king Agrippa, and I saw a bright light. It came from the sky and was brighter than the light of the sun. It shone all around me and the men who were travelling with me.

¹⁴ We all fell to the ground. I heard someone say to me in the Jews' language, "Saul, Saul, why are you troubling me? You hurt yourself when you kick against the sticks which guide you."

¹⁵ `I said, "Who are you, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus, the one you are troubling.

¹⁶ But get up. Stand on your feet. Here is why I have shown myself to you. I have chosen you to work for me. I have chosen you to tell people what you saw when you saw me today. You are to tell them also about the other times when I will show myself to you.

¹⁷ I will keep you safe from your own people, the Jews. And I will keep you safe from those who are not Jews. I am sending you to them.

¹⁸ I send you to them to open their eyes. Then they will turn from darkness to light. You are to take them out of Satan's power and turn them to God, to be forgiven of their wrong ways. Then they will be among those who are made clean and pure by believing in me." '

¹⁹ `So, king Agrippa, I obeyed what the one from heaven told me to do.

²⁰ I told the good news to the people of Damascus and Jerusalem. Then I told it all over Judea. I went to those who are not Jews. I told everyone that they must stop doing wrong things and turn to God. I told them they must show by the way they live that they have stopped doing wrong things.

²¹ That is why the leaders of the Jews caught me in the temple and tried to kill me.

²² God has always helped me up to today. I have stood and talked to both small people and great people. I have said nothing more than what the prophets and Moses said would happen.

²³ They said Christ must suffer. They said he would be the first person to rise from death. He would be the first person to bring news of light to the Jews and those who are not Jews.'

²⁶ They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gadarene people. Their country is on the other side of the sea from Galilee.

²⁷ As Jesus got out of the boat a man met him from the town. He had bad spirits in him. He had not worn clothes for a long time. He did not live in a house, but among the graves.

²⁸ When he saw Jesus, he screamed loudly and bowed down in front of him. He called out loud, `Jesus, Son of the Highest One! What do you want to do to me? I beg you, do not hurt me.'

²⁹ He said this because Jesus had told the bad spirit to come out of the man. Many times the spirit had taken hold of the man. People had guarded him. They had tied him with chains and strong ropes. But he broke the chains and ropes. The bad spirit drove him into the desert.

³⁰ Jesus asked him, `What is your name?' He answered, `My name is An Army.' He said this because many bad spirits had gone into him.

³¹ The spirits begged Jesus not to send them away to the big hole that has no bottom.

³² Many pigs were feeding on the hill there. The spirits begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs. Jesus let them.

³³ The spirits came out of the man and went into the pigs. They ran fast down the steep hill into the sea. They died in the water.

³⁴ The men who cared for the pigs saw what happened. They ran and told it to the people in the town and in the country.

³⁵ The people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus. They saw the man from whom the bad spirits had gone. He was sitting near the feet of Jesus. He had clothes on and was not crazy any more. The people were afraid.

³⁶ Those who had seen it told the people how the man had been saved from the bad spirits.

³⁷ All the people in the country around the Gadarenes asked Jesus to go away from them to some other place. They were very much afraid. So Jesus got into a boat and went back.

³⁸ The man from whom the bad spirits had gone begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him away.

³⁹ He said, `Go home and tell the people what God has done for you.' So the man went away and told the people all through the town what Jesus had done for him.