Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

26 ¹ And Agrippa said to Paul, “It is permitted to you to speak concerning yourself ”.

Paul Says He Is Being Judged For His View of The Promise All Israel Awaits

Then Paul, having stretched-out his hand, was speaking-a-defense: ² “King Agrippa, I regard myself fortunate— being about to speak-a-defense before you today concerning everything of which I am being accused by the Jews, ³ especially you being^[a] an expert of all of both the customs and issues in relation to the Jews. Therefore I beg that you listen-to me patiently. ⁴ Indeed then, all the Jews know my manner-of-life from youth— it having taken place from the first in my nation and in Jerusalem, ⁵ they knowing me beforehand^[b] from-the-beginning if they are willing to testify— that I lived as a Pharisee in accordance with the strictest sect of our religion. ⁶ And now I am standing here being judged for the hope of the promise having been made by God to our fathers, ⁷ to which our twelve tribes are hoping to attain while worshiping night and day with fervency^[c]!— concerning which hope I am being accused by the Jews, King. ⁸ Why is it being judged unbelievable^[d] among you^[e] people if God raises the dead?

At First I Persecuted This Name. Then Jesus Spoke To Me and Sent Me

⁹ “So indeed^[f], I thought to myself that I ought-to do many things contrary^[g] to the name of Jesus the Nazarene— ¹⁰ which indeed I did in Jerusalem. And I both locked-up many of the saints in prisons, having received the authority from the chief priests, and while they were being killed^[h], cast my vote against them. ¹¹ And while punishing them often throughout all the synagogues, I was compelling^[i] them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly enraged at them, I was persecuting them as far as even to the outside cities— ¹² during which, while proceeding to Damascus with authority and a commission from the chief priests, ¹³ in the middle of the day along the road, King, I saw a light from heaven beyond the brightness of the sun, having shined-around me and the ones going with me. ¹⁴ And we all having fallen down to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick^[j] against the goads’. ¹⁵ And I said, ‘Who are You, sir?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶ But arise and stand on your feet. For I appeared to you for this— to appoint you as a servant, and a witness both of which things you saw as to Me and of which things I shall be seen by you ¹⁷ while rescuing you from the [Jewish] people, and from the Gentiles— to whom I am sending you forth ¹⁸ to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among the ones having been sanctified by faith in Me’.