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¹ And Agrippa said to Paul: Thou art permitted to speak in thy own behalf. Then Paul extended his hand, and made defence, saying:² In regard to all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, king Agrippa, I consider myself highly favored, that I may this day make defence before thee:³ especially, as I know thee to be expert in all the controversies and laws of the Jews. I therefore request thee to hear me with indulgence.⁴ The Jews themselves, if they would testify, know well my course of life from my childhood, which from the beginning was among my nation and in Jerusalem.⁵ For they have long been persuaded of me, and have known, that I lived in the princely doctrine of the Pharisees.⁶ And now, for the hope of the promise which was made by God to our fathers, I stand and am judged.⁷ To this hope, our twelve tribes hope to come, with earnest prayers by day and by night: and for this same hope, king Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews.⁸ How judge ye? Are we not to believe, that God will raise the dead?⁹ For I myself, at first, resolved in my own mind, that I would perpetrate many adverse things against the name of Jesus the Nazarean.¹⁰ Which I also did at Jerusalem; and by the authority I received from the chief priests, I cast many of the saints into prison and when they were put to death by them, I took part with those that condemned them.¹¹ And in every synagogue I tortured them, while I pressed them to become revilers of the name of Jesus. And in the great wrath, with which I was filled against them, I also went to other cities to persecute them.

¹² And, as I was going for this purpose to Damascus, with the authority and license of the chief priests,¹³ at mid-day, on the road, I saw, O king, a light exceeding that of the sun, beaming from heaven upon me, and upon all those with me.¹⁴ And we all fell to the ground; and I heard a voice, which said to me, in Hebrew: Saul, Saul ! why persecutest thou me? It will be a hard thing for thee to kick against the goads.¹⁵ And I said: My Lord, who art thou? And our Lord said to me: I am Jesus the Nazarean, whom thou persecutest.¹⁶ And he said to me: Stand upon thy feet; for I have appeared to thee, for this purpose, to constitute thee a minister and a witness of this thy seeing me, and of thy seeing me hereafter.¹⁷ And I will deliver thee from the people of the Jews, and from other nations; to whom I send thee,¹⁸ to open their eyes; that they may turn from darkness to the light, and from the dominion of Satan unto God; and may receive remission of sins, and a portion with the saints, by faith in me.¹⁹ Wherefore, king Agrippa, I did not contumaciously withstand the heavenly vision:²⁰ but I preached from the first to them in Damascus, and to them in Jerusalem and in all the villages of Judaea; and I preached also to the Gentiles, that they should repent, and should turn to God, and should do the works suitable to repentance.²¹ And on account of these things, the Jews seized me in the temple, and sought to kill me.²² But unto this day God hath helped me; and lo, I stand and bear testimony, to the small and to the great; yet saying nothing aside from Moses and the prophets, but the very things which they declared were to take place:²³ 23 [namely,] that Messiah would suffer, and would become the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead; and that he would proclaim light to the people and to the Gentiles [fn] {namely,}