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And Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth his hand, and made his defence:
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I think myself happy, king Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before thee this day touching all the things whereof I am accused by the Jews:
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especially because thou art expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.
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My manner of life then from my youth up, which was from the beginning among mine own nation and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;
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having knowledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify, that after the straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
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And now I stand [here] to be judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers;
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unto which [promise] our twelve tribes, earnestly serving [God] night and day, hope to attain. And concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, O king!
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Why is it judged incredible with you, if God doth raise the dead?
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I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
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And this I also did in Jerusalem: and I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.
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And punishing them oftentimes in all the synagogues, I strove to make them blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities.