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"My manner of life from my youth, which was from the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, is known to all the Jews.
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They knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.
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And now I stand and am judged because of the hope of the promise made by God unto our fathers,
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unto which promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God day and night, hope to come. For this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews.
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Why should it be thought an incredible thing by you that God should raise the dead?
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"I myself verily thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth,
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which things I also did in Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
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And I punished them often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly maddened against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities.
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"Thereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
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at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, brighter than the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and those who journeyed with me.
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And when we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, `Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? It is hard for thee to kick against the goads.'