5
Practically every Jew in town who watched me grow up - and if they were willing to stick their necks out they'd tell you in person - knows that I lived as a strict Pharisee, the most demanding branch of our religion.
6
It's because I believed it and took it seriously,
7
committed myself heart and soul to what God promised my ancestors - the identical hope, mind you, that the twelve tribes have lived for night and day all these centuries - it's because I have held on to this tested and tried hope that I'm being called on the carpet by the Jews. They should be the ones standing trial here, not me!
8
For the life of me, I can't see why it's a criminal offense to believe that God raises the dead.
9
"I admit that I didn't always hold to this position. For a time I thought it was my duty to oppose this Jesus of Nazareth with all my might.
10
Backed with the full authority of the high priests, I threw these believers - I had no idea they were God's people! - into the Jerusalem jail right and left, and whenever it came to a vote, I voted for their execution.
11
I stormed through their meeting places, bullying them into cursing Jesus, a one-man terror obsessed with obliterating these people. And then I started on the towns outside Jerusalem.
12
"One day on my way to Damascus, armed as always with papers from the high priests authorizing my action,
13
right in the middle of the day a blaze of light, light outshining the sun, poured out of the sky on me and my companions. Oh, King, it was so bright!
14
We fell flat on our faces. Then I heard a voice in Hebrew: 'Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me? Why do you insist on going against the grain?'
15
"I said, 'Who are you, Master?'