BSB(i)
22 Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear this man myself.” “Tomorrow you will hear him,” Festus declared.
23 The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the auditorium, along with the commanders and leading men of the city. And Festus ordered that Paul be brought in.
24 Then Festus said, “King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see this man. The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him, both here and in Jerusalem, crying out that he ought not to live any longer.
25 But I found he had done nothing worthy of death, and since he has now appealed to the Emperor, I decided to send him.
26 I have nothing definite to write to our sovereign one about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this inquiry I may have something to write.
27 For it seems unreasonable to me to send on a prisoner without specifying the charges against him.”
26 1 Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:
2 “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today to defend myself against all the accusations of the Jews,
3 especially since you are acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. I beg you, therefore, to listen to me patiently.
4 Surely all the Jews know how I have lived from the earliest days of my youth, among my own people and in Jerusalem.
5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I lived as a Pharisee, adhering to the strictest sect of our religion.
6 And now I stand on trial because of my hope in the promise that God made to our fathers,
7 the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to realize as they earnestly serve God day and night. It is because of this hope, O king, that I am accused by the Jews.
8 Why would any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
9 So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With authority from the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were condemned to death, I cast my vote against them.
11 I frequently had them punished in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme. In my raging fury against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.