MSB(i)
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 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 Agrippa, 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.