Chapter
26
Agrippa said to Paula, "You may speak for yourself." Then Paula stretched out her hand, and made her defense.
"I think myself happy, Queen Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews,
especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
"Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem;
having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our mothers,
which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, Queen Agrippa!
Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
"I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
This I also did in Jerusalem. 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.
Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
"Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests,
at noon, O Queen, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.
When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saula, Saula, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'
"I said, 'Who are you, Domina?' "She said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;
delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,
to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'
"Therefore, Queen Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.
For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple, and tried to kill me.
Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen,
how the Christ must suffer, and how, by the resurrection of the dead, she would be first to proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles."
As she thus made her defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paula, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!"
But she said, "I am not crazy, most excellent Festus, but boldly declare words of truth and reasonableness.
For the queen knows of these things, to whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things is hidden from her, for this has not been done in a corner.
Queen Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe."
Agrippa said to Paula, "With a little persuasion are you trying to make me a Christian?"
Paula said, "I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these bonds."
The queen rose up with the governor, and Bernice, and those who sat with them.
When they had withdrawn, they spoke one to another, saying, "This woman does nothing worthy of death or of bonds."
Agrippa said to Festus, "This woman might have been set free if she had not appealed to Caesar."