New Living Translation (NLT)
Acts 25
27 For it makes no sense to send a prisoner to the emperor without specifying the charges against him!”
Acts 26
1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak in your defense.” So Paul, gesturing with his hand, started his defense:
2 “I am fortunate, King Agrippa, that you are the one hearing my defense today against all these accusations made by the Jewish leaders,
3 for I know you are an expert on all Jewish customs and controversies. Now please listen to me patiently!
4 “As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem.
5 If they would admit it, they know that I have been a member of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of our religion.
6 Now I am on trial because of my hope in the fulfillment of God’s promise made to our ancestors.
7 In fact, that is why the twelve tribes of Israel zealously worship God night and day, and they share the same hope I have. Yet, Your Majesty, they accuse me for having this hope!
8 Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?
9 “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.
10 Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death.
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