3. especially since you know everything that pertains to the Jews, both customs and questions. Because of this, I beg you to listen to me patiently.
4. And certainly, all the Jews know about my life from my youth, which had its beginning among my own people in Jerusalem.
5. They knew me well from the beginning, (if they would be willing to offer testimony) for I lived according to the most determined sect of our religion: as a Pharisee.
6. And now, it is in the hope of the Promise which was made by God to our fathers that I stand subject to judgment.
7. It is the Promise that our twelve tribes, worshiping night and day, hope to see. About this hope, O king, I am accused by the Jews.
8. Why should it be judged so unbelievable with you all that God might raise the dead?
9. And certainly, I myself formerly considered that I ought to act in many ways which are contrary to the name of Jesus the Nazarene.
10. This is also how I acted at Jerusalem. And so, I enclosed many holy persons in prison, having received authority from the leaders of the priests. And when they were to be killed, I brought the sentence.
11. And in every synagogue, frequently while punishing them, I compelled them to blaspheme. And being all the more maddened against them, I persecuted them, even to foreign cities.
12. Thereafter, as I was going to Damascus, with authority and permission from the high priest,
13. at midday, O king, I and those who were also with me, saw along the way a light from heaven shining around me with a splendor greater than that of the sun.
14. And when we had all fallen down to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language: 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.'
15. Then I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
16. But rise up and stand on your feet. For I appeared to you for this reason: so that I may establish you as a minister and a witness concerning the things that you have seen, and concerning the things that I will show to you: