6. And now I stand here to be tried because of the hope I have in the promise that God made to our ancestors —
7. the very thing that the twelve tribes of our people hope to receive, as they worship God day and night. And it is because of this hope, Your Majesty, that I am being accused by these Jews!
8. Why do you who are here find it impossible to believe that God raises the dead?
9. “I myself thought that I should do everything I could against the cause of Jesus of Nazareth.
10. That is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the chief priests and put many of God's people in prison; and when they were sentenced to death, I also voted against them.
11. Many times I had them punished in the synagogues and tried to make them deny their faith. I was so furious with them that I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.