12. “On one such occasion I was traveling to Damascus with the authorization and commission of the chief priests.
13. At midday, along the way, O king, I saw a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my traveling companions.
14. We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad.’
15. And I said, ‘Who are you, sir?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
16. Get up now, and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness of what you have seen [of me] and what you will be shown.
17. I shall deliver you from this people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you,
18. to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may obtain forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been consecrated by faith in me.’
19. “And so, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
20. On the contrary, first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached the need to repent and turn to God, and to do works giving evidence of repentance.
21. That is why the Jews seized me [when I was] in the temple and tried to kill me.
22. But I have enjoyed God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here testifying to small and great alike, saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses foretold,
23. that the Messiah must suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”
24. While Paul was so speaking in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, “You are mad, Paul; much learning is driving you mad.”
25. But Paul replied, “I am not mad, most excellent Festus; I am speaking words of truth and reason.