3. especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.
4. "So then, all Jews know my manner of life from my youth up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem;
5. since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion.
6. And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers;
7. the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews.
8. Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?
9. "So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them.
11. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
12. "While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,
13. at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me.
14. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'
15. And I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.