Acts 26:9-23

9“In fact, I myself thought it was necessary to do many things in opposition to the name of Yeshua ha-Natzrati.

10And that is what I did in Jerusalem. Not only did I lock up many of the kedoshim in prisons by the authority I received from the ruling kohanim, but I cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death.

11I tried to cause them to blaspheme by punishing them often in the synagogues. In furious rage against them, I persecuted them even in foreign cities.

12“While journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the ruling kohanim,

13at midday, O King, I saw on the road a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those traveling with me.

14When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against goads!’

15“Then I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “And the Lord said, ‘I am Yeshua—whom you are persecuting.

16But get up, and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose—to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things you have seen as well as to the things I will yet reveal to you.

17I will rescue you from your own people, and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you,

18to open their eyes—so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of satan to God, that they may receive release from sins as well as a place among those who are made holy through trusting in Me.’

19“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

20Rather, I kept declaring—first to those in Damascus, and then Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also the Gentiles—that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds consistent with that repentance.

21“For this reason some Judeans seized me in the Temple and tried to put me to death.

22Since I have had God’s help, to this day I have stood here testifying to both small and great. I am saying nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to happen—

23that the Messiah was to suffer and that, being first to rise from the dead, He would proclaim light both to our people and to the nations.”