Acts:26-27
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Then Agrippa said unto Paul ,
Thou art permitted to speak for thyself .
Then Paul stretched forth the hand ,
and answered for himself :
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I think myself happy ,
king Agrippa ,
because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews :
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Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews :
wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently .
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My manner of life from my youth ,
which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem ,
know all the Jews ;
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Which knew me from the beginning ,
if they would testify ,
that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee .
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And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers :
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Unto which promise our twelve tribes ,
instantly serving God day and night ,
hope to come .
For which hope '
s sake ,
king Agrippa ,
I am accused of the Jews .
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Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you ,
that God should raise the dead ?
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I verily thought with myself ,
that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth .
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Which thing I also did in Jerusalem :
and many of the saints did I shut up in prison ,
having received authority from the chief priests ;
and when they were put to death ,
I gave my voice against them .
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And I punished them oft in every synagogue ,
and compelled them to blaspheme ;
and being exceedingly mad against them ,
I persecuted them even unto strange cities .
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Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests ,
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At midday ,
O king ,
I saw in the way a light from heaven ,
above the brightness of the sun ,
shining round about me and them which journeyed with me .
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And when we were all fallen to the earth ,
I heard a voice speaking unto me ,
and saying in the Hebrew tongue ,
Saul ,
Saul ,
why persecutest thou me ?
it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks .
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And I said ,
Who art thou ,
Lord ?
And he said ,
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest .
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But rise ,
and stand upon thy feet :
for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose ,
to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen ,
and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee ;
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Delivering thee from the people ,
and from the Gentiles ,
unto whom now I send thee ,
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To open their eyes ,
and to turn them from darkness to light ,
and from the power of Satan unto God ,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins ,
and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me .
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Whereupon ,
O king Agrippa ,
I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision :
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But shewed first unto them of Damascus ,
and at Jerusalem ,
and throughout all the coasts of Judaea ,
and then to the Gentiles ,
that they should repent and turn to God ,
and do works meet for repentance .
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For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple ,
and went about to kill me .
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Having therefore obtained help of God ,
I continue unto this day ,
witnessing both to small and great ,
saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come :
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That Christ should suffer ,
and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead ,
and should shew light unto the people ,
and to the Gentiles .
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And as he thus spake for himself ,
Festus said with a loud voice ,
Paul ,
thou art beside thyself ;
much learning doth make thee mad .
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But he said ,
I am not mad ,
most noble Festus ;
but speak forth the words of truth and soberness .
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For the king knoweth of these things ,
before whom also I speak freely :
for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him ;
for this thing was not done in a corner .
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King Agrippa ,
believest thou the prophets ?
I know that thou believest .
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Then Agrippa said unto Paul ,
Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian .
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And Paul said ,
I would to God ,
that not only thou ,
but also all that hear me this day ,
were both almost ,
and altogether such as I am ,
except these bonds .
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And when he had thus spoken ,
the king rose up ,
and the governor ,
and Bernice ,
and they that sat with them :
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And when they were gone aside ,
they talked between themselves ,
saying ,
This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds .
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Then said Agrippa unto Festus ,
This man might have been set at liberty ,
if he had not appealed unto Caesar .
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And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy ,
they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius ,
a centurion of Augustus '
band .
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And entering into a ship of Adramyttium ,
we launched ,
meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia ;
one Aristarchus ,
a Macedonian of Thessalonica ,
being with us .
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And the next day we touched at Sidon .
And Julius courteously entreated Paul ,
and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself .
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And when we had launched from thence ,
we sailed under Cyprus ,
because the winds were contrary .
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And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia ,
we came to Myra ,
a city of Lycia .
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And there the centurion found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy ;
and he put us therein .
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And when we had sailed slowly many days ,
and scarce were come over against Cnidus ,
the wind not suffering us ,
we sailed under Crete ,
over against Salmone ;
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And ,
hardly passing it ,
came unto a place which is called The fair havens ;
nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea .
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Now when much time was spent ,
and when sailing was now dangerous ,
because the fast was now already past ,
Paul admonished them ,
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And said unto them ,
Sirs ,
I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage ,
not only of the lading and ship ,
but also of our lives .
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Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship ,
more than those things which were spoken by Paul .
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And because the haven was not commodious to winter in ,
the more part advised to depart thence also ,
if by any means they might attain to Phenice ,
and there to winter ;
which is an haven of Crete ,
and lieth toward the south west and north west .
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And when the south wind blew softly ,
supposing that they had obtained their purpose ,
loosing thence ,
they sailed close by Crete .
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But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind ,
called Euroclydon .
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And when the ship was caught ,
and could not bear up into the wind ,
we let her drive .
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And running under a certain island which is called Clauda ,
we had much work to come by the boat :
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Which when they had taken up ,
they used helps ,
undergirding the ship ;
and ,
fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands ,
strake sail ,
and so were driven .
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And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest ,
the next day they lightened the ship ;
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And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship .
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And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared ,
and no small tempest lay on us ,
all hope that we should be saved was then taken away .
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But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them ,
and said ,
Sirs ,
ye should have hearkened unto me ,
and not have loosed from Crete ,
and to have gained this harm and loss .
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And now I exhort you to be of good cheer :
for there shall be no loss of any man '
s life among you ,
but of the ship .
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For there stood by me this night the angel of God ,
whose I am ,
and whom I serve ,
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Saying ,
Fear not ,
Paul ;
thou must be brought before Caesar :
and ,
lo ,
God hath given thee all them that sail with thee .
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Wherefore ,
sirs ,
be of good cheer :
for I believe God ,
that it shall be even as it was told me .
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Howbeit we must be cast upon a certain island .
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But when the fourteenth night was come ,
as we were driven up and down in Adria ,
about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country ;
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And sounded ,
and found it twenty fathoms :
and when they had gone a little further ,
they sounded again ,
and found it fifteen fathoms .
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Then fearing lest we should have fallen upon rocks ,
they cast four anchors out of the stern ,
and wished for the day .
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And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship ,
when they had let down the boat into the sea ,
under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship ,
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Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers ,
Except these abide in the ship ,
ye cannot be saved .
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Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat ,
and let her fall off .
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And while the day was coming on ,
Paul besought them all to take meat ,
saying ,
This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried and continued fasting ,
having taken nothing .
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Wherefore I pray you to take some meat :
for this is for your health :
for there shall not an hair fall from the head of any of you .
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And when he had thus spoken ,
he took bread ,
and gave thanks to God in presence of them all :
and when he had broken it ,
he began to eat .
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Then were they all of good cheer ,
and they also took some meat .
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And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls .
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And when they had eaten enough ,
they lightened the ship ,
and cast out the wheat into the sea .
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And when it was day ,
they knew not the land :
but they discovered a certain creek with a shore ,
into the which they were minded ,
if it were possible ,
to thrust in the ship .
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And when they had taken up the anchors ,
they committed themselves unto the sea ,
and loosed the rudder bands ,
and hoised up the mainsail to the wind ,
and made toward shore .
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And falling into a place where two seas met ,
they ran the ship aground ;
and the forepart stuck fast ,
and remained unmoveable ,
but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves .
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And the soldiers '
counsel was to kill the prisoners ,
lest any of them should swim out ,
and escape .
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But the centurion ,
willing to save Paul ,
kept them from their purpose ;
and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea ,
and get to land :
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And the rest ,
some on boards ,
and some on broken pieces of the ship .
And so it came to pass ,
that they escaped all safe to land .
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And when they were escaped ,
then they knew that the island was called Melita .