Acts 26:8

4 Surely all the Jews know how I have lived from the earliest days of my youth, among my own people and in Jerusalem.

5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I lived as a Pharisee, adhering to the strictest sect of our religion.

6 And now I stand on trial because of my hope in the promise that God made to our fathers,

7 the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to realize as they earnestly serve God day and night. It is because of this hope, O king, that I am accused by the Jews.

8 Why would any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

9 So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

10 And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With authority from the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were condemned to death, I cast my vote against them.

11 I frequently had them punished in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme. In my raging fury against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

12 In this pursuit I was on my way to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

Read all of Acts 26