Acts 24:10-21 ▼

10 Then the governor beckoned to Paul to speak. Paul answered and said, For in as much as I know that you have been a judge for many years to this people, therefore I do the more cheerfully answer in my own defense:

11 So that you may understand, that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship.

12 And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, nor have I had an assembly either in their synagogues or in the city:

13 Nor can they prove before you the things of which they accuse me.

14 But this I confess, that in that very teaching which they mention, I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:

15 And I have the same hope in God which they themselves hold, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.

16 For this reason, I labor to have always a clear conscience before God and before men.

17 Now after many years, I came to my own people to distribute alms and to present an offering.

18 So these men found me purifying myself in the temple, not in a crowd, nor in a riot, except the riot which was caused by the Jews who had come from Asia Minor,

19 Who ought to have been here with me before you, to make whatever accusations they have against me.

20 Or else let these same people here say, what fault they found in me when I stood before their council.

21 Except it be for this one saying which I cried standing before them, It is for the resurrection of the dead that I am tried before you this day.