For I give you to understand, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.12 For neither did I receive it of man, nor did I learn it; but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.13 For you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion: how that, beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it.†14 And I made progress in the Jews’ religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.15 But when it pleased him, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,†16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, immediately I condescended not to flesh and blood.†17 Neither went I to Jerusalem, to the apostles who were before me: but I went into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus.18 Then, after three years, I went to Jerusalem, to see Peter, and I tarried with him fifteen days.†19 But other of the apostles I saw none, saving James the brother of the Lord.†20 Now the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I lie not.†
Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws, they disliked what was done; they also sent to the king [Agrippa], desiring him to send to Ananus that he should act so no more, for that what he had already done was not to be justified; nay, some of them went also to meet Albinus, as he was upon his journey from Alexandria, and informed him that it was not lawful for Ananus to assemble a sanhedrim without his consent.
Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves.†17 But beware of men. For they will deliver you up in councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues.†18 And you shall be brought before governors, and before kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles:19 But when they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak.20 For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.21 The brother also shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death.22 And you shall be hated by all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved.†
He first attempted the softer sex, allured her by hope, and promised a share of immortality. Do you in like manner seize every opportunity, look well into each man’s nature and inclination, use wisdom of speech, reveal hope of good things to come; that what he promised falsely we may preach truly according to God’s promise, that they that believe shall be like to the Angels.
And by this their testimony not only was all excuse of ignorance of His divinity taken away from their persecutors, but also to the Gentiles was opened the way of believing on Christ, who was thus devotedly preached by the voices of the confessors among the flames of persecution; and this is that He adds, and the Gentiles.
For our faith, observing all the precepts of the Divine will, will be instructed with an answer according to knowledge, after the example of Abraham, to whom when he had given up Isaac, there was not wanting a ram for a victim. For it is not ye who speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you.
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)