Acts 26:9

"I verily thought with myself that. ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth"I verily thought with myself" "I myself was convinced" (RSV). "At the time. was convinced" (Rieu). "He gently excuses their unbelief by confessing that he himself had once felt like them" (P.P. Comm. p. 265). "This brief review of his career as. persecutor must have caused Agrippa to say within himself: Why, the man was once on the same side with my family, and he showed the same zeal to suppress the cause of the Nazarene as did my father (Acts 12:1 ff), my uncle, and my grandfather. It was intended to have this effect, and also to start within the astonished young man the question: How did this persecutor come to undergo so great. change?" (McGarvey pp. 252-253). "I ought to do" This is the frame of mind that Paul was in before he became. Christian. He was 100% convinced that Christianity was. perversion of the truth and that it had to be stopped. Again, let us emphasize the fact that Saul of Tarsus wasn't saved by being sincere, zealous, religious or ignorant. "Many things contrary" "My duty to oppose in every way" (TCNT). "To take extreme measures" (Was). "My duty to combat" (Rieu).