2 Bible Verses about Defense

Paul fixed his eyes upon the council and said, "Brothers, with a clear conscience I have done my duty to God up to this very day." At this the high priest Ananias ordered the people standing near him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, "You white-washed wall, God will strike you! Do you sit as a judge to try me in accordance with the law and yet in violation of the law you order them to strike me?" read more.
The people standing near him said, "Do you mean to insult God's high priest?" Paul answered, "I did not know, brothers, that he was high priest, for the Scripture says, 'You must not speak evil against any ruler of your people.'" Because Paul knew that part of them were Sadducees and part of them Pharisees, he began to cry out in the council chamber, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a Pharisee's son, and now I am on trial for the hope of the resurrection of the dead."

At the governor's signal to Paul, he answered: "Since I know that you for many years have acted as judge for this nation, I cheerfully make my defense, for you can verify the fact that not more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship, and they have never found me debating with anybody in the temple nor making a disturbance in the synagogues or about the city, read more.
and they cannot prove the charges they have just made against me. But I certainly admit this as a fact that in accordance with The Way -- that they call heresy -- I continue to worship the God of my forefathers, and I still believe in everything taught in the law and written in the prophets, and I have the same hope in God that they cherish for themselves, that there is to be a resurrection of the upright and the wicked. So I am always striving to have a conscience that is clear before God and men. After several years' absence I came to bring contributions of charity for my nation, and to offer sacrifices. While I was performing these duties they found me just as I had completed the rites of my purification in the temple; however, there was no crowd with me and no disturbance at all. But there were some Jews from Asia who ought to be here before you and to present their charges, if they have any, against me. Or let these men themselves tell what wrong they found in me when I appeared before the council -- unless it is for one thing that I shouted out as I stood among them, 'It is for the resurrection of the dead that I am here on trial before you today.'"

Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak in defense of yourself." So Paul with outstretched arm began to make his defense. "I count myself fortunate, King Agrippa," said he, "that it is before you that I can defend myself today against all the charges which the Jews have preferred against me, especially because you are familiar with all the Jewish customs and questions. I beg you, therefore, to hear me with patience. read more.
"The kind of life I have lived from my youth up, as spent in my early days among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is well known to all Jews, for they have known all along from the first, if they would but testify to it, that I as a Pharisee have lived by the standard of the strictest sect of our religion. And now it is for the hope of the promise made by God to our forefathers that I stand here on trial, which promise our twelve tribes, by devotedly worshiping day and night, hope to see fulfilled for them. It is for this hope, your Majesty, that I am accused by some Jews. Why is it considered incredible by all of you that God should raise the dead? I myself, indeed, once thought it my duty to take extreme measures in hostility to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. That was what I did at Jerusalem; yes, I received authority from the high priests and shut behind the prison bars many of God's people. Yes, when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them, and often in all the synagogues I had them punished and tried to force them to use abusive language; in my extreme fury against them I continued to pursue them even into distant towns. While in this business I once was on my way to Damascus with authority based on a commission from the high priests, and on the road at noon, your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, flash around me and my fellow-travelers. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you continue to persecute me? It is hurting you to keep on kicking against the goad.' 'Who are you, Sir?' said I. 'I am Jesus,' the Lord said, 'whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for the very purpose of appointing you my servant and a witness to me of the things which you have seen and those which I shall yet enable you to see. I will continue to rescue you from the Jewish people and from the heathen to whom I am going to send you, to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from Satan's power to God, so as to have their sins forgiven and have a possession among those that are consecrated by faith in me.' Therefore, King Agrippa, I could not disobey that heavenly vision, but I began to preach first to the people of Damascus and Jerusalem, and all over Judea, and then to the heathen, to repent and turn to God, and to live lives consistent with such repentance. For these very things the Jews arrested me in the temple and kept on trying to kill me. As I have gotten help from God clear down to this very day, I stand here to testify to high and low alike, without adding a syllable to what Moses and the prophets said should take place, if the Christ should suffer, and by being the first to rise from the dead was to proclaim the light to the Jewish people and to the heathen."

Then Peter, because he was filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "Leaders and elders of the people, if it is for a good deed to a helpless man, or to learn how he was cured, that we are today being tried, you and all the people of Israel must know that it is by the authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead -- yes, I repeat it, it is by His authority that this man stands here before you well. read more.
He is the stone that was thrown away by you builders, which has become the cornerstone. There is no salvation by anyone else, for no one else in all the wide world has been appointed among men as our only medium by which to be saved." They were surprised to see the courage shown by Peter and John and to find that they were uneducated men, and especially untrained in the schools, but they recognized the fact that they had been companions of Jesus,

reported, "We found the prison safely locked and the keepers on duty at the doors, but on opening the doors we found no one on the inside." When the military commander of the temple square and the high priest heard this, they were utterly at a loss to know how this might turn out. But somebody came by and reported to them, "The men that you put in jail are standing right here in the temple square, teaching the people." read more.
Then the military commander went with his attendants and brought them back, but without any violence, for they were afraid of being pelted with stones by the people. So they brought them and had them stand before the council. And the high priest asked them, "Did we not positively forbid you to teach anymore on this authority, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and now want to bring on us the people's vengeance for this man's death!" Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men.