Acts 22

Chapter 22

Paul’s Defense before the Jews

¹“^aBrethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you.”

²And when they heard that he was addressing them in the ^1aHebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he said,

³“^aI am ^ba Jew, born in ^cTarsus of ^dCilicia, but brought up in this city, educated ¹under ^eGamaliel, ^2fstrictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as ^gyou all are today.

⁴“^aI persecuted this ^bWay to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons,

⁵as also ^athe high priest and all ^bthe Council of the elders ¹can testify. From them I also ^creceived letters to ^dthe brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem ²as prisoners to be punished.

⁶“^aBut it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me,

⁷and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’

⁸“And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am ^aJesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’

⁹“And those who were with me ^asaw the light, to be sure, but ^bdid not ¹understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.

¹⁰“And I said, ‘^aWhat shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.’

¹¹“But since I ^acould not see because of the ¹brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.

¹²“A certain ^aAnanias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and ^bwell spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,

¹³came to me, and standing near said to me, ‘^aBrother Saul, receive your sight!’ And ^1bat that very time I looked up at him.

¹⁴“And he said, ‘^aThe God of our fathers has ^bappointed you to know His will and to ^csee the ^dRighteous One and to hear an ¹utterance from His mouth.

¹⁵‘For you will be ^aa witness for Him to all men of ^bwhat you have seen and heard.

¹⁶‘Now why do you delay? ^aGet up and be baptized, and ^bwash away your sins, ^ccalling on His name.’

¹⁷“It happened when I ^areturned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I ^bfell into a trance,

¹⁸and I saw Him saying to me, ‘^aMake haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’

¹⁹“And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another ^aI used to imprison and ^bbeat those who believed in You.

²⁰‘And ^awhen the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.’

²¹“And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away ^ato the Gentiles.’ ”

²²They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “^aAway with such a fellow from the earth, for ^bhe should not be allowed to live!”

²³And as they were crying out and ^athrowing off their cloaks and ^btossing dust into the air,

²⁴the ¹commander ordered him to be brought into ^athe barracks, stating that he should be ^bexamined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way.

²⁵But when they stretched him out ¹with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it ²lawful for you to scourge ^aa man who is a Roman and uncondemned?”

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went to the ¹commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.”

²⁷The ¹commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.”

²⁸The ¹commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.”

²⁹Therefore those who were about to ^aexamine him immediately ¹let go of him; and the ²commander also ^bwas afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had ^3cput him in chains.

³⁰But on the next day, ^awishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he ^breleased him and ordered the chief priests and all ^cthe ¹Council to assemble, and brought Paul down and set him before them.