Acts 22

22“Brothers and fathers,^x listen now to my defense.”

²When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic,^y they became very quiet.

Then Paul said: ³“I am a Jew,^z born in Tarsus^a of Cilicia,^b but brought up in this city. I studied under^c Gamaliel^d and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors.^e I was just as zealous^f for God as any of you are today. ⁴I persecuted^g the followers of this Way^h to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison,^{i 5}as the high priest and all the Council^j can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates^k in Damascus,^l and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶“About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.^{m 7}I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’

⁸“ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth,ⁿ whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. ⁹My companions saw the light,^o but they did not understand the voice^p of him who was speaking to me.

¹⁰“ ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.

“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’^{q 11}My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.^r

¹²“A man named Ananias came to see me.^s He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there.^{t 13}He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.

¹⁴“Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors^u has chosen you to know his will and to see^v the Righteous One^w and to hear words from his mouth. ¹⁵You will be his witness^x to all people of what you have seen^y and heard. ¹⁶And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized^z and wash your sins away,^a calling on his name.’^b

¹⁷“When I returned to Jerusalem^c and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance^{d 18}and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹“ ‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison^e and beat^f those who believe in you. ²⁰And when the blood of your martyr^a Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’^g

²¹“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”^h

Paul the Roman Citizen

²²The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him!ⁱ He’s not fit to live!”^j

²³As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks^k and flinging dust into the air,^{l 24}the commander ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks.^m He directedⁿ that he be flogged and interrogated in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. ²⁵As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”^o

²⁶When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered.

²⁸Then the commander said, “I had to pay a lot of money for my citizenship.”

“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

²⁹Those who were about to interrogate him^p withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen,^q in chains.^r

Paul Before the Sanhedrin

³⁰The commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews.^s So the next day he released him^t and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin^u to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them.