⁹“Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.^t^* ¹⁰And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death.^* ¹¹By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme, and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.^*

Paul Tells of His Conversion

¹²“With this in mind, I was traveling to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests,^* ¹³when at midday along the road, Your Excellency,^u I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. ¹⁴When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew^v language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It hurts you to kick against the goads.’^* ¹⁵I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. ¹⁶But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and testify to the things in which you have seen me^w and to those in which I will appear to you.^* ¹⁷I will rescue you from your people and from the gentiles—to whom I am sending you^* ¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’^*

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Footnotes

tGk the Nazorean
uGk O King
vThat is, Aramaic
wOther ancient authorities read the things that you have seen

Cross references

*Jn 15:21; 16:2; 1 Tim 1:13
*Acts 8:3; 9:14, 21; Gal 1:13
*Acts 22:19
*Acts 9:3; 22:6
*Acts 9:7; 21:40
*Ezek 2:1; Dan 10:11; Acts 22:14, 15
*Jer 1:8, 19; Acts 22:21
*Isa 35:5; 42:7; Lk 24:47; Acts 2:38; Eph 5:8; Col 1:13