Acts 22

¹ "Men! Brethren and fathers! Hear my defense to you now!" ² Now hearing that he shouted to them in the Hebrew vernacular, they tendered more quietness, and he is averring, ³ "I am a man, a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, yet reared in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, trained according to the strictness of the hereditary law, being inherently zealous for God according as all of you are today, ⁴ I, who persecute this way to death, binding and giving over both men and women to jail, ⁵ as the chief priest also was testifying to me, and the entire eldership, from whom, receiving letters also to the brethren, I went into Damascus, to be leading also those being there, bound, to Jerusalem, that they may be punished. ⁶ Now it occurred, at my going and drawing near to Damascus, about midday, suddenly out of heaven a considerable light flashes about me. ⁷ Besides, I fall flat, and I hear a voice saying to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?' ⁸ Yet I answered and said, 'Who art Thou, Lord?' Besides, He said to me, 'I am Jesus, the Nazarene, Whom you are persecuting.' ⁹ Now those who are with me gaze, indeed, at the light, yet they hear not the voice of Him Who is speaking to me. ¹⁰ Now I said, 'What shall I be doing, Lord?' Now the Lord said to me, 'Rise. Go into Damascus, and there you will be spoken to concerning all which has been set for you to do.' ¹¹ Now, as I observed nothing for the glory of that light, being led by the hand by those who are with me, I came into Damascus. ¹² Now a certain Ananias, a pious man according to the law, being attested by all the Jews dwelling there, ¹³ coming to me and standing by, said to me, 'Saul! Brother! Receive your sight!' And I, in the same hour, look up to him. ¹⁴ Now he said. 'The God of our fathers fixes upon you beforehand to know His will, and to be acquainted with the Just One, and to hear the voice of His mouth, ¹⁵ that you shall be His witness to all men of what you have seen and hear. ¹⁶ And now, why do you defer? Rise, be baptized, and bathe off your sins, invoking His name.' ¹⁷ Now it occurred, at my returning to Jerusalem and while I am praying in the sanctuary, I come to be in an ecstasy ¹⁸ and to perceive Him saying to me, 'Hurry, and come quickly out of Jerusalem, because they will not be assenting to your testimony concerning Me.' ¹⁹ And I said, 'Lord, they are versed in the fact that I was jailing and lashing those at the synagogues who are believing on Thee. ²⁰ And when the blood of Stephen, Thy witness, was shed, I myself also was standing by, endorsing it, as well as guarding the garments of those who are assassinating him.' ²¹ And He said to me, 'Go! For I shall be delegating you afar to the nations.'" ²² Now they heard him until this word, and they lift up their voice, saying, "Away from the earth with such a one, for it is not befitting for him to live!" ²³ Besides, at their clamoring, and tossing their garments, and casting dust into the air, ²⁴ the captain orders him to be led into the citadel, telling them to interrogate him by scourging, that he may recognize for what they retorted thus at him. ²⁵ Now, as they stretch him before them with the thongs, Paul said to the centurion standing by, "Is it allowed you to scourge a Roman man, and uncondemned?" ²⁶ Now, hearing it, the centurion, coming to the captain, reports, saying, "What are you about to be doing? For this man is a Roman." ²⁷ Now, approaching, the captain said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?" Now he averred, "Yes." ²⁸ Now the captain answered, "I with a vast sum acquire this citizenship." Yet Paul averred, "Yet I have been so born also." ²⁹ Immediately then, those about to be interrogating him withdraw from him. Now the captain also was afraid, recognizing that he is a Roman and that he was bound by him. ³⁰ Now on the morrow, resolved to know the certainty of that of which he is being accused by the Jews, he looses him and orders the chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin to come together. And, leading Paul down, he stands him among them.