Acts 22
22
1‘Men, brethren, and fathers, hear my defence now unto you;’ —
2and they having heard that in the Hebrew dialect he was speaking to them, gave the more silence, and he saith, —
3‘I, indeed, am a man, a Jew, having been born in Tarsus of Cilicia, and brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, having been taught according to the exactitude of a law of the fathers, being zealous of God, as all ye are to-day.
4‘And this way I persecuted unto death, binding and delivering up to prisons both men and women,
5as also the chief priest doth testify to me, and all the eldership; from whom also having received letters unto the brethren, to Damascus, I was going on, to bring also those there bound to Jerusalem that they might be punished,
6and it came to pass, in my going on and coming nigh to Damascus, about noon, suddenly out of the heaven there shone a great light round about me,
7I fell also to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why me dost thou persecute?
8‘And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? and he said unto me, I am Jesus the Nazarene whom thou dost persecute —
9and they who are with me the light did see, and became afraid, and the voice they heard not of him who is speaking to me —
10and I said, What shall I do, Lord? and the Lord said unto me, Having risen, go on to Damascus, and there it shall be told thee concerning all things that have been appointed for thee to do.
11‘And when I did not see from the glory of that light, being led by the hand by those who are with me, I came to Damascus,
12and a certain one, Ananias, a pious man according to the law, being testified to by all the Jews dwelling [there],
13having come unto me and stood by [me], said to me, Saul, brother, look up; and I the same hour did look up to him;
14and he said, The God of our fathers did choose thee beforehand to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice out of his mouth,
15because thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard;
16and now, why tarriest thou? having risen, baptize thyself, and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord.
17‘And it came to pass when I returned to Jerusalem, and while I was praying in the temple, I came into a trance,
18and I saw him saying to me, Haste and go forth in haste out of Jerusalem, because they will not receive thy testimony concerning me;
19and I said, Lord, they — they know that I was imprisoning and was scourging in every synagogue those believing on thee;
20and when the blood of thy witness Stephen was being poured forth, I also was standing by and assenting to his death, and keeping the garments of those putting him to death;
21and he said unto me, Go, because to nations far off I will send thee.’
22And they were hearing him unto this word, and they lifted up their voice, saying, ‘Away from the earth with such an one; for it is not fit for him to live.’
23And they crying out and casting up their garments, and throwing dust into the air,
24the chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, saying, ‘By scourges let him be examined;’ that he might know for what cause they were crying so against him.
25And as he was stretching him with the thongs, Paul said unto the centurion who was standing by, ‘A man, a Roman, uncondemned — is it lawful to you to scourge;’
26and the centurion having heard, having gone near to the chief captain, told, saying, ‘Take heed what thou art about to do, for this man is a Roman;’
27and the chief captain having come near, said to him, ‘Tell me, art thou a Roman?’ and he said, ‘Yes;’
28and the chief captain answered, ‘I, with a great sum, did obtain this citizenship;’ but Paul said, ‘But I have been even born [so].’
29Immediately, therefore, they departed from him who are about to examine him, and the chief captain also was afraid, having learned that he is a Roman, and because he had bound him,
30and on the morrow, intending to know the certainty wherefore he is accused by the Jews, he did loose him from the bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all their sanhedrim to come, and having brought down Paul, he set [him] before them.
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Acts 22: YLT98
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maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society
Acts 22
22
1“Brothers and fathers,” Paul began, “listen to me now. I want to give you reasons for my actions.”
2When they heard that he was speaking to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said, 3“I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but I grew up here in Jerusalem. I studied with Gamaliel. I was well trained by him in the law given to our people long ago. I wanted to serve God as much as any of you do today. 4I hurt the followers of the Way of Jesus. I sent many of them to their death. I arrested men and women. I threw them into prison. 5The high priest and the whole Council can be witnesses of this themselves. I even had some official letters they had written to their friends in Damascus. So I went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
6“I had almost reached Damascus. About noon a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around me. 7I fell to the ground and heard a voice speak to me. ‘Saul! Saul!’ it said. ‘Why are you opposing me?’
8“ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth,’ he replied. ‘I am the one you are opposing.’ 9The light was seen by my companions. But they didn’t understand the voice of the one speaking to me.
10“ ‘What should I do, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said. ‘Go into Damascus. There you will be told everything you have been given to do.’ 11The brightness of the light had blinded me. So my companions led me by the hand into Damascus.
12“A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a godly Jew who obeyed the law. All the Jews living there respected him very much. 13He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ At that very moment I was able to see him.
14“Then he said, ‘The God of our people has chosen you. He wanted to tell you his plans for you. You have seen the Blameless One. You have heard words from his mouth. 15Now you will tell everyone about what you have seen and heard. 16So what are you waiting for? Get up and call on his name. Be baptized. Have your sins washed away.’
17“I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple. Then it seemed to me that I was dreaming. 18I saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem at once. The people here will not accept what you tell them about me.’
19“ ‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know what I used to do. I went from one synagogue to another and put believers in prison. I also beat them. 20Stephen was a man who told other people about you. I stood there when he was killed. I had agreed that he should die. I even guarded the coats of those who were killing him.’
21“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go. I will send you far away to people who are not Jews.’ ”
Paul the Roman Citizen
22The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they shouted, “Kill him! He isn’t fit to live!”
23They shouted and threw off their coats. They threw dust into the air. 24So the commanding officer ordered that Paul be taken into the fort. He gave orders for Paul to be whipped and questioned. He wanted to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. 25A commander was standing there as they stretched Paul out to be whipped. Paul said to him, “Does the law allow you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”
26When the commander heard this, he went to the commanding officer and reported it. “What are you going to do?” the commander asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.”
27So the commanding officer went to Paul. “Tell me,” he asked. “Are you a Roman citizen?”
“Yes, I am,” Paul answered.
28Then the officer said, “I had to pay a lot of money to become a citizen.”
“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.
29Right away those who were about to question him left. Even the officer was alarmed. He realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.
Paul Is Taken to the Sanhedrin
30The commanding officer wanted to find out exactly what the Jews had against Paul. So the next day he let Paul out of prison. He ordered a meeting of the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin. Then he brought Paul and had him stand in front of them.
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