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¹ Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye now my defence unto you.² (And when they heard that he addressed them in the Hebrew tongue, they kept the more silence:

³ and he saith) I am verily a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and accurately instructed in the law of our fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.⁴ And I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women: As likewise the high priest is my witness, and all the estate of the elders:⁵ from whom also I received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them who were there to Jerusalem to be punished.⁶ But as I journeyed and drew near to Damascus, about noon suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.⁷ And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?⁸ And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.⁹ And they that were with me, saw the light, and were terrified; but they did not hear the voice of him that spake to me, And I said, What shall I do, Lord?¹⁰ And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed thee to do.¹¹ And as I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand by them that were with me, I came into Damascus.¹² And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law,¹³ well reported of by all the Jews that dwelt there, Coming to me, stood and said to me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him.¹⁴ And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, to know his will, and see that Just one, and hear the voice of his mouth.¹⁵ For thou shalt be his witness to all men, of what thou hast seen and heard.¹⁶ And now, why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.¹⁷ And when I was returned to Jerusalem, and was praying in the temple,¹⁸ I was in a trance, And saw him saying to me, Make haste and depart quickly out of Jerusalem; for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.¹⁹ And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned, and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee.²⁰ And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by and consenting to his death, and kept the garments of them that slew him.²¹ But he said to me, Depart: for I will send thee far off to the Gentiles.

²² And they heard him to this word, and then lifted up their voice and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live.²³ And as they cried out, and rent their garments, and cast dust into the air,²⁴ The tribune commanded him to be brought into the castle, and ordered him to be examined by scourging, that he might know, for what cause they cried so against him.²⁵ And as they were binding him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a Roman, even uncondemned?²⁶ The centurion hearing it, went and told the tribune, saying, Consider what thou art about to do; for this man is a Roman.²⁷ Then the tribune came and said to him, Tell me, Art thou a Roman?²⁸ He said, Yea. And the tribune answered, I purchased this freedom with a great sum of money.²⁹ And Paul said, But I was free-born. Then they who were going to examine him, immediately departed from him: and the tribune was afraid, after he knew he was a Roman, because he had bound him.³⁰ And on the morrow, desiring to know the certainty, what he was accused of by the Jews, he loosed him from his bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to come, and bringing Paul down, set him before them.