Chapter 22

¹Brethren and fathers, hear my defence which I now make to you. ²And hearing that he addressed them in the Hebrew tongue, they kept the more quiet; and he says, ³I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to [the] exactness of the law of [our] fathers, being zealous for God, as ye are all this day; ⁴who have persecuted this way unto death, binding and delivering up to prisons both men and women; ⁵as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the elderhood: from whom also, having received letters to the brethren, I went to Damascus to bring those also who were there, bound, to Jerusalem, to be punished. ⁶And it came to pass, as I was journeying and drawing near to Damascus, that, about mid-day, there suddenly shone out of heaven a great light round about me. ⁷And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? ⁸And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus the Nazaraean, whom thou persecutest. ⁹But they that were with me beheld the light, [and were filled with fear], but heard not the voice of him that was speaking to me. ¹⁰And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Rise up, and go to Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which it is appointed thee to do. ¹¹And as I could not see, through the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came to Damascus. ¹²And a certain Ananias, a pious man according to the law, borne witness to by all the Jews who dwelt [there], ¹³coming to me and standing by me, said to me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And I, in the same hour, received my sight and saw him. ¹⁴And he said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee beforehand to know his will, and to see the just one, and to hear a voice out of his mouth; ¹⁵for thou shalt be a witness for him to all men of what thou hast seen and heard. ¹⁶And now why lingerest thou? Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away, calling on his name. ¹⁷And it came to pass when I had returned to Jerusalem, and as I was praying in the temple, that I became in ecstasy, ¹⁸and saw him saying to me, Make haste and go quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me. ¹⁹And I said, Lord, they themselves know that I was imprisoning and beating in every synagogue those that believe on thee; ²⁰and when the blood of thy witness Stephen was shed, I also myself was standing by and consenting, and kept the clothes of them who killed him. ²¹And he said to me, Go, for I will send thee to the nations afar off. ²²And they heard him until this word, and lifted up their voice, saying, Away with such a one as that from the earth, for it was not fit he should live. ²³And as they were crying, and throwing away their clothes, and casting dust into the air, ²⁴the chiliarch commanded him to be brought into the fortress, saying that he should be examined by scourging, that he might ascertain for what cause they cried thus against him. ²⁵But as they stretched him forward with the thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood [by], Is it lawful for you to scourge a man [who is] a Roman and uncondemned? ²⁶And the centurion, having heard it, went and reported it to the chiliarch, saying, What art thou going to do? for this man is a Roman. ²⁷And the chiliarch coming up said to him, Tell me, Art thou a Roman? And he said, Yes. ²⁸And the chiliarch answered, I, for a great sum, bought this citizenship. And Paul said, But I was also [free] born. ²⁹Immediately therefore those who were going to examine him left him, and the chiliarch also was afraid when he ascertained that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him. ³⁰And on the morrow, desirous to know the certainty [of the matter] why he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and having brought Paul down set him before them.