King James Version › Acts › 22

Acts

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1 Men, brethren, and fa­thers, hear ye my de­fence which I make now unto you. 2 (And when they heard that he spake in the He­brew tongue to them, they kept the more si­lence: and he saith,) 3 I am ver­i­ly a man which am a Jew, born in Tar­sus, a city in Cili­cia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught ac­cord­ing to the per­fect man­ner of the law of the fa­thers, and was zeal­ous to­ward God, as ye all are this day. 4 And I per­se­cut­ed this way unto the death, bind­ing and de­liv­er­ing into pris­ons both men and wom­en. 5 As also the high priest doth bear me wit­ness, and all the es­tate of the el­ders: from whom also I re­ceived let­ters unto the brethren, and went to Dam­as­cus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be pun­ished. 6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my jour­ney, and was come nigh unto Dam­as­cus about noon, sud­den­ly there shone from heav­en a great light round about me. 7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice say­ing unto me, Saul, Saul, why per­se­cutest thou me? 8 And I an­swered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Je­sus of Nazareth, whom thou per­se­cutest. 9 And they that were with me saw in­deed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. 10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Dam­as­cus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are ap­point­ed for thee to do. 11 And when I could not see for the glo­ry of that light, be­ing led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Dam­as­cus. 12 And one Ana­nias, a de­vout man ac­cord­ing to the law, hav­ing a good re­port of all the Jews which dwelt there, 13 Came unto me, and stood, and said unto 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, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. 15 For thou shalt be his wit­ness unto 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 it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the tem­ple, I was in a trance; 18 And saw him say­ing unto me, Make haste, and get thee 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 unto his death, and kept the rai­ment of them that slew him. 21 And he said unto me, De­part: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gen­tiles. 22 And they gave him au­di­ence unto this word, and then lift­ed up their voic­es, 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 cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air, 24 The chief cap­tain com­mand­ed him to be brought into the cas­tle, and bade that he should be ex­am­ined by scourg­ing; that he might know where­fore they cried so against him. 25 And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the cen­tu­ri­on that stood by, Is it law­ful for you to scourge a man that is a Ro­man, and un­con­demned? 26 When the cen­tu­ri­on heard that, he went and told the chief cap­tain, say­ing, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Ro­man. 27 Then the chief cap­tain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Ro­man? He said, Yea. 28 And the chief cap­tain an­swered, With a great sum ob­tained I this free­dom. And Paul said, But I was free born. 29 Then straight­way they de­part­ed from him which should have ex­am­ined him: and the chief cap­tain also was afraid, af­ter he knew that he was a Ro­man, and be­cause he had bound him. 30 On the mor­row, be­cause he would have known the cer­tain­ty where­fore he was ac­cused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and com­mand­ed the chief priests and all their coun­cil to ap­pear, and brought Paul down, and set him be­fore them.