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Brethren and fathers, hear my defence which I now make to you.
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And hearing that he addressed them in the Hebrew tongue, they kept the more quiet; and he says,
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*I* 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;
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who have persecuted this way unto death, binding and delivering up to prisons both men and women;
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as 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.
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And 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.
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And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
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And *I* answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, *I* am Jesus the Nazaraean, whom *thou* persecutest.
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But 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.
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And 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.
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And 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.
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And a certain Ananias, a pious man according to the law, borne witness to by all the Jews who dwelt [there],
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coming 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.
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And 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;
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for thou shalt be a witness for him to all men of what thou hast seen and heard.
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And now why lingerest thou? Arise and get baptised, and have thy sins washed away, calling on his name.
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And it came to pass when I had returned to Jerusalem, and as I was praying in the temple, that I became in ecstasy,
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and saw him saying to me, Make haste and go quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.
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And *I* said, Lord, they themselves know that *I* was imprisoning and beating in every synagogue those that believe on thee;
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and 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.
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And he said to me, Go, for *I* will send thee to the nations afar off.