1
"Brethren and fathers," he said, "listen to my defence which I now make before you."
2
And on hearing him address them in Hebrew, they kept all the more quiet; and he said,
3
"I am a Jew, born at Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I was carefully trained at the feet of Gamaliel in the Law of our forefathers, and, like all of you to-day, was zealous for God.
4
I persecuted to death this new faith, continually binding both men and women and throwing them into prison;
5
as the High Priest also and all the Elders can bear me witness. It was, too, from them that I received letters to the brethren in Damascus, and I was already on my way to Damascus, intending to bring those also who had fled there, in chains to Jerusalem, to be punished.
6
"But on my way, when I was now not far from Damascus, about noon a sudden blaze of light from Heaven shone round me.
7
I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, "`Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'
8
"`Who art thou, Lord?' I asked. "`I am Jesus, the Nazarene,' He replied, `whom you are persecuting.'
9
"Now the men who were with me, though they saw the light, did not hear the words of Him who spoke to me.