13
Ananias protested, "Master, you can't be serious. Everybody's talking about this man and the terrible things he's been doing, his reign of terror against your people in Jerusalem!
14
And now he's shown up here with papers from the Chief Priest that give him license to do the same to us."
15
But the Master said, "Don't argue. Go! I have picked him as my personal representative to Gentiles and kings and Jews.
16
And now I'm about to show him what he's in for - the hard suffering that goes with this job."
17
So Ananias went and found the house, placed his hands on blind Saul, and said, "Brother Saul, the Master sent me, the same Jesus you saw on your way here. He sent me so you could see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
18
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than something like scales fell from Saul's eyes - he could see again! He got to his feet, was baptized,
19
and sat down with them to a hearty meal.
20
but then went right to work, wasting no time, preaching in the meeting places that this Jesus was the Son of God.
21
They were caught off guard by this and, not at all sure they could trust him, they kept saying, "Isn't this the man who wreaked havoc in Jerusalem among the believers? And didn't he come here to do the same thing - arrest us and drag us off to jail in Jerusalem for sentencing by the high priests?"
22
But their suspicions didn't slow Saul down for even a minute. His momentum was up now and he plowed straight into the opposition, disarming the Damascus Jews and trying to show them that this Jesus was the Messiah.
23
After this had gone on quite a long time, some Jews conspired to kill him,