1
Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense [which I make] now to you.
2
(And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
3
I am verily a man [who 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, being zealous towards God, as ye all are this day.
4
And I persecuted this way even to death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
5
As also the high priest doth bear me testimony, and all the estate of the elders; from whom also I received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them who were there bound to Jerusalem, to be punished.
6
And it came to pass, that as I was passing on my journey, and had come nigh to Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light around me.
7
And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?