1
`Men, brethren, and fathers, hear my defence now unto you;' --
2
and they having heard that in the Hebrew dialect he was speaking to them, gave the more silence, and he saith, --
3
`I, indeed, am a man, a Jew, having been born in Tarsus of Cilicia, and brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, having been taught according to the exactitude of a law of the fathers, being zealous of God, as all ye are to-day.
4
`And this way I persecuted unto death, binding and delivering up to prisons both men and women,
5
as also the chief priest doth testify to me, and all the eldership; from whom also having received letters unto the brethren, to Damascus, I was going on, to bring also those there bound to Jerusalem that they might be punished,
6
and it came to pass, in my going on and coming nigh to Damascus, about noon, suddenly out of the heaven there shone a great light round about me,
7
I fell also to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why me dost thou persecute?
8
`And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? and he said unto me, I am Jesus the Nazarene whom thou dost persecute --
9
and they who are with me the light did see, and became afraid, and the voice they heard not of him who is speaking to me --