Acts 22-23

Acts 22

¹My brothers and fathers, give ear to the story of my life which I now put before you.

²And, hearing him talking in the Hebrew language, they became the more quiet, and he said,

³I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia by birth, but I had my education in this town at the feet of Gamaliel, being trained in the keeping of every detail of the law of our fathers; given up to the cause of God with all my heart, as you are today.

⁴And I made attacks on this Way, even to death, taking men and women and putting them in prison.

⁵Of which the high priest will be a witness, and all the rulers, from whom I had letters to the brothers; and I went into Damascus, to take those who were there as prisoners to Jerusalem for punishment.

⁶And it came about that while I was on my journey, coming near to Damascus, about the middle of the day, suddenly I saw a great light from heaven shining round me.

⁷And when I went down on the earth, a voice came to my ears saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you attacking me so cruelly?

⁸And I, answering, said, Who are you; Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are attacking.

⁹And those who were with me saw the light, but the voice of him who was talking to me came not to their ears.

¹⁰And I said, What have I to do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Get up, and go into Damascus; and it will be made clear to you what you have to do.

¹¹And because I was unable to see because of the glory of that light, those who were with me took me by the hand, and so I came to Damascus.

¹²And one Ananias, a God-fearing man, who kept the law, and of whom all the Jews in that place had a high opinion,

¹³Came to my side and said, Brother Saul, let your eyes be open. And in that very hour I was able to see him.

¹⁴And he said, You have been marked out by the God of our fathers to have knowledge of his purpose, and to see the Upright One and to give ear to the words of his mouth.

¹⁵For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and of what has come to your ears.

¹⁶And now, why are you waiting? get up, and have baptism, for the washing away of your sins, giving worship to his name.

¹⁷And it came about that when I had come back to Jerusalem, while I was at prayer in the Temple, my senses became more than naturally clear,

¹⁸And I saw him saying to me, Go out of Jerusalem straight away because they will not give hearing to your witness about me.

¹⁹And I said, Lord, they themselves have knowledge that I went through the Synagogues putting in prison and whipping all those who had faith in you:

²⁰And when Stephen your witness was put to death, I was there, giving approval, and looking after the clothing of those who put him to death.

²¹And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.

²²And they gave him a hearing as far as this word; then with loud voices they said, Away with this man from the earth; it is not right for him to be living.

²³And while they were crying out, and pulling off their clothing, and sending dust into the air,

²⁴The chief captain gave orders for him to be taken into the army building, saying that he would put him to the test by whipping, so that he might have knowledge of the reason why they were crying out so violently against him.

²⁵And when they had put leather bands round him, Paul said to the captain who was present, Is it the law for you to give blows to a man who is a Roman and has not been judged?

²⁶And hearing this, the man went to the chief captain and gave him an account of it, saying, What are you about to do? for this man is a Roman.

²⁷And the chief captain came to him and said, Give me an answer, are you a Roman? And he said, Yes.

²⁸And the chief captain said, I got Roman rights for myself at a great price. And Paul said, But I had them by birth.

²⁹Then those who were about to put him to the test went away: and the chief captain was in fear, seeing that he was a Roman, and that he had put chains on him.

³⁰But on the day after, desiring to have certain knowledge of what the Jews had to say against him, he made him free, and gave orders for the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to come together, and he took Paul and put him before them.

Acts 23

¹And Paul, looking fixedly at the Sanhedrin, said, My brothers, my life has been upright before God till this day.

²And the high priest, Ananias, gave orders to those who were near him to give him a blow on the mouth.

³Then Paul said to him, God will give blows to you, you whitewashed wall: are you here to be my judge by law, and by your orders am I given blows against the law?

⁴And those who were near said, Do you say such words against God's high priest?

⁵And Paul said, Brother, I had no idea that he was the high priest: for it has been said, You may not say evil about the ruler of your people.

⁶But when Paul saw that half of them were Sadducees and the rest Pharisees, he said in the Sanhedrin, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, and the son of Pharisees: I am here to be judged on the question of the hope of the coming back from the dead.

⁷And when he had said this, there was an argument between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and a division in the meeting.

⁸For the Sadducees say that there is no coming back from the dead, and no angels or spirits: but the Pharisees have belief in all these.

⁹And there was a great outcry: and some of the scribes on the side of the Pharisees got up and took part in the discussion, saying, We see no evil in this man: what if he has had a revelation from an angel or a spirit?

¹⁰And when the argument became very violent, the chief captain, fearing that Paul would be pulled in two by them, gave orders to the armed men to take him by force from among them, and take him into the army building.

¹¹And the night after, the Lord came to his side and said, Be of good heart, for as you have been witnessing for me in Jerusalem, so will you be my witness in Rome.

¹²And when it was day, the Jews came together and put themselves under an oath that they would take no food or drink till they had put Paul to death.

¹³And more than forty of them took this oath.

¹⁴And they came to the chief priests and the rulers and said, We have taken a great oath to take no food till we have put Paul to death

¹⁵So now, will you and the Sanhedrin make a request to the military authorities to have him sent down to you, as if you were desiring to go into the business in greater detail; and we, before ever he gets to you, will be waiting to put him to death.

¹⁶But Paul's sister's son had word of their design, and he came into the army building and gave news of it to Paul.

¹⁷And Paul sent for a captain and said, Take this young man to your chief, for he has news for him.

¹⁸So he took him to the chief captain and said, Paul, the prisoner, made a request to me to take this young man to you, for he has something to say to you.

¹⁹And the chief took him by the hand and, going on one side, said to him privately, What is it you have to say to me?

²⁰And he said, The Jews are in agreement together to make a request to you for Paul to be taken, on the day after this, into the Sanhedrin, to be questioned in greater detail.

²¹But do not give way to them, for more than forty of them are waiting for him, having taken an oath not to take food or drink till they have put him to death: and now they are ready, waiting for your order.

²²So the chief captain let the young man go, saying to him, Do not say to anyone that you have given me word of these things.

²³And he sent for two captains and said, Make ready two hundred men, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, to go to Caesarea, at the third hour of the night:

²⁴And get beasts so that they may put Paul on them, and take him safely to Felix, the ruler.

²⁵And he sent a letter in these words:

²⁶Claudius Lysias, to the most noble ruler, Felix, peace be with you.

²⁷This man was taken by the Jews, and was about to be put to death by them, when I came on them with the army and took him out of danger, having knowledge that he was a Roman.

²⁸And, desiring to get at the reason for their attack on him, I took him down to their Sanhedrin:

²⁹Then it became clear to me that it was a question of their law, and that nothing was said against him which might be a reason for prison or death.

³⁰And when news was given to me that a secret design was being made against the man, I sent him straight away to you, giving orders to those who are against him to make their statements before you.

³¹So the armed men, as they were ordered, took Paul and came by night to Antipatris.

³²But on the day after, they sent the horsemen on with him, and went back to their place:

³³And they, when they came to Caesarea, gave the letter to the ruler, and took Paul before him.

³⁴And after reading it, he said, What part of the country do you come from? And, hearing that he was from Cilicia,

³⁵I will give hearing to your cause, he said, when those who are against you have come. And he gave orders for him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium.