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21:39-22:33 When (the
Tribune) gave permission Paul stood on the steps and beckoned the people with his hand. When there was a silence he addressed
them in the Hebrew language. "Brethren and fathers, please hear my
defence to you. On hearing that he
addressed them in the Hebrew language they quietened down more. He says 'I am a Jewish man who was born in
Tarsus of Cilia. I was brought up in
this city and was trained according to the exactness of the ancestral law
at the feet of Gamaliel. I have
been a zealot (in the law) even like yourselves here today. I persecuted as far as death and bound
and delivered to prisons both men and women. Even the high priest gave witness to me
and also all the senate from whom I received letters to take to the
brothers in Damascus. I journeyed to Damascus
in order to arrest and bind up the leaders there and take them back up to Jerusalem where they
might be punished. Now it happened
to me that at about midday as I was on the journey and drawing near to Damascus, suddenly out
of
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heaven
there was a great light shining around me and I fell to the ground. I heard a voice saying to me. "Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?"
I then answered "Who are you Lord?" He said to me "I
am Jesus the Nazarene whom you are persecuting." Now those who were with me indeed saw the
light. But they did not hear the voice
of the one speaking to me. I said
"What may I do Lord?" The
Lord said to me "Rise up and go into Damascus.
You will be told there what it has been arranged for you to
do." And after the glory of
that light I could not see and so I was led by the hand of the people who
were with me into Damascus.
It happened that there was a certain man called Ananias, who was a devout man according to the law and who was
well spoken by all the Jews who lived there. He came to me and stood by me saying
"Brother Saul look up." And I looked up at him and saw at the
same time. He (then) said "The
God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will and to see the Just
One and to hear a voice from out of his mouth. This is
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because
you will witness to him to all men about what you have seen and heard. Now what should you do? Get
up and be baptized and wash away your sins, invoking his name".
And so this happened to
me. (Then after this) on having
returned to Jerusalem
I was praying in the temple and fell into an ecstasy.
I
saw him (the Lord) saying to me "Quickly go out of Jerusalem because they will not receive
your witness about me here." I
said "Lord understand that I
was imprisoning and beating the people who believed in you
throughout
the synagogues. And when the blood
of Stephen your witness was being shed I even stood by in consent and
looked after the clothes of those who were killing him." And he (the Lord) said to me "Go
because I will send you forth to nations far away."
(Paul's
listeners) heard him as far as this (then) they lifted up their voice and
said "Take this man from the
very earth for it is not fitting for him to live." And (they continued) shouting and tearing their clothes and
throwing dust into the air.
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