¹ Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense [which I make] now unto you.

² (And when they heard that he spoke in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence, and he said,)

³ I am indeed 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 truth of the law of the fathers, zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.

⁴ And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

⁵ As also the prince of the priests bears me witness, and all the estate of the elders, from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring those who were bound there unto Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶ And it came to pass that, as I made my journey and was come near unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.

⁷ And I fell unto the ground and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why dost thou persecute me?

⁸ And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I Am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou dost persecute.

⁹ And those that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of him that spoke to me.

¹⁰ And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.

¹¹ And when I could not see for the clarity of that light, being led by the hand of those that were with me, I came into Damascus.

¹² And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, having a good witness of all the Jews who dwelt [there],

¹³ came unto me and stood and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him.

¹⁴ And he said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee that thou should know his will and see that Just One and should hear the voice of his mouth.

¹⁵ For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.

¹⁶ And now why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

¹⁷ And it came to pass that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a rapture of understanding

¹⁸ and saw him saying unto me, Make haste and go quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

¹⁹ And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and in every synagogue beat those that believed on thee;

²⁰ and when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by and consenting unto his death and kept the raiment of those that slew him.

²¹ And he said unto me, Depart, for I will send thee far from here unto the Gentiles.

²² And they gave him audience unto this word and [then] lifted up their voices and said, Away with such a [fellow] from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live.

²³ And as they cried out and cast off [their] clothes and threw dust into the air,

²⁴ the tribunal commanded him to be brought into the fortress and bade that he should be examined by scourging that he might know why they cried out so against him.

²⁵ And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman and uncondemned?

²⁶ When the centurion heard [that], he went and told the tribunal, saying, Take heed what thou doest, for this man is a Roman.

²⁷ Then the tribunal came and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yes.

²⁸ And the tribunal answered, With a great sum I obtained this freedom. And Paul said, But I was [free] born.

²⁹ Then straightway those who should have tormented him departed from him, and the tribunal was also afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman and because he had bound him.

³⁰ On the next day, because he wanted to know of certainty the cause for which he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from [his] bands and commanded the princes of the priests and all their council to appear and brought Paul down and set him before them.: