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Acts 22

Paul's Defense before the Jews

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aBrethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you."

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And when they heard that he was addressing them in the  1 aHebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he *said,

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aI am  ba Jew, born in  cTarsus of  dCilicia, but brought up in this city, educated  1under  eGamaliel,  2 fstrictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as  gyou all are today.

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aI persecuted this  bWay to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons,

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as also  athe high priest and all  bthe Council of the elders  1can testify. From them I also  creceived letters to  dthe brethren, and started off for  cDamascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem  2as prisoners to be punished.

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aBut it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me,

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and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, `Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?'

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"And I answered, `Who are You, Lord?' And He said to me, `I am  aJesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.'

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"And those who were with me  asaw the light, to be sure, but  bdid not  1understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.

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"And I said, ` aWhat shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, `Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.'

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"But since I  acould not see because of the  1brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.

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"A certain  aAnanias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and  bwell spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,

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came to me, and standing near said to me, ` aBrother Saul, receive your sight!' And  1 bat that very time I looked up at him.

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"And he said, ` aThe God of our fathers has  bappointed you to know His will and to  csee the  dRighteous One and to hear an  1utterance from His mouth.

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`For you will be  aa witness for Him to all men of  bwhat you have seen and heard.

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`Now why do you delay?  aGet up and be baptized, and  bwash away your sins,  ccalling on His name.'

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"It happened when I  areturned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I  bfell into a trance,

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and I saw Him saying to me, aMake haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.'

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"And I said, `Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another  aI used to imprison and  bbeat those who believed in You.

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`And  awhen the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.'

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"And He said to me, `Go! For I will send you far away  ato the Gentiles.' "

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They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, " aAway with such a fellow from the earth, for  bhe should not be allowed to live!"

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And as they were crying out and  athrowing off their cloaks and  btossing dust into the air,

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the  1commander ordered him to be brought into  athe barracks, stating that he should be  bexamined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way.

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But when they stretched him out  1with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, "Is it  2lawful for you to scourge  aa man who is a Roman and uncondemned?"

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When the centurion heard this, he went to the  1commander and told him, saying, "What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman."

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The  1commander came and said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?" And he said, "Yes."

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The  1commander answered, "I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money." And Paul said, "But I was actually born a citizen."

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Therefore those who were about to  aexamine him immediately  1let go of him; and the  2commander also  bwas afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had  3 cput him in chains.

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But on the next day,  awishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he  breleased him and ordered the chief priests and all  cthe  1Council to assemble, and brought Paul down and set him before them.



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(Produced: Sat Dec 22 11:24:20 2007)

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