Paul gives his testimony
Acts 21:37-22:29
21:37As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he asked the commanding officer, “May I speak to you?” He said, “Do you know Greek?
21:38Aren’t you then the Egyptian who before these days stirred up to sedition and led out into the wilderness the four thousand men of the Assassins?”
21:39But Paul said, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.”
21:40When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, beckoned with his hand to the people. When there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying,
22:1“Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”
22:2When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,
22:3“I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today.
22:4I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women,
22:5as also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and traveled to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished.
22:6“As I made my journey and came close to Damascus, about noon suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky.
22:7I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
22:8I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’