Acts 22

(1) Paul Tells His Conversion Story to the Jews

“Family! Please listen to my defense.”

When the Jews heard him speaking in their own Hebrew dialect, they quieted down, so he continued his message,

“I’m a Jew who was born in Tarsus, Cilicia, but I was raised in this city. I studied under Gamaliel [a Pharisee expert of Jewish law]. I did that just like our ancestors’ law said to, passionate about God in the same way you are today. I bashed the Christian way to the point of death, shackling men and women and throwing them into prison. The high priest and committee of elders can vouch for that! They gave me letters addressed to the Christians, and I went to Damascus to bring them back to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. 

“But it just so happened that as I was on my way there, around noon, a bright light suddenly flashed from the sky, surrounding me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying,

‘Saul… Saul… why are you being so hostile towards Me?’

“So I said, ‘Who are You, sir?’

“He said, ‘I’m Jesus, the Nazarene you’ve been treating with hostility.’

“The people who were with me definitely saw the light, but they didn’t hear what the voice was saying to me. So then I said, ‘What should I do, sir?’

“Then the ruler said to me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus. Someone there will tell you everything you’ll have to do.’

“But I couldn’t see anything because of how bright the light was, so the people I was with had to take my hands and lead me into the city.

(12) Paul Says Jesus Sent Him to the Non-Jews

“I met a man there named Ananias who adhered to Jewish law and had a good reputation in the Jewish community. He came to me and said,

‘Brother Saul, have your sight back!’

“That very instant, I could see again! Then Ananias told me,

‘The God of our forefathers has chosen you to know His desires, see the Upright One, and hear a message from His mouth. You’ll be an eyewitness who tells all kinds of people what you’ve seen and heard about Him. So what are you waiting for? Go get immersed and wash away your shortcomings while you call out to Jesus.’

“When I went back to Jerusalem, I started praying in the temple and ended up falling into a trance where I saw Jesus telling me,

‘Hurry up and get out of Jerusalem, because they’re not gonna be receptive to your story about Me.” 

“Then I told Him,

‘Ruler, they know how I went to synagogue after synagogue imprisoning and beating the people who believed in You. And when your eyewitness, Stephen, was having his blood shed, I approvingly stood to the side watching the coats of everyone who was killing him.’

“But then Jesus told me,

‘Go, because I’m sending you far away to the non-Jews.’”

(22) Jews Freak Out; Paul Reveals His Citizenship

The Jewish crowd was listening to everything Paul was saying up until that last part. As soon as he talked about Jesus sending him to the non-Jews, the crowed shouted,

“Wipe him off the face of the earth! He shouldn’t be allowed to live!”

As the crowd was shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and kicking up dust into the air, the Roman commander ordered for Paul to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be interrogated with a whip to find out why the Jews were shouting those things about him.

But when they started strapping him down to be whipped, Paul turned to the the Roman centurion standing nearby and asked,

“Is it legal for you to whip a Roman citizen who’s innocent?”

When the centurion heard that, he went to the commander of 1,000, and told him what was happening. He asked,

“What should we do? This guy is a Roman!”

So the commander came and asked Paul,

“Are you a Roman citizen?”

Paul said,

“Yes.”

Then the commander said,

“I had to pay a lot of money to become a Roman citizen.”

Paul said,

“I actually got my citzenship through birth.”

When they heard that, the people interrogating him let go of him right away. The commander was scared to find out Paul was a Roman, because he was the one who ordered him to be chained up. 

(30) Roman Commander Meets with the Jews

The next day, the commander wanted to find out why the Jews were accusing Paul, so he released Paul and ordered the chief priests and the entire Council to meet with him. Then he brought Paul and sat him down in front of them.