³ But ^(A)Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and ^(B)dragging off men and women, he was delivering them into prison.

¹⁹ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another ^(A)I used to imprison and ^(B)beat those who believed in You. ²⁰ And ^(C)when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and guarding the garments of those who were slaying him.’ ²¹ And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away ^(D)to the Gentiles.’”

Paul, a Citizen of Rome

²² And they were listening to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “^(E)Away with such a fellow from the earth, for ^(F)he should not be allowed to live!” ²³ And as they were crying out and ^(G)throwing off their garments and ^(H)tossing dust into the air, ²⁴ the ^[a]commander ordered him to be brought into ^(I)the barracks, stating that he should be ^(J)examined by flogging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way. ²⁵ But when they stretched him out ^[b]with leather straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it ^[c]lawful for you to flog ^(K)a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” ²⁶ And when the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported to him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.” ²⁷ And the commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.” ²⁸ And the commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I have been born a citizen.” ²⁹ Therefore those who were about to ^(L)examine him immediately withdrew from him; and the commander also ^(M)was afraid when he learned that he was a Roman, and because he had ^(N)bound him.

Paul Before the Sanhedrin

³⁰ But on the next day, ^(O)wishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he ^(P)released him and ordered the chief priests and all ^(Q)the Sanhedrin to come together, and brought Paul down and set him before them.

⁹ “So then, ^(A)I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to ^(B)the name of Jesus the Nazarene. ¹⁰ And this is ^[a]just what I ^(C)did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the ^[b]saints in prisons, having ^(D)received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I ^(E)cast my vote against them. ¹¹ And ^(F)as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being ^(G)furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them ^(H)even to ^[c]foreign cities.