⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

¹³ You have heard, no doubt, of my earlier life in Judaism. I was violently persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.^{(A) 14} I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.^(B)

³ But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.^(A)

⁹ “Indeed, I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth.^{[a](A) 10} And that is what I did in Jerusalem; with authority received from the chief priests, I not only locked up many of the saints in prison, but I also cast my vote against them when they were being condemned to death.^(B)

³ “I am a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today.^{(A) 4} I persecuted this Way up to the point of death by binding both men and women and putting them in prison,^(B)

²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

¹³ even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,^(A)

⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ,^[a] the righteousness from God based on faith.^(A)

⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.^(A)

³¹ but Israel, who did strive for the law of righteousness, did not attain that law.^{(A) 32} Why not? Because they did not strive for it on the basis of faith but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone,^(B)