Acts 22:17-29 - Paul's Call To Preach To The Gentiles
17 When I returned to Jerusalem, it happened that while I was praying in the temple I fell into a trance 18 and saw Him saying to me, 'Make haste, leave Jerusalem quickly, for they will not accept your evidence about me.'
19 'But, Lord,' I said, 'they surely know it was I who imprisoned and flogged those who believed in you throughout the synagogues, 20 and that I stood and approved when the blood of your martyr Stephen was being shed, taking charge of the clothes of his murderers!'
21 But he said to me, 'Go; I will send you afar to the Gentiles ????'"
22 Till he said that, they had listened to him. But at that they shouted, "Away with such a creature from the earth! He is not fit to live!"
23 They yelled and threw their clothes into the air and flung dust about, 24 till the commander ordered him to be taken inside the barracks and examined under the lash, so as to find out why the people shouted at him in this way. 25 They had strapped him up, when Paul said to the officer who was standing by, "Are you allowed to scourge a Roman citizen ??and to scourge him without a trial?"
26 When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and said to him, "What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen."
27 So the commander went to him and said, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he said.
28 The commander replied, "I had to pay a large sum for this citizenship." "But I was born a citizen," said Paul.
29 Then those who were to have examined him left him at once alone; even the commander was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.