Acts 22:17-29 - Paul's Call To Preach To The Gentiles

¹⁷ "After my return to Jerusalem, and while praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance. ¹⁸ I saw Jesus, and He said to me, "'Make haste and leave Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.'

¹⁹ "'Lord,' I replied, 'they themselves well know how active I was in imprisoning, and in flogging in synagogue after synagogue those who believe in Thee; ²⁰ and when they were shedding the blood of Stephen, Thy witness, I was standing by, fully approving of it, and I held the clothes of those who were killing him.'

²¹ "'Go,' He replied; 'I will send you as an Apostle to nations far away.'"

²² Until they heard this last statement the people listened to Paul, but now with a roar of disapproval they cried out, "Away with such a fellow from the earth! He ought not to be allowed to live."

²³ And when they continued their furious shouts, throwing their clothes into the air and flinging dust about, ²⁴ the Tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, and be examined by flogging, in order to ascertain the reason why they thus cried out against him. ²⁵ But, when they had tied him up with the straps, Paul said to the Captain who stood by, "Does the Law permit you to flog a Roman citizen--and one too who is uncondemned?"

²⁶ On hearing this question, the Captain went to report the matter to the Tribune. "What are you intending to do?" he said. "This man is a Roman citizen."

²⁷ So the Tribune came to Paul and asked him, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he said.

²⁸ "I paid a large sum for my citizenship," said the Tribune. "But I was born free," said Paul.

²⁹ So the men who had been on the point of putting him under torture immediately left him. And the Tribune, too, was frightened when he learnt that Paul was a Roman citizen, for he had had him bound.