"I am a Jew," Paul answered, "from Tarsus, in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you to let me speak to the people."

But when they had strapped him up, Paul said to the officer who was standing near, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen, and without giving him a trial?"

Upon hearing this, the officer went to the colonel and reported it. "What do you propose to do?" he said. "This man is a Roman citizen."

Then the colonel came to Paul and said, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," he said.

"I had to pay a large sum for my citizenship," said the colonel. "But I am a citizen by birth," said Paul.

Then the men who had been going to examine him immediately left him, and the colonel himself was alarmed to find that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had had him bound.

This man had been seized by the Jews and they were just going to kill him when I came upon them with my men and rescued him, as I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

Saul's fellow-travelers stood speechless, for they heard the voice but could not see anyone.

"This fellow," they said, "is trying to induce people to worship God in ways that are against the law."

If Demetrius and his fellow-craftsmen have a charge to bring against anyone, there are the courts and the governors; let them take legal action.

when on the road at noon, your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun flash around me and my fellow-travelers.

But Paul said to them, "They had us beaten in public without giving us a trial, and put us in jail, although we are Roman citizens! And now are they going to dismiss us secretly? By no means! Have them come here themselves and take us out!"

The policemen delivered this message to the magistrates, and they were alarmed when they heard that they were Roman citizens,

So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and went into the audience-room attended by officers and the leading citizens of the town, and at the command of Festus Paul was brought in.