"I am a Jew," answered Paul, "a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city. And I pray you, give me permission to speak to the people."

But when they had tied him up with the thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing near, "If a man is a Roman citizen, and uncondemned, is it lawful for you to scourge him?"

When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him. "What are you intending to do? This man is a Roman citizen."

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

"I paid a large sum to get this citizenship," said the tribune. "But I was citizen-born," said Paul.

Then those who were about to scourge him, immediately left him. And the tribune too, was afraid, when he learned that Paul was a Roman citizen, for he had had him bound.

"This man Paul had been seized by the Jews, and was about to be killed by them, when I came upon them with the troops, and rescued him, as I had learned that he was a Roman citizen.

They also set up false witnesses who testified. "This fellow is continually talking against the Holy Place and against the law.

Meanwhile the men who were his fellow travelers stood speechless, hearing indeed the voice, but beholding no one.

A few of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also encountered him again and again. Some were saying, "What has this beggarly fellow to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a setter forth of strange gods," because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

"This fellow," they said, "is persuading men to offer unlawful worship to God."

"And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but almost throughout all of Asia, this fellow Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, by telling them that they are no gods at all who are made with hands.

Until they heard this last statement, the people were listening to Paul, but now they roared out. "Away with such a fellow from the earth! He is not fit to live!"

"For we have found this fellow a pest, an inciter of insurrection among all the Jews of the empire, and a ringleader in the heresy of the Nazarenes.

But the Jews urged on the devout women of high rank, and the leading citizens, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of the district,

But Paul said: "They have flogged us publicly, uncondemned, men that are Roman citizens; and have thrown us into prison. Are they now going to get rid of us secretly? No, indeed! Let them come here, themselves and take us out."