"No," said Paul, "I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of a city of some note; and I beg you to give me permission to speak to the people."

But just as they had tied him up to be scourged, Paul said to the Captain standing near: "Is it legal for you to scourge a Roman citizen, unconvicted?"

On hearing this, the Captain went and reported it to the Commanding Officer. "Do you know what you are doing?" he said. "This man is a Roman citizen."

So the Commanding Officer went up to Paul and said: "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes," replied Paul.

"I had to pay a heavy price for my position as citizen," said the Officer. "I am one by birth," rejoined Paul.

The men who were to have examined Paul immediately drew back, and the Officer, finding that Paul was a Roman citizen, was alarmed at having put him in chains.

The man whom I send with this had been seized by the Jews, and was on the point of being killed by them, when I came upon them with the force under my command, and rescued him, as I learned that he was a Roman citizen.

But the man who was ill-treating his fellow workman pushed Moses aside saying--'Who made you a ruler and judge over us?

And to that the High Priest himself and all the Council can testify. For I had letters of introduction from them to our fellow Jews at Damascus, and I was on my way to that place, to bring those whom I might find there prisoners to Jerusalem for punishment.

Up to this point the people had been listening to Paul, but at these words they called out: "Kill him! A fellow like this ought not to have been allowed to live!"

'Have no fear, Paul; you must appear before the Emperor, and God himself has given you the lives of all your fellow-voyagers.'

"We," was their reply, "have not had any letter about you from Judea, nor have any of our fellow-Jews come and reported or said anything bad about you.

But Paul's answer to them was: "They have flogged us in public without trial, though we are Roman citizens, and they have put us in prison, and now they are for sending us out secretly! No, indeed! Let them come and take us out themselves."

The police reported his words to the Magistrates, who, on hearing that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, were alarmed,