If we allow him [to go on] in this way, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."

Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya toward Cyrene, and the Romans who were in town,

and are proclaiming customs that are not permitted for us to accept or to practice, [because we] are Romans!"

To {them} I replied that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up any man before the one who had been accused met [his] accusers face to [face] and received an opportunity for a defense concerning the accusation.

Now it happened that after three days, he called together those who were the most prominent of the Jews. And [when] they had assembled, he said to them, "Men [and] brothers, [although] I had done nothing against [our] people or the customs of our fathers, from Jerusalem I was delivered [as] a prisoner into the hands of the Romans,

and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city [of that] district of Macedonia, a [Roman] colony. And we were staying in this city for some days.

But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public without due process--men who are Roman citizens--[and] threw [us] into prison, and now they are wanting to release us secretly? Certainly not! Rather let them come themselves [and] bring us out!"

So the police officers reported these words to the chief magistrates, and they were afraid [when they] heard that they were Roman citizens.

But when they had stretched him out for the lash, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is it permitted for you to flog a man [who is] a Roman citizen and uncondemned?"

And [when] the centurion heard [this], he went to the military tribune [and] reported [it], saying, "What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen!"

So the military tribune came [and] said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" And he said, "Yes."

Then immediately those who were about to examine him kept away from him, and the military tribune also was afraid [when he] realized that he was a Roman citizen and that {he had tied him up}.

This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them [when I] came upon [them] with the detachment [and] rescued [him], [because I] learned that he was a Roman citizen.

For we have found this man [to be] a public menace and one who causes riots among all the Jews throughout the Roman Empire and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,