"I am a Jew, a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, but I was brought up in this city under the teaching of Gamaliel, and educated in accordance with the strict system of our ancestral Law. I was as zealous in God's service as any of you who are here to-day.

The men with me saw the light, but did not hear the speaker's voice.

In consequence of that dazzling light I could not see, but my companions held me by the hand, till I reached Damascus.

There a man named Ananias, a strict observer of our Law, well spoken of by all the Jewish inhabitants, came to see me.

Then he said 'The God of our ancestors has appointed you to learn his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear words from his lips;

And saw Jesus saying to me 'Make haste and leave Jerusalem at once, because they will not accept your testimony about me.'

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

The people standing near said to Paul: "Do you know that you are insulting God's High Priest?"

(For Sadducees say there is no such thing as a resurrection, and that there is neither angel nor spirit, while Pharisees believe in both.)

So a great uproar ensued, and some of the Teaches of the Law belonging to the Pharisees' party stood up and hotly protested: "We find nothing whatever wrong in this man. Suppose a spirit did speak to him, or an angel--"

The dispute was becoming so violent, that the Commanding Officer, fearing that Paul would be torn in pieces between them, ordered the Guard to go down and rescue him from them, and take him into the Fort.

So we want you now, with the consent of the Council, to suggest to the Commanding Officer that he should bring Paul down before you, as though you intended to go more fully into his case; but, before he comes here, we will be ready to make away with him."

However, the son of Paul's sister, hearing of the plot, went to the Fort, and on being admitted, told Paul about it.

And to have horses ready for Paul to ride, so that they might take him safely to Felix, the Governor.

"I will hear all you have to say as soon as your accusers have arrived." And he ordered Paul to be kept under guard in Herod's Government House.

This being so, I strive at all times to keep my conscience clear before both God and man.

Or else let my opponents here say what they found wrong in me when I was before the Council,

So he gave orders to the Captain in charge of Paul to keep him in custody, but to relax the regulations, and not to prevent any of his personal friends from attending to his wants.

Some days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was herself a Jewess, and, sending for Paul, listened to what he had to say about faith in Christ Jesus.

He was hoping, too, for a bribe from Paul, and so he used to send for him frequently and talk with him.

And asked a favor of him, to Paul's injury--to have Paul brought to Jerusalem. All the while they were plotting to make away with him on the road.

"So let the influential men among you," he said, "go down with me, and if there is anything amiss in the man, charge him formally with it."

On Paul's appearance, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, and made many serious charges, which they failed to establish.

Paul's answer to the charge was--'I have not committed any offence against the Jewish Law, or the Temple, or the Emperor.'

"No," replied Paul, "I am standing at the Emperor's Bar, where I ought to be tried. I have not wronged the Jews, as you yourself are well aware.

And, as they were staying there for several days, Festus laid Paul's case before the King. "There is a man here," he said, "left a prisoner by Felix,

So they met here, and without loss of time I took my seat on the Bench the very next day, and ordered the man to be brought before me.

Paul, however, appealed to have his case reserved for the consideration of his August Majesty, so I ordered him to be detained in custody, until I could send him to the Emperor."

So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come in full state and had entered the Audience Chamber, with the superior officers and the principal people of the city, by the order of Festus Paul was brought before them.

Then Festus said: "King Agrippa, and all here present, you see before you the man about whom the whole Jewish people have applied to me, both at Jerusalem and here, loudly asserting that he ought not to be allowed to live.

I found, however, that he had not done anything deserving death; so, as he had himself appealed to his August Majesty, I decided to send him.

Especially as you are so well-versed in all the customs and questions of the Jewish world. I beg you therefore to give me a patient hearing.

A promise which our Twelve Tribes, by earnest service night and day, hope to see fulfilled. It is for this hope, your Majesty, that I am accused--and by Jews themselves!

And I actually did so at Jerusalem. Acting on the authority of the Chief Priests, I myself threw many of the People of Christ into prison, and, when it was proposed to put them to death, I gave my vote for it.

Time after time, in every Synagogue, I tried by punishments to force them to blaspheme. So frantic was I against them, that I pursued them even to towns beyond our borders.

That at mid-day, your Majesty, I saw right in my path, coming from the heavens, a light brighter than the glare of the sun, which shone all round me and those traveling with me.

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God; so that they may receive pardon for their sins, and a place among those who have become God's People, by faith in me.'

However I have received help from God to this very day, and so stand here, and bear my testimony to high and low alike--without adding a word to what the Prophets, as well as Moses, declared should happen--

Indeed, the King knows about these matters, so I speak before him without constraint. I am sure that there is nothing whatever of what I have been telling him that has escaped his attention; for all this has not been done in a corner.

And, after retiring, discussed the case among themselves. "There is nothing," they said, "deserving death or imprisonment in this man's conduct";

We went on board a ship from Adramyttium, which was on the point of sailing to the ports along the coast of Roman Asia, and put to sea. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, went with us.

The next day we put in to Sidon, where Julius treated Paul in a friendly manner, and allowed him to go to see his friends and receive their hospitality.

Putting to sea again, we sailed under the lee of Cyprus, because the wind was against us;

And, after crossing the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we reached Myra in Lycia.

This had taken a considerable time, and sailing was already dangerous, for the Fast was already over; and so Paul gave this warning.

"My friends," he said, "I see that this voyage will be attended with injury and much damage, not only to the cargo and the ship, but to our own lives also."

So, when a light wind sprang up from the south, thinking that they had found their opportunity, they weighed anchor and kept along the coast of Crete, close in shore.

The ship was caught by it and was unable to keep her head to the wind, so we had to give way and let her drive before it.

Running under the lee of a small island called Cauda, we only just managed to secure the ship's boat,

So violently were we tossed about by the storm, that the next day they began throwing the cargo overboard,

And, on the following day, threw out the ship's tackle with their own hands.

It was then, when they had gone a long time without food, that Paul came forward, and said: "My friends, you should have listened to me, and not have sailed from Crete and so incurred this injury and damage.

It was now the fourteenth night of the storm, and we were drifting about in the Adriatic Sea, when, about midnight, the sailors began to suspect that they were drawing near land.

So they took soundings, and found twenty fathoms of water. After waiting a little, they took soundings again, and found fifteen fathoms.

So I urge you to take something to eat; your safety depends upon it, for not one of you will lose even a hair of his head."

After satisfying their hunger, they further lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.

But the Roman Officer, anxious to save Paul, prevented their carrying out their intention, and ordered that those who could swim should be the first to jump into the sea and try to reach the shore;

When the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another: "Evidently this man is a murderer, for though he has been saved from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live."

It happened that the father of Publius was lying ill of fever and dysentery. So Paul went to see him; and, after praying, he placed his hands on him and cured him.

And from there we worked to windward and so got to Rhegium. A day later a south wind sprang up and took us to Puteoli in two days.

This, then, is my reason for urging you to come to see me and talk with me; because it is for the sake of the Hope of Israel that I am here in chains."

So, as they disagreed among themselves, they began to disperse, Paul adding only--"True, indeed, was the declaration made by the Holy Spirit, through the Prophet Isaiah to your ancestors--

'Go to this nation and say--"You will hear with your ears without ever understanding, and, though you have eyes, you will see without ever perceiving."

For the mind of this nation has grown dense, and their ears are dull of hearing, their eyes also have they closed; lest some day they should see with their eyes, and with their ears they should hear, and in their mind they should understand, and should turn--and I should heal them.'

For two whole years Paul stayed in a house which he rented for himself, welcoming all who came to see him,

To all in Rome who are dear to God and have been called to become Christ's People, From Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, who has been called to become an Apostle, and has been set apart to tell God's Good News.

For I long to see you, in order to impart to you some spiritual gift and so give you fresh strength--

Or rather that both you and I may find encouragement in each other's faith.

I want you to know, Brothers, that I have many times intended coming to see you-but until now I have been prevented-that I might find among you some fruit of my labors, as I have already among the other nations.

And so, for my part, I am ready to tell the Good News to you also who are in Rome.

So, too, there is a revelation from Heaven of the Divine Wrath against every form of ungodliness and wickedness on the part of those men who, by their wicked lives, are stifling the Truth.

This is so, because what can be known about God is plain to them; for God himself has made it plain.

For ever since the creation of the universe God's invisible attributes-his everlasting power and divinity-are to be seen and studied in his works, so that men have no excuse;

That, I say, is why God abandoned them to degrading passions. Even the women among them perverted the natural use of their bodies to the unnatural;

Then, as they would not keep God before their minds, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts, so that they did all kinds of shameful things.

Well aware of God's decree, that those who do such things deserve to die, not only are they guilty of them themselves, but they even applaud those who do them.

Therefore you have nothing to say in your own defense, whoever you are who set yourself up as a judge. In judging others you condemn yourself, for you who set yourself up as a judge do the very same things.

And we know that God's judgment falls unerringly upon those who do them.

You who judge those that do such things and yet are yourself guilty of them-do you suppose that you of all men will escape God's judgment?

Hard-hearted and impenitent as you are, you are storing up for yourself Wrath on the 'Day of Wrath,' when God's justice as a judge will be revealed;

On the day when God passes judgment on men's inmost lives, as the Good News that I tell declares that he will do through Christ Jesus.

Great in every way. First of all, because the Jews were entrusted with God's utterances.

But what if our wrong-doing makes God's righteousness all the clearer? Will God be wrong in inflicting punishment? (I can but speak as a man.) Heaven forbid!

Why should we not say-as some people slanderously assert that we do say-'Let us do evil that good may come'? The condemnation of such men is indeed just!

For all have sinned, and all fall short of God's glorious ideal,

What then, it may be asked, are we to say about Abraham, the ancestor of our nation?

Is this blessing, then, pronounced upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised as well? We say that-'Abraham's faith was regarded by God as righteousness.'

That is why all is made to depend upon faith, that all may be God's gift, and in order that the fulfillment of the promise may be made certain for all Abraham's descendants-not only for those who take their stand on the Law, but also for those who take their stand on the faith of Abraham. (He is the Father of us all;

With no ground for hope, Abraham, sustained by hope, put faith in God; in order that, in fulfillment of the words-'So many shall thy descendants be,' he might become 'the Father of many nations.'

He was not led by want of faith to doubt God's promise.

It is through him that, by reason of our faith, we have obtained admission to that place in God's favor in which we not stand. So let us exult in our hope of attaining God's glorious ideal.

Seeing that, while we were still powerless, Christ, in God's good time, died on behalf of the godless.

For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, much more, now that we have become reconciled, shall we be saved by virtue of Christ's Life.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and through sin came death; so, also, death spread to all mankind, because all men had sinned.

Yet, from Adam to Moses, Death reigned even over those whose sin was not a breach of a law, as Adam's was. And Adam foreshadows the One to come.

But there is a contrast between Adam's Offence and God's gracious Gift. For, if by reason of the offence of the one man the whole race died, far more were the loving-kindness of God, and the gift given in the loving-kindness of the one man, Jesus Christ, lavished upon the whole race.

There is a contrast, too, between the gift and the results of the one man's sin. The judgment, which followed upon the one man's sin, resulted in condemnation, but God's gracious Gift, which followed upon many offences, resulted in a decree of righteousness.

For if, by reason of the offence of the one man, Death reigned through that one man, far more will those, upon whom God's loving- kindness and his gift of righteousness are lavished, find Life, and reign through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Briefly then, just as a single offence resulted for all mankind in condemnation, so, too, a single decree of righteousness resulted for all mankind in that declaration of righteousness which brings Life.

For, as through the disobedience of the one man the whole race was rendered sinful, so, too, through the obedience of the one, the whole race will be rendered righteous.