Then the colonel came up and seized him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains, and then inquired who he was and what he had been doing. Some of the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and as he could not find out the facts on account of the confusion, he ordered him to be taken into the barracks. When Paul got to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers, on account of the violence of the mob, read more.
for the mass of people followed them shouting, "Kill him!" Just as they were going to take him into the barracks, Paul said to the colonel, "May I say something to you?" "Do you know Greek?" the colonel asked. "Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago raised the four thousand cut-throats and led them out into the desert?" "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." He gave him permission, and Paul standing on the steps made a gesture to the people, and when they had become quiet he spoke to them in Hebrew.

"Brothers and fathers," he said, "listen to what I have to say in my defense." When they heard him speak to them in Hebrew, they became even more quiet, and he said, "I am a Jew, and I was born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but was brought up here in this city, and thoroughly educated under the teaching of Gamaliel in the Law of our forefathers. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today. read more.
I persecuted this Way even to the death, and bound both men and women and put them in prison, as the high priest and the whole council will bear me witness. In fact, they gave me letters to the brothers in Damascus and I went there to bind those who were there and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished. But on my way, as I was approaching Damascus, suddenly about noon, a blaze of light flashed around me from heaven, and I fell upon the ground and heard a voice say to me, 'Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?' I answered, 'Who are you, sir?' 'I am Jesus of Nazareth,' he said, 'whom you are persecuting.' The men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. Then I said, 'What am I to do, sir?' The Lord said to me, 'Get up and go into Damascus. There you will be told of all you are destined to do.' As I could not see, because of the dazzling light, my companions had to lead me by the hand, and so I reached Damascus. There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the Law, highly respected by all the Jews who lived there, came to see me, and standing by my side, said to me, 'Saul, my brother, regain your sight!' Then instantly I regained my sight and looked at him, and he said, 'The God of our forefathers has appointed you to learn his will and to see his Righteous One and hear him speak, for you shall be his witness before all men of what you have seen and heard. And now, why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash out your sins, calling on his name.' After I had returned to Jerusalem, one day when I was praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him saying to me, 'Make haste and leave Jerusalem at once, for they will not accept your evidence about me.' And I said, 'Lord, they know that I used to go through one synagogue after another, and to imprison and flog those who believed in you, and when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I stood by and approved it, and took charge of the clothes of the men who killed him.' But he said to me, 'Go! I will send you far away to the heathen.' "