1. Brethren and fathers, hear my defence which I now make to you.
2. And hearing that he addressed them in the Hebrew tongue, they kept the more quiet; and he says,
3. I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, at the feet of Gamaliel, educated according to the exactness of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, as ye are all this day;
4. who have persecuted this way unto death, binding and delivering up to prisons both men and women;
5. as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the elderhood: from whom also, having received letters to the brethren, I went to Damascus to bring those also who were there, bound, to Jerusalem, to be punished.
6. And it came to pass, as I was journeying and drawing near to Damascus, that, about mid-day, there suddenly shone out of heaven a great light round about me.
7. And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
8. And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus the Nazaraean, whom thou persecutest.