1. “Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”
2. When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said,
3. “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today.
4. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
5. As also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and traveled to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished.
6. As I made my journey, and came close to Damascus, about noon, suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky.
7. I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
8. I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Yeshua of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’
9. “Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me.
10. I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’
11. When I couldn’t see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus.
12. One Hananiah, a devout man according to the Torah, well reported of by all the Jews who lived in Damascus,
13. came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ In that very hour I looked up at him.
14. He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth.