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?’