1 MEN, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you.

2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)

3  I am verily a man which am a Jew, [ I'm a Jew, guys. I'm a Jew. I was actually brought up here. ] born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, [ I learned at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the greatest scripture teachers of the law that there is. ] and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, [ That means he was willing to defend to the death. And Paul was a great example of that. ] as ye all are this day.

4 And I persecuted this way [ Christianity. Also in the NIV, it was called "the Way". ] unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.

5 As also the high priest doth bear me witness, [ And if you do not believe that I was that person - well just ask the Elders that are present here, they will tell you as well. ] and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, [ It's almost like he's saying, "I was just like you, and I was really good at it." "I probably was even better at this than you guys." Because he is dropping names in verse five, he is like, "High priest, the elders, I had official letters to do this. You guys are kind of this mob that's just formed, but I did this almost professionally. I was legit at this." ] for to be punished.

6 And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.

7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? [ Luke will recap the conversion of Saul and begin to show how the gospel's going to go out to all the world. ]

8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. [ "The only thing that changed, the thing that changed for me was I actually met Jesus." ]

9 And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.

10 And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.

11 And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came into Damascus.

12  And one Ananias, [ He talks about Ananias. Anyway, the whole story, he tells the story again and he says, "That's what changed for me." And the people are still listening. They're not yelling anything at him during this time. ] a devout man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there,

13 Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him.

14 And he said, The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth.

15 For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.

16 And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

17 And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;

18 And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

19 And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on thee:

20 And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.

21 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles. [ He said, "I persecuted this way, because I didn't understand. I misunderstood. I had some false assumptions about the Jesus way. And when I met Jesus, personally, that changed everything for me." But then, here's the problem, go down to verse 21, "And He," Jesus, “said unto me, 'Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." As soon as he says the G(entile) word, look at the next verse. "And they gave him audience unto this word." Or they were listening to that word but once he said Gentiles, "They then lifted up their voices and said, 'Away with such a fellow from the Earth: for it is not fit that he should live." I mean, come on, we could disagree with each other, but we really have to... ]

22 And they gave him audience unto this word, and then lifted up their voices, and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live.

23 And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air,

24 The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him.

25 And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?

26 When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.

27  Then the chief captain came, and said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? [ So as they tie him up, they're ready to flagellate him, he just asks a little question. This is one of the Aces he had up his sleeve. He says, "Oh, by the way, is it lawful for you to scourge a man that's a Roman?" And they're like, "Oh, shoot. He dropped the Roman citizen card." The centurion, wait a minute. And then he goes and consults with the centurion. He's like, "Hey, did you know this guy's a Roman?" He's like, "No, what?" They come back and the guy says, "Is that true?" He says, "It is.' And they had ways of knowing back then. They had this thing called, I think it was called a diploma, actually, a little brass thing that showed that you were a citizen of Rome. I don't know if he had that on his person somewhere, or if he just kind of pulled it out from underneath his tunic or whatever, but they believed him. To the point where they said, "Well, we're going to do this a different way then. Tomorrow we're going to assemble the council and the leaders of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, and we'll let them examine you concerning this matter." And so he avoided the flogging right there. ] He said, Yea.

28 And the chief captain answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born.

29 Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.

30 On the morrow, because he would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the Jews, he loosed him from his bands, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them.