³ But ^(A)Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and he would ^(B)drag away men and women and put them in prison.

¹⁹ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another ^(A)I used to imprison and ^(B)beat those who believed in You. ²⁰ And ^(C)when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing nearby and approving, and watching over the cloaks of those who were killing him.’ ²¹ And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away ^(D)to the Gentiles.’”

²² They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “^(E)Away with such a man from the earth, for ^(F)he should not be allowed to live!” ²³ And as they were shouting and ^(G)throwing off their cloaks and ^(H)tossing dust into the air, ²⁴ the commander ordered that he be brought into ^(I)the barracks, saying that he was to be ^(J)interrogated by flogging so that he would find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way. ²⁵ But when they stretched him out ^[a]with straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it ^[b]lawful for you to flog ^(K)a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” ²⁶ When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.” ²⁷ The commander came and said to ^[c]Paul, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.” ²⁸ The commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.” ²⁹ Therefore, those who were about to ^(L)interrogate him immediately backed away from him; and the commander also ^(M)was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had ^[d](N)put him in chains.

³⁰ Now on the next day, ^(O)wanting to know for certain why Paul had been accused by the Jews, he ^(P)released him and ordered the chief priests and all ^(Q)the ^[e]Council to assemble, and he brought Paul down and placed him before them.

⁹ “So ^(A)I thought to myself that I had to act in strong opposition to ^(B)the name of Jesus ^[a]of Nazareth. ¹⁰ And this is ^[b]just what I ^(C)did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the ^[c]saints in prisons, after ^(D)receiving authority from the chief priests, but I also ^(E)cast my vote against them when they were being put to death. ¹¹ And ^(F)as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was ^(G)extremely enraged at them, I kept pursuing them ^(H)even to ^[d]foreign cities.