18. and saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry, leave Jerusalem at once, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’
19. But I replied, ‘Lord, they themselves know that from synagogue to synagogue I used to imprison and beat those who believed in you.
20. And when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I myself stood by giving my approval and keeping guard over the cloaks of his murderers.’
21. Then he said to me, ‘Go, I shall send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
22. They listened to him until he said this, but then they raised their voices and shouted, “Take such a one as this away from the earth. It is not right that he should live.”
23. And as they were yelling and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air,
24. the cohort commander ordered him to be brought into the compound and gave instruction that he be interrogated under the lash to determine the reason why they were making such an outcry against him.
25. But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion on duty, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and has not been tried?”
26. When the centurion heard this, he went to the cohort commander and reported it, saying, “What are you going to do? This man is a Roman citizen.”
27. Then the commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” “Yes,” he answered.