1. Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense which I make now to you.
2. (And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
3. I am verily a man who am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, being zealous towards God, as ye all are this day.
4. And I persecuted this way even to death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
5. As also the high priest doth bear me testimony, and all the estate of the elders; from whom also I received letters to the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them who were there bound to Jerusalem, to be punished.
6. And it came to pass, that as I was passing on my journey, and had come nigh to Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light around me.
7. And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
8. And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.