Acts 22:17-29

Acts 22

¹⁷ “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance. ¹⁸ I saw the Lord telling me: ‘Hurry, get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’

¹⁹ “I said, ‘Lord, these people know that I went from one synagogue to another imprisoning and beating those who believed in you. ²⁰ And when the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I stood by, giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were putting him to death.’

²¹ “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go, because I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

²² They were listening to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices, shouting, “Rid the earth of this fellow, for he is not fit to live!”

²³ When they started shouting and throwing off their cloaks and throwing dust into the air, ²⁴ the commander ordered that Paul be brought into the barracks. He directed that Paul be interrogated by whipping, in order to learn why the people were shouting at him like this. ²⁵ As they stretched him for the whipping, Paul asked the centurion standing by, “Is it legal for you to whip a man who is a Roman citizen and who has not been found guilty by a proper trial?”

²⁶ When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and said, “What are you about to do? ^[1] This man is a Roman citizen!”

²⁷ The commander came and asked him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”

He answered, “Yes.”

²⁸ Then the commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money.”

Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”

²⁹ Immediately, those who were about to interrogate him moved away from him. The commander was also alarmed when he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen, because he had tied him up.