1: Men brethren and fathers hear ye my defense which I make now to you 2:
And when they heard that he spoke in the Hebrew tongue to them they kept the
more silence and he said 3: I am verily a man which 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 and was
zealous toward God as you all are this day 4: And I persecuted this Way
unto the death binding and delivering into prisons both men and women 5:
As also the high priest does bear me witness 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 for to be punished 6: And it came
to pass that as I made my journey and was come near to Damascus about noon
suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me 7: And I
fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me Saul Saul why do you persecute me 8: And I answered Who are you Lord
And he said to me I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you persecute 9: And they
that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid but they heard not the
voice of him that spoke to me 10: And I said What shall I do Lord And
the Lord said to me Arise and go into Damascus and there it shall be told you
of all things which are appointed for you 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 a devout man according to the
law having a good report of all the Jews who dwell there 13: Came to me
and stoodand said to me Brother Saul receive
your sight And the same hour I looked up upon him 14: And he said The
God of our fathers has chosen you that you should know his will and see that
Just One and should hear the voice of his mouth 15: For you shall be his
witness to all people[1] of
what you have seen and heard 16: And now why do you tarry arise and be
baptized and wash away your 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 to me Make haste and
get thee quickly out of Jerusalem for they will not receive your testimony
concerning me 19: And I said Lord they know that I imprisoned and beat
in every synagogue them that believed on you 20: And when the blood of your
martyr Stephen was shed I also was standing by and consenting to his death and
kept the clothing of them that slew him 21: And he said to me Depart for
I will send you far from here to the Gentiles 22: And they gave him
audience to 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 why they cried so against
him 25: And as they bound him with thongs Paul said to 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 you do for this man is a Roman 27: Then
the chief captain came, and said to him Tell me are you a Roman He said Yes 28:
And the chief captain answered With a great sum obtained I this freedom And
Paul said But I was free born[2] 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 of what he was accused of the Jews he loosed him from his bonds and
commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear and brought Paul
down and set him before them
[1] All languages are androcentric (male
centered), and the English as well as the Greek routinely describes the human
race—audawm—as man. Words matter.
They shape perceptions, ideas, opinions, and world views. They effect the way
we physically treat one another, and the time is long past to reject all forms
of androcentricity in language. Women are not men. This verse is unarguably an example of the Greek word, anthropos, being used to describe all
people—not just men. Some English examples of androcentric words include: Human
(audawm) and mankind (audawm). These are embedded so deeply
within the psyches of most people that, to them, it seems silly to remark upon
them at all. That is all the more reason to call them to attention, in hopes
that hearts will be convicted, and words that favor equality will begin to
replace those that discriminate.
[2] The Apostle Paul was a Roman Citizen
who was a Jew. So, the man who took the gospel to the Gentiles was, in a sense,
one of them. We know that he identified more with the Jews and received a
magnificent Jewish education. This would suggest that his father was Jewish,
and that his Roman citizenship came through his mother. In the previous Athenian Greek culture (from which the
Roman Empire derived much of its own cultural laws and traditions), citizenship
came primarily through being born to freeborn Athenian women. Athenian culture remains very much with us today in modern wedding
ceremonies where the father [kyrios/lord]
gives away the bride. That was not simply a traditional in those days. It was
an entirely legal process, where the bride literally belonged to her
father/uncle/brother/neighbor (whoever her lord [kyrios] was, until ownership of her person was legally transferred
from one kyrios to another).
Additional commentary pending for this
chapter. Questions and comments are welcome.
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