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Paul Sent to the Gentiles

17 ‘After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance ¹⁸and saw Jesus^* saying to me, “Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.” ¹⁹And I said, “Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. ²⁰And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.” ²¹Then he said to me, “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” ’

Paul and the Roman Tribune

22 Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.’ ²³And while they were shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and tossing dust into the air, ²⁴the tribune directed that he was to be brought into the barracks, and ordered him to be examined by flogging, to find out the reason for this outcry against him. ²⁵But when they had tied him up with thongs,^* Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, ‘Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?’ ²⁶When the centurion heard that, he went to the tribune and said to him, ‘What are you about to do? This man is a Roman citizen.’ ²⁷The tribune came and asked Paul,^* ‘Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ ²⁸The tribune answered, ‘It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.’ Paul said, ‘But I was born a citizen.’ ²⁹Immediately those who were about to examine him drew back from him; and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.