Acts 22 - EasyEnglish Bible 2024（EASY）

Chapter 22Paul speaks to the crowd in Jerusalem

1Paul said to the crowd, ‘Listen to me, Jewish brothers and leaders. I want to explain to you what has happened here.’

2The crowd heard Paul speaking to them in Aramaic, their own language. So they became really quiet. Then Paul said,

3‘I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus in the region of Cilicia. I lived here in Jerusalem when I was a boy. I studied God's Law for many years and Gamaliel was my teacher. I learned very well how to obey the laws of our ancestors. I tried to obey God as carefully as all of you do today.

4I caused great trouble to the disciples of Jesus. I even wanted to kill them. I took hold of them and I put them in prison. I did that to both men and women.

5The most important priest and all the group of Jewish leaders can tell you that this is true. They gave me letters for the Jewish leaders in Damascus. So I travelled to Damascus to take hold of the believers in that city. I wanted to tie them up and bring them back to Jerusalem. Then the leaders here could punish them.

6As I was travelling, I came near to Damascus. About midday, a bright light from the sky suddenly shone around me.

7I fell down to the ground. Then I heard a voice that said to me, “Saul, Saul, why do you fight against me?”

8“Lord, who are you?” I asked.

He said to me, “I am Jesus from Nazareth. And you are fighting against me.”

9The men who travelled with me saw the light. But they did not understand the voice that spoke to me.

10I asked, “Lord, what must I do?” He said to me, “Get up now and go into Damascus. When you arrive in the city, someone will come to you. He will tell you what God wants you to do.”

11The bright light hurt my eyes so that I could not see. So the men who were with me held my hand. They led me into Damascus.

12In Damascus, there was a man called Ananias. He worshipped God and he obeyed our Law. All the Jews in Damascus said good things about him.

13Ananias came to see me. He stood near to me and he said, “Brother Saul, see again!” Then immediately I could see again. I could look at him.

14Then Ananias said to me, “The God that our ancestors worshipped has chosen you. He will tell you what he wants you to do. God has caused you to see the Righteous One. You have heard his voice as he spoke to you.

15You will tell people everywhere about the things that you have seen and heard. That is what God wants you to do.

16So now you do not need to wait any longer. Stand up and I will baptize you. Believe in the Lord Jesus so that God will forgive you for your sins.”

17So then I returned to Jerusalem. I went into the temple and I was praying there. I had a vision.

18In the vision, I saw the Lord and he spoke to me. He said, “Hurry. Leave Jerusalem quickly. The people here will not believe what you say to them about me.”

19I replied, “Lord, the people here know what I have been doing. I went to all our Jewish meeting places to look for people who believed in you. When I found them, I put them in prison. I also hit them with sticks to punish them.

20I myself was there when the people killed Stephen. He was your servant who told people your message. But I agreed that it was right to kill him. I even held the coats of the people while they killed him.”

21But then the Lord said to me, “Go! I will now send you a long way away. You must go and tell the Gentiles my message.” ’

Roman soldiers take hold of Paul

22The people listened carefully to Paul until he spoke about the Gentiles. Then they began to shout loudly, ‘Take him away! Kill him! It is not right that he should live any longer!’

23While they were shouting this, they were taking off their coats. They also threw dirt from the ground up into the air.

24The leader of the soldiers said to his men, ‘Take this man into our building. Then hit him with whips. We must find out what he has done. He must tell us why the Jews are shouting so loudly against him.’

25So the soldiers tied Paul's arms and they were ready to hit him. But Paul spoke to the soldiers' officer who stood near to him. He said, ‘I am a citizen of Rome. So it is not right for you to hit me like that. No judge has agreed that I have done anything wrong.’

26The officer heard what Paul said. So he went to the leader of the soldiers and he said, ‘That man is a citizen of Rome! Be careful what you do to him!’

27So the soldiers' leader went to speak to Paul. He asked him, ‘Tell me. Are you really a citizen of Rome?’

Paul answered, ‘Yes, I am.’

28The soldiers' leader said, ‘I paid a lot of money to the government so that I could become a citizen of Rome.’

Paul replied, ‘But I was already a citizen of Rome when I was born.’

29Immediately, the men who wanted to hit Paul with whips moved away from him. The leader of the soldiers was also very afraid. He had tied chains around Paul's arms and legs. He knew that he should not have done that to a citizen of Rome.

30The soldiers' leader wanted to find the reason why the Jews had said bad things against Paul. He wanted to know what was really true. So the next day, he told his soldiers to remove the chains from Paul. He sent a message to the most important priest and to all the group of Jewish leaders. He told them to meet together with him. Then he took Paul to their meeting. He made Paul stand in front of them.