37 As they were able to carry him into the fortress, Paul called down to the commander, “Can I say something to you?”

“You speak Greek!”, replied the commander. 38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who stirred up a group of assassins a while back and led them out into the wilderness?”

39 “No, I’m a Jew from Tarsus in Cilica—a citizen of an important city,” said Paul. “But please, let me speak to these people.”

40 The commander nodded, so the soldiers stood Paul on the stairs where he gestured to the people. The crowd quietened down, and so Paul spoke loudly in his Hebrew language:

22 “Men, brothers, and fathers, listen to what I have to say for myself.” 2 When they heard him speaking Hebrew, they became even more quiet as he continued, 3 “I am a Jew who grew up in this very city to study under Gamaliel. I’ve been raised according to every part of our ancestral law, working hard to obey God like all of you here today. 4 I used to persecute the followers of ‘The Path’ even to death—tying up both men and women and handing them over to the prisons 5 as the Chief Priest and all the council of elders can tell you. I took letters from them to our Jewish brothers in Damascus when I went so that I could arrest the ones there and bring them back here to Yerushalem to be punished.