Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?”
“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’
And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’
The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
And when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, “This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.”
But I found that he had done nothing deserving death. And as he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to go ahead and send him.
I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.
And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship,
And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”
And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!” So they took his advice,
A third time he said to them, “Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him.”
and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.
Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.”
And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
He said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.
Unless otherwise indicated, all content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Contact me: openbibleinfo (at) gmail.com.