Acts 22:3

“I am a Jew, just like you. I was born in Tarsus, in Cilicia country, but I grew up here in Jerusalem. I was a young man here, and I learned all our laws. You know Gamaliyel. You know he is a really good teacher, right? Well, he taught me all the laws that Moses gave to our grand-fathers. And I wanted to always do everything God says, so I never broke any of those laws. I’m sure that all you mob properly follow those laws too.

Plain English Version

In The King James Version

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 ye all are this day.

In Context

2All those people heard Paul talking to them in their own Hebrew language, so they settled down and became quiet, and they listened to him. Then Paul said to them,

4And I used to hurt anyone that followed Jesus, all those people that belonged to the Jesus Way mob. Whenever I found them, I grabbed them and put them in jail. I did that to men and women. I wanted to kill those people.

Read all of Acts 22

Cross References

Luke 2:46They looked for him for 3 days, then they found him in God’s ceremony house. He was sitting with the teachers there. He was listening to what they were saying, and he was asking them questions.

Luke 10:39Then her sister, Mary, sat down near Jesus. He was teaching the people about God, and Mary just sat there listening to everything he said.

Acts 6:9But some Jewish men started arguing with him. Those Jewish men were from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia and Asia. They used to meet together at a Jewish meeting house called the meeting house of the free men.

Acts 9:30The Christians heard about this, so they took Saul to the town called Caesarea and put him on a ship, and they sent him back to his home town, called Tarsus.

Acts 15:23So the church leaders wrote a letter for them to take with them. They wrote, “This letter is from Jesus’s special workers, and from the other church leaders in Jerusalem. We are writing to you Christian people that are not Jews, that live in Antioch, and in the rest of Syria country, and in Cilicia country. You are like brothers and sisters to us.

Matthew Henry on Acts 22:2-3

Paul's First Defence. 1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. 2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,) Paul had, in the last verse of the foregoing chapter , gained a great point, by commanding so profound a silence after so loud a clamour. Now here observe, I. With what an admirable composure and presence of mind he addresses himself to speak. Never was poor man set upon in a more tumultuous manner, nor with… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Acts 22:3