Acts 22:1-30

St. Paul's Defence

1-21. St Paul's Speech to the People. St. Paul was accused of (1) hostility to the Jews, (2) contempt for the Jewish Law, and (3) the desecration of the Temple. He answers all these charges by showing, (1) that he was a Jew by birth, trained by Gamaliel, and so zealous for the Law, that he had been a persecutor of the Christian faith; (2) that his conversion to Christianity was the result of a direct divine revelation, made first at Damascus, and confirmed by a subsequent revelation to Ananias; (3) that even after his conversion he continued to honour the Temple, and to worship there, and saw a vision there; (4) that his preaching to the Gentiles was the result of a divine command, consequent upon the unbelief of the Jews.