39 But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
39 Paul answered, I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant or undistinguished city. I beg you, allow me to address the people.
39 But Paul said to him: "I am a man, indeed a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of a well-known city. So I petition you, permit me to speak to the people."
“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.
And Jesus said to him, “I want you to get up and go to Straight Street. Go to the house that Judas lives in, and find a man there from the town called Tarsus. His name is Saul, and he is praying to me right now.
But 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.
Always remember that Jesus Christ is the really important one. He is your good leader, so listen to him. People might say to you, “Tell us, why are you sure that God will do good things for you?” So you always have to be ready to help them understand why you are sure.
I’m sending this man, Paul, to you. Some Jews grabbed him, and they were going to kill him, but somebody told me that he is a Roman, so I got my soldiers, and we saved him.
The soldiers started to take him into their house, but Paul talked to the boss in the Greek language. He said, “Can I talk to you?” The boss said, “Can you talk Greek?
But Paul said to the policemen, “No. Yesterday those judges didn’t take us to court to find out if we did anything wrong, or not. They just told men to hit us in front of the crowd. Then they put us in jail. But that is against the Roman law, because we are Romans. You see, even though we are Jews, we are Romans too. Our names are on the list of all the Roman people. So those judges broke the Roman law yesterday. And now they want to send us away while nobody is looking. No way. Those judges have to come to us and tell us that they are sorry, and they have to take us out of this jail themselves.”
So 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.
The 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.