and asked him to write letters to the synagogues in Damascus. If he found any men and women there who belonged to the Way of Jesus, the letters would allow him to take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.
But some there wouldn’t listen, and they refused to believe. They said insulting things in public about the Way of Jesus. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and talked with people each day in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.
It is true that I worship the God of our people as a follower of the Way of Jesus. They call it a cult, but everything I believe agrees with the Law and the Prophets.
Felix, who knew a lot about the Way of Jesus, said he wouldn’t make a decision right away. “When Lysias the commander over 1,000 soldiers comes,” he told Paul, “I will settle your case.”
Apollos had been taught the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great passion. He taught the truth about Jesus, even though he knew only about John’s baptism.
But members of a group called the Synagogue of the Freedmen began to oppose him. Some of them were Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria. Others were Jews from Cilicia and Asia. They all began to argue with Stephen.
Everyone who heard him was amazed. They asked, “Isn’t this the man who caused so much trouble in Jerusalem for those who worship Jesus? Didn’t he come here to take them as prisoners back to the chief priests?”
That’s just what I was doing in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests, I put many of the Lord’s people in prison. When they were brought to trial, I cast my vote to have them killed.