Bible Verses About Prisoners

crying out, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches everywhere against our people and against our law and against this place. Furthermore, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.”

For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.

While they were trying to kill him, the commander of the Roman regiment received a report that all Jerusalem was in turmoil.

Immediately he took some soldiers and centurions and ran down to the crowd. When the people saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

The commander came up and arrested Paul, ordering that he be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done.

Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, and some another. And since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be brought into the barracks.

When Paul reached the steps, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob.

For the crowd that followed him kept shouting, “Away with him!”

As they were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?” “Do you speak Greek?” he replied.

“Aren’t you the Egyptian who incited a rebellion some time ago and led four thousand members of the ‘Assassins’ into the wilderness?”

But Paul answered, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Now I beg you to allow me to speak to the people.”

Having received permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. A great hush came over the crowd, and he addressed them in Hebrew:

the commander ordered that Paul be brought into the barracks. He directed that Paul be flogged and interrogated to determine the reason for this outcry against him.

When the governor motioned for Paul to speak, he began his response: “Knowing that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I gladly make my defense.

He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard, but to allow him some freedom and permit his friends to minister to his needs.

Then Paul made his defense: “I have committed no offense against the law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar.”

I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand a man over before he has had an opportunity to face his accusers and defend himself against their charges.

Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:

in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger;

Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.