Bible Commentaries

Ac 9:1-25.

CONVERSION OF SAUL, AND BEGINNINGS OF HIS MINISTRY.

1. Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, &c.--The emphatic "yet" is intended to note the remarkable fact, that up to this moment his blind persecuting rage against the disciples of the Lord burned as fiercely as ever. (In the teeth of this, NEANDER and OLSHAUSEN picture him deeply impressed with Stephen's joyful faith, remembering passages of the Old Testament confirmatory of the Messiahship of Jesus, and experiencing such a violent struggle as would inwardly prepare the way for the designs of God towards him. Is not dislike, if not unconscious disbelief, of sudden conversion at the bottom of this?) The word "slaughter" here points to cruelties not yet recorded, but the particulars of which are supplied by himself nearly thirty years afterwards: "And I persecuted this way unto the death"

(Ac 22:4);

"and when they were put to death, I gave my voice [vote] against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to [did my utmost to make them] blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange [foreign] cities"

(Ac 26:10, 11).

All this was before his present journey.

2. desired . . . letters--of authorization.

to Damascus--the capital of Syria and the great highway between eastern and western Asia, about one hundred thirty miles northeast of Jerusalem; the most ancient city perhaps in the world, and lying in the center of a verdant and inexhaustible paradise. It abounded (as appears from JOSEPHUS, Wars of the Jews, 2.20,2) with Jews, and with Gentile proselytes to the Jewish faith. Thither the Gospel had penetrated; and Saul, flushed with past successes, undertakes to crush it out.

that if he found any of this way, whether men or women--Thrice are women specified as objects of his cruelty, as an aggravated feature of it

(Ac 8:3; 22:4; and here).

3. he came near Damascus--so

Ac 22:6.

Tradition points to a bridge near the city as the spot referred to. Events which are the turning points in one's history so imprint themselves upon the memory that circumstances the most trifling in themselves acquire by connection with them something of their importance, and are recalled with inexpressible interest.

suddenly--At what time of day, it is not said; for artless simplicity reigns here. But he himself emphatically states, in one of his narratives, that it was "about noon"

(Ac 22:6),

and in the other, "at midday"

(Ac 26:13),

when there could be no deception.

there shined round about him a light from heaven--"a great light (he himself says) above the brightness of the sun," then shining in its full strength.

4-6. he fell to the earth--and his companions with him

(Ac 26:14),

who "saw the light"

(Ac 22:9).

and heard a voice saying unto him--"in the Hebrew tongue"

(Ac 26:14).

Saul, Saul--a reduplication full of tenderness [DE WETTE]. Though his name was soon changed into "Paul," we find him, in both his own narratives of the scene, after the lapse of so many years, retaining the original form, as not daring to alter, in the smallest detail, the overpowering words addressed to him.

why persecutest thou me?--No language can express the affecting character of this question, addressed from the right hand of the Majesty on high to an infuriated, persecuting mortal. (See

Mt 25:45,

and that whole judgment scene).

5. Who art thou, Lord?--"Jesus knew Saul ere Saul knew Jesus" [BENGEL]. The term "Lord" here is an indefinite term of respect for some unknown but august speaker. That Saul saw as well as heard this glorious Speaker, is expressly said by Ananias

(Ac 9:17; 22:14),

by Barnabas

(Ac 9:27),

and by himself

(Ac 26:16);

and in claiming apostleship, he explicitly states that he had "seen the Lord"

(1Co 9:1; 15:8),

which can refer only to this scene.

I am Jesus whom thou persecutest--The "I" and "thou" here are touchingly emphatic in the original; while the term "JESUS" is purposely chosen, to convey to him the thrilling information that the hated name which he sought to hunt down--"the Nazarene," as it is in

Ac 22:8

--was now speaking to him from the skies, "crowned with glory and honor" (see

Ac 26:9).

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks--The metaphor of an ox, only driving the goad deeper by kicking against it, is a classic one, and here forcibly expresses, not only the vanity of all his measures for crushing the Gospel, but the deeper wound which every such effort inflicted upon himself.

6. And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said--(The most ancient manuscripts and versions of the New Testament lack all these words here [including the last clause of

Ac 9:5];

but they occur in

Ac 26:14 and Ac 22:10,

from which they appear to have been inserted here). The question, "What shall I do, Lord?" or, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" indicates a state of mind singularly interesting (see on

Ac 2:37).

Its elements seem to be these: (1) Resistless conviction that "Jesus whom he persecuted," now speaking to him, was "Christ the Lord." (See on

Ga 1:15, 16).

(2) As a consequence of this, that not only all his religious views, but his whole religious character, had been an entire mistake; that he was up to that moment fundamentally and wholly wrong. (3) That though his whole future was now a blank, he had absolute confidence in Him who had so tenderly arrested him in his blind career, and was ready both to take in all His teaching and to carry out all His directions. (For more, see on

Ac 9:9).

Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee, &c.--See on

Ac 8:26-28.

7. the men . . . stood speechless--This may mean merely that they remained so; but if the standing posture be intended, we have only to suppose that though at first they "all fell to the earth"

(Ac 26:14),

they arose of their own accord while Saul yet lay prostrate.

hearing a--rather "the"

voice--Paul himself says, "they heard not the voice of Him that spake to me"

(Ac 22:9).

But just as "the people that stood by heard" the voice that saluted our Lord with recorded words of consolation and assurance, and yet heard not the articulate words, but thought "it thundered" or that some "angel spake to Him"

(Joh 12:28, 29)

--so these men heard the voice that spake to Saul, but heard not the articulate words. Apparent discrepancies like these, in the different narratives of the same scene in one and the same book of Acts, furnish the strongest confirmation both of the facts themselves and of the book which records them.

8. Saul arose . . . and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man--after beholding the Lord, since he "could not see for the glory of that light"

(Ac 22:11),

he had involuntarily closed his eyes to protect them from the glare; and on opening them again he found his vision gone. "It is not said, however, that he was blind, for it was no punishment" [BENGEL].