Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 9:2

ἐπιστολάς, letters. These are the papers which constituted his ‘authority and commission’ (Acts 26:12). From that passage we learn that the issuing of these papers was the act of the whole body, for Paul there says they were ‘from the chief priests.’

Δαμασκόν, Damascus. Of the history of this most ancient (Genesis 14:15) city in the world, see the Dictionary of the Bible. It had from the earliest period been mixed up with the history of the Jews, and great numbers of Jews were living there at this time, as we can see from the subsequent notices of their conduct in this chapter. We are told by Josephus (B. J. II. 20. 2) that ten thousand Jews were slaughtered in a massacre in Damascus in Nero’s time, and that the wives of the Damascenes were almost all of them attached to the Jewish religion.

πρὸς τὰς συναγωγάς, to the synagogues, viz. those which existed in Damascus. As at Jerusalem, so in Damascus, the synagogues were numerous, and occupied by different classes and nationalities. Greek-Jews were sure to be found in so large a city.

τινας … τῆς ὁδοῦ ὄντας, any that were of the Way. For εἰμὶ with this genitive of a class or particular character, cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:5 οὐκ ἐσμὲν νυκτὸς οὐδὲ σκότους, and just afterwards (Acts 9:8) ἡμεῖς δὲ ἡμέρας ὄντες.

The name ‘the Way’ soon became a distinctive appellation of the Christian religion. The fuller expression ‘the way of truth’ is found 2 Peter 2:2; and the brief term is common in the Acts. See Acts 19:9; Acts 19:23; Acts 22:4; Acts 24:14; Acts 24:22.

ἄνδρας τε καὶ γυναῖκας, whether they be men or women. We can mark the fury with which Saul raged against the Christians from this mention of the ‘women’ as included among those whom he committed and desired to commit to prison. Cp. Acts 8:3 and Acts 22:4. The women played a more conspicuous part among early Christians than they were allowed to do among the Jews. See note on Acts 1:14.

εἰς Ἱερουσαλήμ, unto Jerusalem, as to the head-quarters of Jewish authority, where the whole power of the great Sanhedrin might be employed to crush out the new teaching.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 9:2

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