_The Damascus Journey of Saul_, 1, 2. Acts 9:1. AND SAUL, YET BREATHING OUT THREATENINGS AND SLAUGHTER AGAINST THE DISCIPLES OF THE LORD. The narrative is here taken up again from chap. Acts 8:3, where we left the young Pharisee Saul ‘making havock of the Church.' Some months at least had probably e... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:2. AND DESIRED OF HIM LETTERS TO DAMASCUS TO THE SYNAGOGUES. The Jews at Damascus were very numerous. The religion of Jesus had been preached most probably by individual believers, driven away from Jerusalem at the time of the persecution, but no doubt Damascus Jews had been among the convert... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Conversion of the Pharisee Leader Saul,_ 3-9. After the Passion of the Lord, the conversion of St. Paul is the event to which attention is most frequently called in the sacred writings. Many times does this chiefest of our Christian teachers allude to it in his Epistles. Three times in this ea... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:3. AND AS HE JOURNEYED, HE CAME NEAR DAMASCUS. The first view of this city, when the dim outline of her gardens becomes visible, is universally famous. The prospect has been always the same. The white buildings of Damascus gleamed in the mid-day sun before the eyes of Saul, as they do before... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:4. AND HEARD A VOICE SAYING UNTO HIM, SAUL, SAUL. While the others were stunned, stupified, and confused, a clear Light broke in terribly on the soul of one of the little company. A voice spoke articulately to him, which to the rest was a sound mysterious and indistinct. He heard what they di... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:5. AND HE SAID, WHO ART THOU, LORD? For a moment, perhaps, the awe-struck earnest Pharisee, while he gazed on the sweet face of the Master, which if he had not seen he must so often have heard described, in the midst of the glory, and listened to the voice speaking to him, might have doubted... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:7. THE MEN WHO JOURNEYED WITH HIM STOOD SPEECHLESS. In chap. Acts 26:14 Paul tells King Agrippa how ‘we were all fallen to the earth;' here, in the narrative of Luke, we read how ‘they stood speechless.' The words ‘stood speechless' do not signify apparently that they stood erect, in distinct... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:8. AND WHEN HIS EYES WERE OPENED. When Saul rose up, probably after some interval, and opened his eyes, he found he was blind from the effects of that gleaming light into which he had gazed for a short space. He himself tells us that he was blinded by the light which shone from heaven: ‘I cou... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:9. AND HE WAS THREE DAYS WITHOUT SIGHT, AND NEITHER DID EAT NOR DRINK. Augustine writes how Saul was blinded that his heart might be enlightened with an inner light. Then, when other things were unseen by him, he kept gazing on Jesus; so piercing, so deep was his remorse, that during this tim... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Visit of Ananias to the Blinded Saul,_ 10-19. Acts 9:10. AND THERE WAS A CERTAIN DISCIPLE AT DAMASCUS, NAMED ANANIAS. It is certain, from the particular description of Saul in Acts 9:11, ‘One called Saul of Tarsus,' that Ananias did not know him personally. There is nothing positively known of... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:11. THE STREET WHICH IS CALLED STRAIGHT. In the time when the events related in the ‘Acts' took place, ‘the main thoroughfare of Damascus was the street called “Straight,” so called from its running in a direct line from the eastern to the western gate. It was a mile long. It was a hundred fe... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:12. HATH SEEN IN A VISION A MAN NAMED ANANIAS. The Lord, in relating to Ananias the purport of a vision which Saul had seen, especially mentioned, not _that Saul had seen thee,_ but _a man named Ananias._ We may thus conclude positively that Saul and Ananias were previously unknown to each ot... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:13. LORD, I HAVE HEARD BY MANY OF THIS MAN. The terrible notoriety acquired by the inquisitor Saul is shown by the answer of Ananias. His words exhibit astonishment, and some little hesitation and timidity. He speaks openly and with childlike trust to his Lord, to whom he was evidently accust... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:14. HERE HE HATH AUTHORITY. No doubt Ananias and the saints at Damascus had received intimation from the Jerusalem brethren of Saul's mission to their city.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:15. BUT THE LORD SAID UNTO HIM, GO THY WAY. The Lord here repeats His command, and calms the troubled mind of Ananias, by telling him that the well-known persecutor had been chosen in the counsels of Eternity to advance in a strange way His great cause. HE IS A CHOSEN VESSEL. The idea, thou... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:16. FOR I WILL SHOW HIM HOW GREAT THINGS HE MUST SUFFER FOR MY NAME'S SAKE. As in chap. Acts 20:23, when, in his farewell address at Ephesus, he tells the elders of the Church how the Holy Ghost was witnessing in every city that bonds and afflictions were awaiting him (see also chap. Acts 20:... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:17. AND ANANIAS WENT HIS WAY. The hesitation, the doubts and fears of Ananias, the Jewish Christian, and his subsequent visit and complete acceptance of the persecutor Saul as a brother saint chosen by the Master for a great and mighty work, are well illustrated by an interesting and beautifu... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:18. THERE FELL FROM HIS EYES AS IT HAD BEEN SCALES. A good deal has been written on the nature of the injury which Saul's eyes had suffered. The blinding glare of the light from heaven which surrounded the glorified Jesus had destroyed the sight, and now it was miraculously restored. Whether... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:19. THEN WAS SAUL CERTAIN DAYS WITH THE DISCIPLES WHICH WERE AT DAMASCUS. The writer in this portion of his history of the ‘acts of Paul' is very brief. Paul, in his Galatian Epistle (Acts 1:16-18), tells how, shortly after his conversion, he went into Arabia, then returned to Damascus, and a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Saul at Damascus.He goes to Jerusalem.Barnabas brings him to Apostles there,_ 19-30. Acts 9:20. HE PREACHED CHRIST IN THE SYNAGOGUES, THAT HE IS THE SON OF GOD. According to the best Greek MSS., this should be ‘ _He preached Jesus,'_ etc. As Paul tells us in chap. Acts 26:19, he was not disobedient... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:21. BUT ALL THAT HEARD HIM WERE AMAZED. The Jews were astonished; they knew the position he had held at Jerusalem; they knew the object of his visit to Damascus; and now they saw him using all his great powers to defend and advance the cause he had come to destroy.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:22. BUT SAUL INCREASED THE MORE IN STRENGTH. Dean Alford regards these as the only words under which can lie concealed the journey to Arabia, His note on this verse is a striking one: ‘Paul mentions this journey with no obscure hint that to it was to be assigned the reception by him of the Go... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:23. AFTER THAT MANY DAYS WERE FULFILLED. Some three years probably had now elapsed since the day when Ananias had restored sight to the blinded Pharisee leader; the Damascus preaching and the Arabian journey and sojourn had filled up the period. THE JEWS TOOK COUNSEL TO KILL HIM. Saul's grea... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:26. AND WHEN SAUL WAS COME TO JERUSALEM. What must have been Saul's feelings when, after three years' absence, he first saw the walls and towers of the Holy City again? He had left Jerusalem as the powerful commissioner of the Sanhedrim council, armed with full powers to root up the heresy sp... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:27. BUT BARNABAS TOOK HIM. Barnabas, a Levite of the island of Cyprus, early a disciple of Christ, and, according to Eusebius and Clement of Alexandria, one of the ‘seventy,' in the first days after the resurrection held a prominent place in the little Church of Christ. We hear of him as one... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:29. AND DISPUTED AGAINST THE GRECIANS. These Grecians or Hellenists were Jews who, in the ordinary intercourse of life, used the Greek language (see note on Acts 6:1). It has been suggested that these disputes were probably held in the same Cilician synagogue at Jerusalem, of which Saul in ol... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:30. WHICH WHEN THE BRETHREN KNEW, THEY BROUGHT HIM DOWN TO CÆSAREA. The writer of the ‘Acts' tells us, it was in consequence of the enmity of the Jews, who feared the able and powerful arguments of their former associate, that Paul departed from Jerusalem. Years later, however, Paul himself a... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:31. THEN HAD THE CHURCHES REST. In the most ancient MSS. the singular form ‘Church' is found, and there is a reason for the writer of the ‘Acts' preferring ‘Church' to ‘churches.' Here he is viewing the various congregations scattered through the whole length and breadth of the Holy Land as o... [ Continue Reading ]
_Certain Acts of St. Peter, Acts 9:32 to Acts 11:18_. Acts 9:32. AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS PETER PASSED THROUGHOUT ALL QUARTERS. In the early Chapter s of the ‘Acts,' the writer has given us the details of many circumstances of the life and work of the first chief of the apostles. After the appointmen... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:33. A CERTAIN MAN NAMED ÆNEAS. From the name, which is Greek, Æn ě as (not to be confounded with the name of the Trojan hero Ænças), the palsied man was probably a Hellenistic Jew.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:34. AND PETER SAID ONTO HIM, JESUS CHRIST MAKETH THEE WHOLE. The language of Peter to the palsied sufferer IS very different from his Master's in similar cases. The disciple performed his miracle of mercy in the name and power of Jesus Christ. The Redeemer, on the other hand, commanded with K... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:35. SARON. The Old Testament' Sharon,' that beautiful plain extending along the coast of Palestine for some thirty miles between Joppa and Cæsarea. Its singular beauty and fertility are frequently noticed in the poetical books of the Old Testament. So Isaiah, who (Isaiah 35:2) writes of ‘the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:36. NOW THERE WAS AT JOPPA. Joppa (Hebrew, _Japho_). a word signifying ‘beauty,' the port of Jerusalem in the days of Solomon, as it has been ever since. It belonged to the tribe of Dan (Joshua 19:46), and was originally a Philistine city. Josephus tells us it once belonged to the Phoenicians... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:37. WHOM WHEN THEY HAD WASHED. Maimonides, quoted by Gloag, says: ‘It is the custom in Israel, about the dead and their burial, that when any one is dead, they shut his eyes and wash his body.' The practice of ‘washing the dead' was common among the Greeks and the Romans (see Virgil, _Æneid,_... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:38. LYDDA WAS NIGH TO JOPPA. About nine or ten miles was the distance of Lydda from Joopa.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:39. THE COATS AND GARMENTS. ‘Coats,' better translated ‘tunics,' the inner clothing, the word rendered ‘garments' signifying the outer mantle worn above the tunic.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 9:40. BUT PETER PUT THEM ALL FORTH, following the example of Christ (Mark 5:40), to avoid anything like a crowd of curious spectators in the hushed and solemn death-chamber, at the moment when the soul should return to the body. Elisha, when he raised to life the Shunammite's son (2 Kings 4:33)... [ Continue Reading ]