_SAUL GOING TOWARDS DAMASCUS, IS STRUCK DOWN TO THE EARTH, IS CALLED TO THE APOSTLESHIP, AND IS BAPTIZED BY ANANIAS: HE PREACHETH CHRIST BOLDLY: THE JEWS LIE IN WAIT TO KILL HIM: SO DO THE GRECIANS: BUT HE ESCAPETH BOTH. THE CHURCH HAVING REST, PETER HEALETH ENEAS OF THE PALSY, AND RESTORETH TABITHA... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAUL, YET BREATHING OUT THREATENINGS, &C.— This is a very emphatical expression, and shews the implacable hatred which Saul bore to the Christian profession; and it must have increased his rage to hear, that those whom he had been instrumental in driving from Jerusalem, were so successful in spr... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DESIRED OF HIM LETTERS— These _letters_ contained a mandate from the high-priest, empowering him to act, as appears from chap. Acts 26:12 where they are explained by the words _authority_ and _commission;_ and Saul seems to have been a very proper person for executing those orders at that time,... [ Continue Reading ]
SUDDENLY THERE SHINED ROUND ABOUT HIM A LIGHT, &C.— It was about noon that Saul with his company came nigh the city of Damascus; when suddenly there appeared the _Shechinah,_ or the glory of the Lord, far more bright and dazzling than the sun in its meridiansplendor: and this great light from heaven... [ Continue Reading ]
STOOD SPEECHLESS, HEARING A VOICE— _Stood perfectly astonished;_—stood fixed and confounded. The original implies the attitude of a person who is so astonished as not to be able to stir. In chap. Acts 22:9 it is said, that they _did not hear the voice of him that spake:_ but this is easily reconcile... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN HIS EYES WERE OPENED, HE SAW NO MAN:— And _though his eyes were open, he_ was incapable of discerning objects, and _saw no_ one _man_ of those who stood near him; forhis nerves were so affected with the glory of that light, which had shone from the body of Jesus, that he had lost the power... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE WAS THREE DAYS WITHOUT SIGHT,— Scales grew over his eyes, not only to intimate to him the blindness of the state that he had been in, but to impress him also with the deeper sense of the almighty power of Christ, and to turn his thoughts inwards, while he was rendered less capable of conversi... [ Continue Reading ]
ANANIAS;— As we read of Ananias only in this history, it is difficult to determine who he was. Some suppose him to have been a native of Jerusalem, and to have first planted the gospel at Damascus. Some of the ancients say, that he was one of the seventy disciples; others, from his being called _a d... [ Continue Reading ]
HE IS A CHOSEN VESSEL, &C.— Beza observes, that an instrument of building, agriculture, &c. is often expressed in Greek by the word σκευος; and the word may very probably have that signification here. _For he is my chosen instrument to bear my name,_ &c. Polybius uses this same word personally, in o... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SHEW HIM HOW GREAT THINGS HE MUST SUFFER— If this intimates, as some very learned commentators seem to think, that Saul should presently have a revelation, and perhaps a visionary representation of all his sufferings, it must appear a most heroic instance of courage and zeal, under the power... [ Continue Reading ]
ANANIAS WENT HIS WAY, &C.— Had St. Paul been an _impostor,_ he could not have acted his part but in confederacy. He was to be instructed by one at Damascus; Acts 9:6 that instructor therefore must have been his accomplice, though they appeared to be absolute strangers to each other, and though he wa... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE FELL FROM HIS EYES AS IT HAD BEEN SCALES:— Perhaps the outward coats of his eyes might have been scorched by the heat of that splendid light which he had seen; and what fell from them, might have had some resemblance to the small scales of fishes. His being thus restored to sight was, however,... [ Continue Reading ]
HE PREACHED CHRIST, &C.— _He preached in the synagogues, maintaining that Jesus is the Son of God._ So the Vulgate, and several manuscripts. The Jews knew that _Christ,_ or the _Messiah,_ is the _Son of God._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND CAME HITHER FOR THAT INTENT,— _And came hither on purpose to carry them prisoners to the chief priests._ See 1 Samuel 10:11. Heylin.... [ Continue Reading ]
PROVING THAT THIS IS VERY CHRIST.— _Evincing that he_ [_Jesus_] _is the Christ._ As Saul had blasphemed Christ and persecuted the Christians through _ignorance,_ and while he really _disbelieved_ the gospel, he _obtained mercy_ at the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ through faith in him. But, though... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AFTER—MANY DAYS— After an interval of about _three years;_ during which period Saul went into Arabia, and preached the gospel there. See Galatians 1:17. Though St. Luke has not given us a particular account of this part of St. Paul's travels, yet it appears sufficiently from the expression befor... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY WATCHED THE GATES, &C.— This shews that there were great numbers engaged in this bloody design; forDamascus was a large city, and had many gates. Damascus now belonged to Aretas, king of Arabia, (see on Acts 9:2.) who governed it by an ethnarch, or deputy governor; compare 2 Corinthians 11:... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN SAUL WAS COME TO JERUSALEM— Upon his escaping from Damascus, St. Paul went up to Jerusalem, where he had never been since his conversion to Christianity; and thither he went chiefly to visit the great apostle of the circumcision, Galatians 1:18 who, as some of the Christians had informed hi... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAINST THE GRECIANS:— The Hellenists; or those foreign Jews who used the Greek language, and came out of other parts to worship at Jerusalem, St. Paul being earnestly desirous that they might carry along with them the knowledge of Christ into their own lands. See the note on ch. Acts 6:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
TO CESAREA,— This must have been Caesarea Philippi, near the borders of Syria; as it may be collected from St. Paul's own words, that he went by land through the regions of Syria and Cilicia; see Galatians 1:21 otherwise he might easily have gone from the celebrated Caesarea on the Mediterranean sea... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN HAD THE CHURCHES REST— This _rest_ is by no means to be ascribed merelyor chiefly to St. Paul's conversion; who, though a great zealot, was but a young man, of no immediate or supreme authority, and whose personal danger proves the persecution in some measure to have been continued at least thr... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS, &C.— _And as Peter was making a general visitation;_ Heylin. _Now it came to pass that Peter making a progress,_ &c. As St. Peter had gone formerly through the metropolis and other towns of Samaria to plant or water Christianity, so during this peaceful interval he revisited the... [ Continue Reading ]
ENEAS, JESUS CHRIST MAKETH THEE WHOLE— It is worth our while to observe the great difference there is between the manner in which this miracle is wrought by Peter, and that in which Christ performed his works of divine power and goodness. The different characters of the _servant_ and the _son,_ the... [ Continue Reading ]
AT JOPPA— Another city of Phoenicia, lying upon the Mediterranean, and the nearest maritime town to Jerusalem, more than a day's journey distant from it,—about 40 miles; though some have said that Jerusalem might be seen from thence. We find it mentioned in the Old Testament by the name of _Japho,_... [ Continue Reading ]
WHOM WHEN THEY HAD WASHED,— This custom prevailed both among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins, and is still in use among us. See Mark 14:8. John 12:7; John 19:38.... [ Continue Reading ]
DESIRING HIM THAT HE WOULD NOT DELAY, &C.— We can hardly imagine that they urged his coming merely to comfort them under this loss: but if they had any view to what followed, it was a remarkable instance of faith, as it does not appear that the apostles before this had raised any one from the dead.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHEWING THE COATS AND GARMENTS; &C.— "Shewing some of the under and upper garments, which she, with her own hands, had made, to clothe the naked and relieve the poor." The Vulgate reads, which she had made for them.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT PETER PUT THEM ALL FORTH,— Herein the servant followed not only the _path,_ but the very _steps_ of his Lord, in dismissing all witnesses, that nothing might look like vain-glory, that nothing might interrupt the fervour of that address which he was to pour out before God. First, he bends his kn... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT WAS KNOWN THROUGHOUT ALL JOPPA;— The report of this miracle swiftly spread throughout all Joppa: upon which _Simon,_ the _son of Jonas,_ became more famous there than _Jonas_ himself had been; for the ancient prophet _Jonas,_ after he had taken ship at Joppa, was raised only from the belly of... [ Continue Reading ]