XXII. (1) MEN, BRETHREN, AND FATHERS. — The apparently triple division is really only two-fold — _Brethren and fathers._ (See Note on Acts 7:2.) It is noticeable that he begins his speech with the self-same formula as Stephen. It was, perhaps, the received formula in addressing an assembly which in... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY KEPT THE MORE SILENCE. — The opening words had done the work they were meant to do. One who spoke in Hebrew was not likely to blaspheme the sacred Hebrew books. What follows was conceived in the same spirit of conciliation.... [ Continue Reading ]
BROUGHT UP IN THIS CITY AT THE FEET OF GAMALIEL. — His education may have begun shortly after he became a child of the Law, at the age of twelve. (See Note on Luke 2:42.) He, too, had sat in the midst of the doctors, hearing and asking questions. The Rabbis sat in a high chair, and their scholars on... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I PERSECUTED THIS WAY. — The speaker obviously uses the current colloquial term (see Notes on Acts 9:2; Acts 19:23), used by the disciples as indicating that they had found in Christ the way of eternal life; used, it may be, by others with a certain tone of scorn, as of people who had chosen the... [ Continue Reading ]
AS ALSO THE HIGH PRIEST DOTH BEAR ME WITNESS. — Annas is named as high priest at the time of St. Paul’s conversion, acting probably with his son-in-law, Caiaphas, as his coadjutor. (See Notes on Luke 3:2; John 18:13.) At the time which we have now reached, the office was filled by Ananias, son of Ne... [ Continue Reading ]
ABOUT NOON. — The special note of the hour is not given in Acts 9:3, and may fairly be taken as characteristic of a personal recollection of the circumstances of the great event.... [ Continue Reading ]
SAUL, SAUL... — We have again, as in Acts 9:4, the Hebrew form of the name.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HEARD NOT THE VOICE... — _i.e.,_ they did not hear it as a voice uttering articulate words. It was for them as though it thundered. (See Notes on Acts 9:7, and John 12:29.)... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN I COULD NOT SEE FOR THE GLORY OF THAT LIGHT. — It is again characteristic of a personal recollection that, while the narrative of Acts 9:8 states only the fact of blindness, St. Paul himself connects it with its cause.... [ Continue Reading ]
A DEVOUT MAN ACCORDING TO THE LAW. — In Acts 9:10, Ananias is simply described as “a disciple.” The special description here was obviously given with a view to conciliate those who were listening to the speech. One, such as Ananias was, was not likely to have connected himself with a profane blasphe... [ Continue Reading ]
THE GOD OF OUR FATHERS... — The report of what was said by Ananias is somewhat fuller than in Acts 9:17, and gives in outline what had been spoken to him by the Lord. It is obviously implied in Acts 9:15, that those words were to be reproduced to Saul. We note the recurrence of the same formula in s... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU SHALT BE HIS WITNESS. — This mission, identical with that which had been assigned to the Twelve (Acts 1:8), virtually placed the persecutor on a level with them, and was equivalent to his appointment as an Apostle.... [ Continue Reading ]
ARISE, AND BE BAPTIZED, AND WASH AWAY THY SINS. — Here, again, we have words which are not in the narrative of Acts 9. They show that for the Apostle that baptism was no formal or ceremonial act, but was joined with repentance, and, faith being presupposed, brought with it the assurance of a real fo... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I WAS COME AGAIN TO JERUSALEM. — This probably refers to the visit of Acts 9:26, and Galatians 1:17. The objection that the mission “far hence to the Gentiles” must refer to the subsequent visit of Acts 11:30, has little or no force. When the Apostle went to Tarsus and preached the gospel to th... [ Continue Reading ]
(18)GET THEE QUICKLY OUT OF JERUSALEM. — It is obvious that this fits in better with the first hurried visit after St. Paul’s conversion than with the second, when he came with Barnabas with alms for the sufferers from the famine. (See Note on Acts 11:30.)... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, THEY KNOW THAT I IMPRISONED .. — This was said at the time, and it was repeated now. as with a two-fold bearing. It was partly an extenuation of the unbelief of the people. They were, as he had once been, sinning in ignorance, which, though as yet unconquered, was not invincible. Partly it exp... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE BLOOD OF THY MARTYR STEPHEN.... — Better, _thy witness._ The English word is, perhaps, a little too definite and technical, and fails to remind us, as the Greek does, that the same word had been used in Acts 22:15 as expressing the office to which St. Paul himself was called. He probably us... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SEND THEE... — It may be noted, in connection with the question discussed in the Note on Acts 22:17, that the words convey the promise of a mission rather than the actual mission itself. The work immediately before him was to depart and wait till the way should be opened to him, and the inwar... [ Continue Reading ]
AWAY WITH SUCH A FELLOW FROM THE EARTH. — The scene was ominously like that in which St. Stephen’s speech ended. Immediate execution without the formality of a trial — an eager craving for the blood of the blasphemer — this was what their wild cries demanded and expressed. On the words themselves, s... [ Continue Reading ]
CAST OFF THEIR CLOTHES, AND THREW DUST INTO THE AIR. — The latter gesture would seem to have been a natural relief, as with other Oriental nations, to the violence of uncontrolled passion. It may be, however, that the handfuls of dust were aimed at the Apostle as a sign of loathing (comp. Notes on A... [ Continue Reading ]
BADE THAT HE SHOULD BE EXAMINED BY SCOURGING. — The matter-of-course way in which this is narrated illustrates the ordinary process of Roman provincial administration. The chiliarch had probably only partially understood St. Paul’s Aramaic speech, and his first impulse was to have him scourged, so a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS THEY BOUND HIM WITH THONGS. — The words have sometimes been rendered, “they stretched him forward for the straps” — _i.e.,_ put him into the attitude which was required for the use of the scourge; and grammatically the words admit this sense. The Authorised version is, however, it is believed... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE HEED WHAT THOU DOEST. — The better MSS. give the words simply as a question: “What art thou about to do?”... [ Continue Reading ]
ART THOU A ROMAN? — The pronoun is emphatic: “_Thou,_ the Jew speaking both Greek and Hebrew, art _thou_ a citizen of Rome?” The combination of so many more or less discordant elements was so exceptional as to be almost incredible.... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH A GREAT SUM OBTAINED I THIS FREEDOM. — Better, _this citizenship,_ the word expressing, not the transition from bondage to freedom, but from the position of an alien to that of a citizen. Probably the translators used the word in the sense in which we still speak of the “freedom “of a city. The... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH SHOULD HAVE EXAMINED HIM. — The verb had acquired the secondary sense (just as “putting to the question” did in mediæval administration of justice) of examining by torture. BECAUSE HE HAD BOUND HIM. — The words seem to refer to the second act of binding (Acts 22:25) rather than the first (Acts... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE HE WOULD HAVE KNOWN THE CERTAINTY... — Better, _wishing to know the certain fact, namely, why he was accused._ Failing to get the information by the process of torturing the prisoner, the chiliarch now has recourse to the other alternative of getting a formal declaration from the Sanhedrin,... [ Continue Reading ]