IX. (1) YET BREATHING OUT THREATENINGS. — The “yet” implies a considerable interval since the death of Stephen, probably coinciding with the time occupied by the mission-work of Philip in the previous chapter. During this interval the persecution had probably been continuing. The Greek participle, l... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DESIRED OF HIM LETTERS TO DAMASCUS. — We learn from 2 Corinthians 11:32, that Damascus was at this time under the government of Aretas, the king of Arabia Petræa. How it came to be so, having been previously under Vitellius, the Roman president of Syria (Jos. _Ant._ xiv. 4, § 5), is not clear. I... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS HE JOURNEYED. — The route by which the persecutor and his companions travelled was probably that taken by the Roman road, which extended from Jerusalem to Neapolis (Sychar, or Shechem), thence to Scythopolis, and so by the shores of the Sea of Galilee and Cæsarea Philippi, and thence under th... [ Continue Reading ]
SAUL, SAUL, WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME? — It is remarkable that here only, in the original Greek, and in Acts 9:17, as in the reproduction of the words in Acts 22:27; Acts 26:14, do we find the Hebrew form of the Benjamite name. It is as though he, who gloried in being above all things a Hebrew of the... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO ART THOU, LORD? — The word “Lord” could not as yet have been used in all the fulness of its meaning. As in many cases in the Gospels, it was the natural utterance of respect and awe (John 5:7; John 9:36; John 20:15), such as would be roused by what the persecutor saw and heard. I AM JESUS WHOM T... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE TREMBLING AND ASTONISHED... — The words stand, as far as textual authority is concerned, on the same footing as the foregoing, but, for the same reason, will be dealt with here. We note (1) the use of the word “Lord,” now, we must believe, with a new meaning, as applied to the Nazarene whom h... [ Continue Reading ]
HEARING A VOICE, BUT SEEING NO MAN. — We are told by St. Paul himself (Acts 22:9) that they “did _not_ hear the voice.” What is meant is clearly that they did not hear the words — could attach no meaning to the sounds which for Saul himself had so profound a significance. So, in like manner, they sa... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SAW NO MAN. — The blindness was that of one who has been dazzled with excess of light (comp. Acts 22:11), the natural result of the vision of the supernatural glory, a witness to the man himself that the vision was not a mere play of imagination. Traces of its permanent effect on his powers of si... [ Continue Reading ]
HE WAS THREE DAYS WITHOUT SIGHT. — It is natural to think of this period of seclusion from the visible world as one of spiritual communion with the invisible, and we can hardly be wrong in referring the visions and revelations of the Lord, the soaring as to the third heaven, and the Paradise of God,... [ Continue Reading ]
A CERTAIN DISCIPLE AT DAMASCUS, NAMED ANANIAS. — In Acts 22:12 St. Paul speaks of him as a “devout man” (the same word as in Acts 2:5; Acts 8:2) “according to the law,” well reported of by all the Jews who dwelt at Damascus. The name was so common that any identification must be in some measure unce... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STREET WHICH IS CALLED STRAIGHT. — A street answering to this description still runs from the Eastern Gate to the palace of the Pacha, and is known locally as the “Street of Bazaars.” Somewhat curiously, the house shown by guides as that of Judas is not in it. A piece of ground surrounded by tre... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HATH SEEN IN A VISION A MAN NAMED ANANIAS. — The coincidence of the two visions has seemed to some critics, as afterwards in the history of Cornelius, to betray something like the skill of the artistic historian. To those who reject the supernatural altogether, this may, of course, seem a short... [ Continue Reading ]
LORD, I HAVE HEARD BY MANY OF THIS MAN. — The words are of interest as showing both the duration and the character of the persecution in which Saul had been the leader. The report of it had spread far and wide. The refugees at Damascus told of the sufferings of the brethren at Jerusalem. THY SAINTS... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THAT CALL ON THY NAME. — Here again we have to trace the growth of a new terminology. The description of the disciples of the Lord Jesus as those who called upon or invoked His name, had its origin in the words of Joel cited by St. Peter (Acts 2:21), and afterwards by St. Paul (Romans 10:13). It... [ Continue Reading ]
HE IF A CHOSEN VESSEL UNTO ME. — Literally, _a vessel of election._ The term has nothing directly analogous to it in the Old Testament, but it is Hebrew in its form; the second noun being used as a genitive of the characteristic attribute, and so equivalent to an intensified adjective. So in Isaiah... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I WILL SHEW HIM HOW GREAT THINGS HE MUST SUFFER... — The words are spoken as by One who knows “what is in man” (John 2:25), their secret motives, and springs of action. With characters of a lower type, the prospect of what they will have to suffer in any enterprise tends to deter them from embar... [ Continue Reading ]
PUTTING HIS HANDS ON HIM SAID, BROTHER SAUL. — The correspondence of the act with the vision spoken of in Acts 9:12, would be the first step in the identification of the visitor. The words would tend to remove all doubt and misgiving. The man who came as the representative of the disciples of Jesus... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE FELL FROM HIS EYES AS IT HAD BEEN SCALES. — The description suggests the thought that the blindness was caused by an incrustation, caused by acute inflammation, covering the pupil of the eye, or closing up the eye-lids, analogous to the “whiteness,” that peeled (or _scaled_) off from the eyes... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN HE HAD RECEIVED MEAT. — Better, as elsewhere, _food._ The three days’ fast had obviously brought about a state of extreme prostration. In St. Paul’s account of his conversion in Galatians 1:17, he states that when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him, immediately he “conferred not with f... [ Continue Reading ]
AND STRAIGHTWAY HE PREACHED CHRIST IN THE SYNAGOGUES. — The “straightway” as interpreted by the inference drawn in the previous Note, must be taken to refer to the Apostle’s first public appearance in the synagogues of Damascus after his return from Arabia. The tense of the verb implies that the wor... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT DESTROYED THEM WHICH CALLED ON THIS NAME. — Better, _made havock of them._ It is noticeable that St. Paul uses the same verb as descriptive of his own conduct in Galatians 1:13, where the English version has “wasted.” On “them which called on this name,” see Note on Acts 9:16. AND CAME HITHER.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT SAUL INCREASED THE MORE IN STRENGTH. — The tense implies a continuous growth in power, obviously in the spiritual power which enabled the Apostle _to carry_ on his work. A comparison of dates suggests the connection of this growth with the special vision of 2 Corinthians 12:8, when in answer to... [ Continue Reading ]
AFTER THAT MANY DAYS WERE FULFILLED. — We learn from the more definite statement in Galatians 1:18 that these few words cover a period of otherwise unrecorded work, extending over a period of three years. That period must have witnessed the growth of a Christian society at Damascus, with an order of... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WATCHED THE GATES DAY AND NIGHT TO KILL HIM. — A somewhat fuller account of this episode in the Apostle’s life is given by him in 2 Corinthians 11:32. There we read that the governor — literally, _ethnarch_ — of the city, under Aretas, King of Arabia Petræa, with Petra as his capital, the fathe... [ Continue Reading ]
LET HIM DOWN BY THE WALL IN A BASKET. — The basket is the _spuris_ of Matthew 15:37, where see Note. In 2 Corinthians 11:33 St. Paul describes it by another word (_sarganè_)_,_ which gives the idea of a wicker or rope-work hamper. It seems to follow, from the tone in which the Apostle there speaks o... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN SAUL WAS COME TO JERUSALEM. — His journey probably took him, as before, through Samaria (see Note on Acts 9:3), and so laid the foundation of the interest in the Samaritan Church, which shows itself later on in the history in Acts 15:3, when he and Barnabas journeyed “through Phœnice and Sa... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT BARNABAS TOOK HIM. — What, we ask, made Barnabas more ready than others, not only to receive the convert himself, but to vouch for his sincerity? The answer is found in the inference that the Levite of Cyprus and the tent-maker had been friends in earlier years. The culture of which Tarsus was t... [ Continue Reading ]
COMING IN AND GOING OUT. — The words, like the kindred phrase in Acts 1:21, are used to imply a certain undefined frequency of intercourse. From Galatians 1:18 we learn that the whole duration of the visit was not more than fifteen days.... [ Continue Reading ]
DISPUTED AGAINST THE GRECIANS. — It will be remembered that it was as the leader of the Hellenistic-Jews of the synagogue named in Acts 6:9 that Saul had first appeared in the history of the Church. Now, it would seem, he sought to undo the evil that he had then wrought, by preaching to them the fai... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY BROUGHT HIM DOWN TO CÆSAREA. — The fact that the brethren at Jerusalem took these measures for the Apostle’s safety may be noted as a proof of their friendship. At Cæsarea he would probably, as afterwards in Acts 21:8, find Philip, and the friend and the accuser of the proto-martyr met face to... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN HAD THE CHURCHES REST. — The better MSS. have “the Church” in the singular. The tranquility described may have been due, partly to the absence of any leading men among the opponents of the new society; partly, perhaps, to public excitement being diverted to the insane attempt of Caligula to set... [ Continue Reading ]
AS PETER PASSED THROUGHOUT ALL QUARTERS. — The plan of the writer, arranging his materials, leads him from this point of Acts 12:18 to dwell entirely on the personal work of Peter. So far this section of the book may be described as the Acts of Peter. On the other hand, it is obvious that he only gi... [ Continue Reading ]
JESUS CHRIST MAKETH THEE WHOLE. — Better, _Jesus the Christ._ We note the same anxiety to disclaim any personal power or holiness as the cause that wrought the supernatural healing as in Acts 3:12; Acts 4:9. In the assonance of the Greek words (_Iësus iâtai se_) we may, perhaps, trace a desire to im... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THAT DWELT AT LYDDA AND SARON. — The latter name indicates a district rather than a town. The presence of the article with it, and its absence from Lydda, indicates that men spoke of “_the_ Saron” — _the_ plain — _the_ woodlands (so it is rendered by the LXX.: 1 Chronicles 5:16; 1 Chronicles 27:... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS AT JOPPA.... — The Hebrew form of the name, _Japho_ (pronounced _Yapho_)_,_ appears in Joshua 19:46, but the English version more commonly gives the better-known Joppa, as in 2 Chronicles 2:16; Ezra 3:7; Jonah 1:3). It was famous in Greek legends as the spot where Andromeda had been bound... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY LAID HER IN AN UPPER CHAMBER. — This implies some little delay in the usual rapidity of Eastern funerals. As Lydda was only nine miles from Joppa, the report of Æneas’s recovery might well have travelled from the one city to the other, and led to the hope that the power which St. Peter had thus... [ Continue Reading ]
DESIRING HIM THAT HE WOULD NOT DELAY. — The better MSS. give the message somewhat more dramatically, “_Delay not,_” and “_Be not reluctant_ to come.” It was, of course, necessary that he should come at once, as interment would have come, as a matter of course, on the following day.... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE WIDOWS STOOD BY HIM WEEPING. — We have apparently the same organisation of charity as that which prevailed in the Church at Jerusalem. The “widows” of the Church were the object of a special provision. (See Note on Acts 6:1.) The “coats,” were the close-fitting tunics worn next the body, the... [ Continue Reading ]
PETER PUT THEM ALL FORTH. — We may, perhaps, trace in Peter’s action his recollection of what our Lord had done in the case of the daughter of Jairus (see Notes on Matthew 9:23), at which he had been present. The work was one not to be accomplished by the mere utterance of a name, nor as by his “own... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN HE HAD CALLED THE SAINTS. — See Note on Acts 9:13.... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY BELIEVED IN THE LORD. — Here the word is obviously used definitely for the Lord Jesus as the specific object of their faith.... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY DAYS IN JOPPA WITH ONE SIMON A TANNER. — Either as bringing with it, through contact with the carcases and hides of dead beasts, the risks of ceremonial defilement, or being generally a repulsive and noisome business, the occupation was one from which the stricter Jews generally shrunk. The Rab... [ Continue Reading ]