CHAPTER IX. _Saul, bent on the destruction of the Christians, obtains letters_ _from the high priest, authorizing him to seize those whom he_ _should find at Damascus, and bring them bound to Jerusalem_, 1, 2. _On his way to Damascus, he has a Divine vision, is convinced of_ _his sin and folly... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:2. _LETTERS TO DAMASCUS TO THE SYNAGOGUES_] Damascus, anciently called דמסק _Damask_, and דרמסק _Darmask_, was once the metropolis of all Syria. It was situated at fifty miles' distance from the sea; from which it is separated by lofty mountains. It is washed by two rivers, _Amara_ or... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:3. _SUDDENLY THERE SHINED ROUND ABOUT HIM_] This might have been an extraordinary flash of the _electric fluid_, accompanied with thunder, with which God chose to astonish and confound Saul and his company; but so modified it as to prevent it from striking them dead. _Thunder_ would nat... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:4. _AND HE FELL TO THE EARTH_] Being struck down with the lightning: many persons suppose he was on horseback, and painters thus represent him; but this is utterly without foundation. Painters are, in almost every case, wretched commentators.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:5. _WHO ART THOU, LORD?_] τις ει, κυριε; _Who art thou, SIR_? He had no knowledge who it was that addressed him, and would only use the term κυριε, as any Roman or Greek would, merely as a term of _civil respect_. _I AM JESUS WHOM THOU PERSECUTEST_] "Thy enmity is against _me_ and my r... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:6. _TREMBLING_] Under a strong apprehension of meeting the judgment he deserved. _AND ASTONISHED_] At the _light_, the _thunder_, and the _voice_. _LORD, WHAT WILT THOU HAVE ME TO DO?_] The word κυριε, _Lord_, is here to be understood in its proper sense, as expressing _authority_ and... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:7. _STOOD SPEECHLESS, HEARING A VOICE, BUT SEEING NO MAN._] The men were εννεοι, _stupified_, hearing τηςφωνης, _the voice_ or _thunder_, but not distinguishing the _words_, which were addressed to Saul alone; and which were spoken _out_ of the thunder, or in a small, still voice, _aft... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:8. _WHEN HIS EYES WERE OPENED, HE SAW NO MAN_] Instead of ουδενα, _no man_, the _Codex Alexandrinus_, the _Syriac, Vulgate_, and some others, have ουδεν _nothing_. He not only saw no _man_, but he saw nothing, being quite blind; and therefore was led by the hand to Damascus, μη βλεπων,... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:9. _NEITHER DID EAT NOR DRINK._] The anxiety of his mind and the anguish of his heart were so great that he had no appetite for food; and he continued in total darkness and without food for _three days_, till Ananias proclaimed salvation to him in the name of the Lord Jesus.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:10. _A CERTAIN DISCIPLE - NAMED ANANIAS_] A general opinion has prevailed in the Greek Church that this Ananias was one of the seventy-two disciples, and that he was martyred; and they celebrate his martyrdom on the first of October. It has been farther stated that his house was turned... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:11. _ARISE, AND GO INTO THE STREET WHICH IS CALLED_ _STRAIGHT_] How very particular is this direction! And it was necessary that it should be so, that he might see the whole to be a Divine communication; the house was probably one in which Saul was accustomed to reside when at Damascus;... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:12. _HATH SEEN IN A VISION_] While God prepares Ananias, by a vision, to go and minister to Saul, he at the same time prepares Saul, by another vision, to profit by this ministry.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:13. _LORD, I HAVE HEARD BY MANY OF THIS MAN_] This was all done in a _dream_, else this sort of reasoning with his Maker would have been intolerable in Ananias. Saul had been a _notorious_ persecutor; _many_ could testify of his outrageous acts against the poor followers of Christ. _TH... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:14. _AND HERE HE HATH AUTHORITY_, c.] Ananias had undoubtedly heard of Saul's coming, and the commission he had received from the chief priests and he was about to urge this as a reason why he should have no connection with so dangerous a man.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:15. _GO THY WAY_] He was thus prevented from going farther in his reasoning on this subject. _HE IS A CHOSEN VESSEL UNTO ME_] The word σκευος in Greek, and כלי _keley_ in Hebrew, though they literally signify a _vessel_, yet they are both used to signify any kind of _instrument_, or t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:16. _HOW GREAT THINGS HE MUST SUFFER_] Instead of proceeding as a persecutor, and inflicting sufferings on _others_, I will show him how many things he _himself_ must suffer for preaching that very doctrine which he has been hitherto employed in persecuting. Strange change indeed! And w... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:17. _BROTHER SAUL_] As he found that the _Head_ of the Church had adopted Saul into the heavenly family, he made no scruple to give him the right hand of fellowship, and therefore said, _Brother_ _Saul_. _THE LORD_, EVEN _JESUS_] Of what use is this intrusive word _even_ here? It injur... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:18. _THERE FELL FROM HIS EYES AS IT HAD BEEN SCALES_] This was real: he had been so dazzled with the brightness of the light that we may suppose the globe of the eye, and particularly the _cornea_, had suffered considerable injury. The structure of the _cornea_ was doubtless much distur... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:19. _WHEN HE HAD RECEIVED MEAT, HE WAS STRENGTHENED_] His _mind_ must have been greatly worn down under his three days' conviction of sin, and the awful uncertainty he was in concerning his state; but when he was baptized, and had received the Holy Ghost, his _soul_ was Divinely invigor... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:20. _PREACHED CHRIST IN THE SYNAGOGUES_] Instead of χριστον, _Christ_, ιησουν, _Jesus_, is the reading of ABCE, several others of high importance, together with the _Syriac, Coptic, AEthiopic,_ _Armenian, Slavonic_, and _Vulgate_. The great question to be determined, for the conviction... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:21. _IS NOT THIS HE THAT DESTROYED THEM_] οπορθησας. The verb πορθειν has three acceptations in the Greek writers: 1. _To_ _treat one as an enemy, to spoil him of his goods_. 2. _To lead away_ _captive, to imprison_. 3. _To slay_. Paul was properly πορθων, _a_ _destroyer_, in all th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:22. _CONFOUNDED THE JEWS_] συνεχυνε, Overwhelmed them so with his arguments that they were obliged to _blush_ for the weakness of their own cause. _PROVING THAT THIS_] ουτος, This person, viz. JESUS, _is very_ _Christ_; εστιν ο χριστος, IS THE CHRIST, or _Messiah_. Acts 9:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:23. _AND AFTER THAT MANY DAYS WERE FULFILLED_] What follows relates to transactions which took place about _three years_ after his conversion, when he had come a second time to Damascus, after having been in Arabia. See Galatians 1:17. What he did in Arabia we know not; he probably prea... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:24. _THEY WATCHED THE GATES DAY AND NIGHT TO KILL HIM._] At this time Damascus was under the government of Aretas, king of Arabia, who was now at war with Herod, his son-in-law, who had put away his daughter in order to marry Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. As Herod was supported b... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:25. _LET_ HIM _DOWN, BY THE WALL_] Favoured, probably, by a house built against or upon the wall, through the window of which they could lower him in a basket; and by this means he made his escape. His escape was something similar to that of the spies at Jericho, Joshua 2:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:26. _HE ASSAYED TO JOIN HIMSELF TO THE DISCIPLES_] επειρατο κολλασθαι, He _endeavoured to get closely united to them_, to be in religious fellowship with them. _BELIEVED NOT THAT HE WAS A DISCIPLE._] They did not suppose it possible that such a person could be converted to the faith of... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:27. _BARNABAS - BROUGHT HIM TO THE APOSTLES_] That is, to Peter and James; for _others of the apostles he saw none_, Galatians 1:19. It appears that he went up at this time to Jerusalem merely _to see_ _Peter, with whom he abode fifteen days_, Galatians 1:18. How it came that the apostl... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:28. _HE WAS WITH THEM COMING IN AND GOING OUT_] Freely conversing and associating with them; but this seems to have continued only _fifteen days_. See Galatians 1:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 29. _DISPUTED AGAINST THE GRECIANS_] That is, the _Hellenistic Jews_, viz. those who lived in Grecian cities, spoke the Greek language, and used the Septuagint version for their scriptures. And thus the _Syriac_ version has interpreted this place. Acts 6:1, Acts 6:1, where this subject is larg... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 30. _THEY BROUGHT HIM DOWN TO CAESAREA_] Calmet contends that this was _Caesarea_ of _Palestine_, and not _Caesarea Philippi_; it being his opinion, and indeed that of others, that where this word occurs without any addition, in the New Testament, _Caesarea_ of _Palestine_ is meant, and not _C... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 31. _THEN HAD THE CHURCHES REST_] Instead of ια εκκλησιαι, _the Churches_, ABC, several others, the _Syriac, Coptic,_ _AEthiopic, Armenian_, and _Vulgate_, have ηεκκλησια, _the Church_. Every assembly of God's people was _a Church_; the aggregate of these assemblies was THE CHURCH. The word ε... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 32. _AS PETER PASSED THROUGHOUT ALL_ QUARTERS] δια παντων, Bp. Pearce thinks, should be translated, not _through all quarters_, but _through all the saints_. The Churches having rest, the apostles made use of this interval of quiet to visit the different congregations, in order to build them u... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 33. _A CERTAIN MAN NAMED ENEAS_] This name has been celebrated in the annals of heathen poetry, in that beautiful work of the poet Virgil, called the _AEneid_; which gives an account of the misfortunes, travels, wars, c., of a Trojan prince of this name, after the destruction of his native ci... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 34. _JESUS CHRIST MAKETH THEE WHOLE_] Not _Peter_, for _he_ had no power but what was given him from above. And, as an _instrument_, any man could heal with this power as well as Peter; but God chose to put honour upon those primitive preachers of his word, that men might see that they were co... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 35. _ALL THAT DWELT IN LYDDA AND SARON SAW HIM_] Saron was that _champaign country_ that lay between Joppa and Lydda. The long _affliction_ of this man had been well known; and his _cure_, consequently, became a subject of general examination: it was found to be real. It was known to have been... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 36. _NOW THERE WAS AT JOPPA_] This was a sea-port town on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, about a day's journey from Jerusalem. It is supposed to be the same which is called in the Old Testament _Japho_, which belonged to the tribe of Dan, Joshua 19:46. It is at present called _Jaffa_, and... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 37. _SHE WAS SICK, AND DIED_] Even her holiness and usefulness could not prevent her from sickness and death. _Dust_ _thou art, and to dust thou shalt return_, is a decree that must be fulfilled, even on the saints; _for the body is dead_, sentenced to death, _because of sin, though the spirit... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 38. _SENT UNTO HIM - DESIRING - THAT HE WOULD NOT DELAY TO_ _come_] Tabitha died at Joppa, and Peter was at Lydda, about four leagues distant. But why did they send for Peter? We cannot tell. It is not likely that they had any expectation that he should raise her from the _dead_; for none of t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 39. _SHOWING THE COATS AND GARMENTS_] χιτωνας και ιματια, the _outer_ and _inner_ garments. These, it appears, she had made for the poor, and more particularly for _poor widows_, in whose behalf she had incessantly laboured.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:40. _PETER PUT THEM ALL FORTH, AND KNEELED DOWN AND PRAYED_] It was not even known to Peter that God would work this miracle: therefore he put all the people out, that he might seek the will of God by fervent prayer, and during his supplications be liable neither to _distraction_ nor _i... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:41. _SAINTS AND WIDOWS_] In primitive times the _widows_ formed a distinct part of the Christian Church.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:42. _MANY BELIEVED IN THE LORD._] That is, in Christ Jesus, in whose name and through whose power they understood this miracle to be wrought. This miracle, as well as that at Lydda, was not only the means of strengthening the faith of the disciples, and gaining credit to the cause of Ch... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Acts 9:43. _HE TARRIED MANY DAYS IN JOPPA_] Taking advantage of the good impression made on the people's minds by the miracle, he preached to them the great truths of Christianity, and thus established them in the faith. _SIMON A TANNER._] Whether the original word βυρσευς signifies a _tanner... [ Continue Reading ]