Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God. All who heard him were amazed, and said, “Isn’t this he who in Jerusalem made havoc of those who called on this name? And he had come here intending to bring them bound before the chief priests!”
But Saul increased more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived at Damascus, proving that this is the Christ. When many days were fulfilled, the Jews conspired together to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They watched the gates both day and night that they might kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket. When Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. He was with them entering into Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. He spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 20. Luke declareth now how fruitful Paul’s conversion was,…
20. Luke declareth now how fruitful Paul’s conversion was, to wit, that he came abroad by and by, and did not only profess that he was a disciple of Christ, but did also set himself against the fury and hatred of the enemies, by defending the gospel stoutly. Therefore, he who of late ran headlong against Christ with furious force, doth now not only submit himself meekly unto his will and pleasure but like a stout standard-bearer fighteth even unto the utmost danger to maintain his glory. Certain it is that he was not so quickly framed by Ananias’ industry, but that so soon as he had learned the first principles by man’s mouth, he was extolled by God unto higher things afterward. He comprehendeth the sum of his preaching briefly, when he saith that Christ was the Son of God. In the same sense, he saith shortly after that he saw Christ. And understand thus much, that when Paul intreated out of the law and the prophets of the true office of the Messiah, he taught also that all whatsoever was promised of, and was to be hoped for, at the hands of the Messiah, was revealed and given in Christ. For the words signify thus much, when he saith that he preached that Christ is the Son of God. That was undoubtedly a principle amongst the Jews, that there should a Redeemer come from God, who should restore all things to a happy estate. Paul teacheth that Jesus of Nazareth is he, which he cannot do, unless he shake off those gross errors which he had conceived of the earthly kingdom of the Messiah. Certain it is that Paul declared how Christ was promised in the law, and to what end; but because all tended to this end, that he might prove that the son of Mary was he of whom the law and the prophets bare witness, therefore Luke is content with this one word only.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv20, 22, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29 Paul beginneth straightways to execute the office which was…
Paul beginneth straightways to execute the office which was enjoined him, never consulting with flesh and blood.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv20–29 20 And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues,…
20 And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
Ver. 20. And straightway he preached] He conferred not with flesh and blood, Gal 1:16, but fell presently to work, and followed it close, as afraid to be taken with his task undone. Chrysostom saith of Paul, that he was insatiabilis Dei cultor, an insatiable server of God.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv20–29 He preahced Christ in the synagogues; the apostles spake…
He preahced Christ in the synagogues; the apostles spake unto the Jews first, either that they might convert them, or at least take away all excuse from them.
That he is the Son of God; which doubtless he spake largely unto, though it be not here expressed; but he had an abundance in his heart, having tasted the power of the grace of God in Christ, and out of his heart his mouth spake.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv20, 26 Here we have an account of St. Paul’s entrance…
Here we have an account of St. Paul’s entrance upon his ministerial office in preaching the gospel; Straightaway he preached Christ in the synagogues.
Where note, 1. The time of his preaching, Straightaway: he fell presently to his Master’s work, not consulting flesh and blood about the difficulties and dangers that might attend it; but performs his duty with such zeal and immediate application, as became a person of his holy character and profession.
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Note, 2. The place where he preached, In the Jewish synagogues: He was afterwards indeed the apostle of the Gentiles, but according to Christ’s command, he first preached the word of life to the Jews, to convert some, and to leave others without excuse: After which he turned from them unto the Gentiles according to It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you; but because you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles Act 13:46.
Note, 3. The doctrine he preached; That Jesus was the Son of God, the true, promised, and expected Messioas; and that all the prophecies and predictions of the prophets concerning the Messias, were exactly fulfilled in his person.
Note, 4. The effect of his preaching:
1. Some of his auditors were amazed, admiring that so pestilent a persecutor was become a powerful preacher, These glorified God in him.
2. Others were confuted, yea, confounded, being unable to withstand the force and dint of his argument, by which he proved, that this is the very Christ.
Note, 5. The hazard which tha apostle ran in preaching the gospel at Damascus; his enemies, who were not able to resist the wisdom and spirit by which he spake, took council day and night, there being in their apprehensions no possibility of his escaping.
Note, 6. The manner and means of his deliverance: some Christians who dwelt at Damascus let him down in a basket by the wall, and so he escaped the hands of his bloody enemies. The wisdom of God is never at a loss to find out ways and means, either ordinary or extraordinary, for the deliverance of his servants, when their deliverance makes most for hsi own glory, and the gospel’s advantage. God had much work for Paul to do; and till he had finished his work, his enemies could not take him off with all their combined power and malice.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v23 Luke here makes no mention of Paul's journey into…
Luke here makes no mention of Paul's journey into Arabia, which he tells us himself was immediately after his conversion, Gal 1:16, Gal 1:17. As soon as God had revealed his Son in him, that he might preach him, he went not up to Jerusalem, to receive instructions from the apostles (as any other convert would have done, that was designed for the ministry), but he went to Arabia, where there was new ground to break up, and where he would have opportunity of teaching, but not learning; thence he returned to Damascus, and there, three years after his conversion, this happened, which is here recorded.
I. He met with difficulties at Damascus, and had a narrow escape of being killed there. Observe, 1. What his danger was (Act 9:23): The Jews took counsel to kill him, being more enraged at him than at any other of the preachers of the gospel, not only because he was more lively and zealous in his preaching than any of them, and more successful, but because he had been such a remarkable deserter, and his being a Christian was a testimony against them. It is said (Act 9:24), The Jews watched the gates day and night to kill him; they incensed the governor against him, as a dangerous man, who therefore kept the city with a guard to apprehend him, at his going out or coming in, Co2 11:32. Now Christ showed Paul what great things he must suffer for his name (Act 9:16), when here was presently the government in arms against him, which was a great thing, and, as all his other sufferings afterwards, helped to make him considerable. Saul was no sooner a Christian than a preacher, no sooner a preacher than a sufferer; so quickly did he rise to the summit of his preferment. Note, Where God gives great grace he commonly exercises it with great trials. 2. How he was delivered. (1.) The design against him was discovered: Their lying in wait was known of Saul, by some intelligence, whether from heaven or from men we are not told. (2.) The disciples contrived to help him away - hid him, it is likely, by day; and in the night, the gates being watched, that he could not get away through them, they let him down by the wall, in a basket, as he himself relates it (Co2 11:33), so he escaped out of their hands. This story, as it shows us that when we enter into the way of God we must look for temptation, and prepare accordingly, so it shows us that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may not be by it deterred nor driven from the way of God.
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II. He met with difficulties at Jerusalem the first time he went thither, Act 9:26. He came to Jerusalem. This is thought to be that journey to Jerusalem of which he himself speaks (Gal 1:18): After three years I went up to Jerusalem, saith he, to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But I rather incline to think that this was a journey before that, because his coming in and going out, his preaching and disputing (Act 9:28, Act 9:29), seem to be more than would consist with his fifteen days' stay (for that was no more) and to require a longer time; and, besides, now he came a stranger, but then he came, historēsai - to confer with Peter, as one he was intimate with; however, it might possibly be the same. Now observe,
1. How shy his friends were of him (Act 9:26): When he came to Jerusalem, he did not go to the chief priests and the Pharisees (he had taken his leave of them long since), but he assayed to join himself to the disciples. Wherever he came, he owned himself one of that despised persecuted people, and associated with them. They were now in his eyes the excellent ones of the earth, in whom was all his delight. He desired to be acquainted with them, and to be admitted into communion with them; but they looked strange upon him, shut the door against him, and would not go about any of their religious exercises if he were by, for they were afraid of him. Now might Paul be tempted to think himself in an ill case, when the Jews had abandoned and persecuted him, and the Christians would not receive and entertain him. Thus does he fall into divers temptations, and needs the armour of righteousness, as we all do, both on the right hand and on the left, that we may not be discouraged either by the unjust treatment of our enemies or the unkind treatment of our friends. (1.) See what was the cause of their jealousy of him: They believed not that he was a disciple, but only pretended to be so, and came among them as a spy or an informer. They knew what a bitter persecutor he had been, with what fury he went to Damascus some time ago; they had heard nothing of him since, and therefore thought he was but a wolf in sheep's clothing. The disciples of Christ had need to be cautious whom they admit into communion with them. Believe not every spirit. There is need of the wisdom of the serpent, to keep the mean between the extremes of suspicion on the one hand and credulity on the other; yet methinks it is safer to err on the charitable side, because it is an adjudged case that it is better the tares should be found among the wheat than that the wheat should any of it be rooted up and thrown out of the field. (2.) See how it was removed (Act 9:27): Barnabas took him to the apostles themselves, who were not so scrupulous as the inferior disciples, to whom he first assayed to join himself, and he declared to them, [1.] What Christ had done for him: He had shown himself to him in the way and spoken to him; and what he said. [2.] What he had since done for Christ: He had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. How Barnabas came to know this, more than the rest of them, we are not told; whether he had himself been at Damascus, or had had letters thence, or discoursed with some of that city, by which he came to the knowledge of this; or whether he had formerly been acquainted with Paul in the Grecian synagogues, or at the feet of Gamaliel, and had such an account of his conversion from himself as he saw cause enough to give credit to: but so it was that, being satisfied himself, he gave satisfaction to the apostles concerning him, he having brought no testimonials from the disciples at Damascus, thinking he needed not, as some others, epistles of commendation, Co2 3:1. Note, The introducing of a young convert into the communion of the faithful is a very good work, and one which, as we have opportunity, we should be ready to do.
2. How sharp his enemies were upon him. (1.) He was admitted into the communion of the disciples, which was no little provocation to his enemies. It vexed the unbelieving Jews to see Saul a trophy of Christ's victory, and a captive to his grace, who had been such a champion for their cause - to see him coming in, and going out, with the apostles (Act 9:28), and to hear them glorying in him, or rather glorifying God in him. (2.) He appeared vigorous in the cause of Christ, and this was yet more provoking to them (Act 9:29): He spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. Note, Those that speak for Christ have reason to speak boldly; for they have a good cause, and speak for one who will at last speak for himself and them too. The Grecians, or Hellenist Jews, were most offended at him, because he had been one of them; and they drew him into a dispute, in which, no doubt, he was too hard for them, as he had been for the Jews at Damascus. One of the martyrs said, Though she could not dispute for Christ, she could die for Christ; but Paul could do both. Now the Lord Jesus divided the spoils of the strong man armed in Saul. For that same natural quickness and fervour of spirit which, while he was in ignorance and unbelief, made him a furious bigoted persecutor of the faith, made him a most zealous courageous defender of the faith. (3.) This brought him into peril of his life, with which he narrowly escaped: The Grecians, when they found they could not deal with him in disputation, contrived to silence him another way; they went about to slay him, as they did Stephen when they could not resist the Spirit by which he spoke, Act 6:10. That is a bad cause that has recourse to persecution for its last argument. But notice was given of this conspiracy too, and effectual care taken to secure this young champion (Act 9:30): When the brethren knew what was designed against him they brought him down to Cesarea. They remembered how the putting of Stephen to death, upon his disputing with the Grecians, had been the beginning of a sore persecution; and therefore were afraid of having such a vein opened again, and hastened Paul out of the way. He that flies may fight again. He that fled from Jerusalem might do service at Tarsus, the place of his nativity; and thither they desired him by all means to go, hoping he might there go on in his work with more safety than at Jerusalem. Yet it was also by direction from heaven that he left Jerusalem at this time, as he tells us himself (Act 22:17, Act 22:18), that Christ now appeared to him, and ordered him to go quickly out of Jerusalem, for he must be sent to the Gentiles, Act 9:15. Those by whom God has work to do shall be protected from all the designs of their enemies against them till it be done. Christ's witnesses cannot be slain till they have finished their testimony.
III. The churches had now a comfortable gleam of liberty and peace (Act 9:31): Then had the churches rest. Then, when Saul was converted, so some; when that persecutor was taken off, those were quiet whom he used to irritate, and then those were quiet whom he used to molest. Or, then, when he had gone from Jerusalem, the fury of the Grecian Jews was a little abated, and they were the more willing to bear with the other preachers now that Saul had gone out of the way. Observe,
1. The churches had rest. After a storm comes a calm. Though we are always to expect troublesome times, yet we may expect that they shall not last always. This was a breathing-time allowed them, to prepare them for the next encounter. The churches that were already planted were mostly in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, within the limits of the holy land. There were the first Christian churches, where Christ had himself laid the foundation.
2. They made a good use of this lucid interval. Instead of growing more secure and wanton in the day of their prosperity, they abounded more in their duty, and made a good use of their tranquillity. (1.) They were edified, were built up in their most holy faith; the more free and constant enjoyment they had of the means of knowledge and grace, the more they increased in knowledge and grace. (2.) They walked in the fear of the Lord - were more exemplary themselves for a holy heavenly conversation. They so lived that all who conversed with them might say, Surely the fear of God reigns in those people. (3.) They walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost - were not only faithful, but cheerful, in religion; they stuck to the ways of the Lord, and sang in those ways. The comfort of the Holy Ghost was their consolation, and that which they made their chief joy. They had recourse to the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and lived upon that, not only in days of trouble and affliction, but in days of rest and prosperity. The comforts of the earth, when they had the most free and full enjoyment of them, could not content them without the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Observe the connection of these two: when they walked in the fear of the Lord, then they walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Those are most likely to walk cheerfully that walk circumspectly.
3. God blessed it to them for their increase in number: They were multiplied. Sometimes the church multiplies the more for its being afflicted, as Israel in Egypt; yet if it were always so, the saints of the Most High would be worn out. At other times its rest contributes to its growth, as it enlarges the opportunity of ministers, and invites those in who at first are afraid of suffering. Or, then, when they walked in the fear of God and his comforts, they were multiplied. Thus those that will not be won by the word may be won by the conversation of professors.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv20–29 And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues,.... The…
And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues,.... The Syriac version adds, "of the Jews"; that is, which were in Damascus, Act 9:2 from whence it appears, that he was immediately, as soon as converted, qualified for the work of preaching the Gospel: nor did he confer with flesh and blood, or stand disputing and debating with himself and carnal reason, what was best for him to do; but as soon as he knew Christ himself, he preached him to others, and whom he always made the subject of his ministry; and particularly,
that he is the Son of God; the only begotten of the Father, the eternal Son of God, truly and properly God, of the same nature and essence with God his Father, and equal to him. His design was to assert and maintain the dignity of his person, which is the foundation of his office, as Mediator, and of all the wonderful things he performed: had he meant no more than that he was the Messiah, the sense would only be, that he preached that Christ was the Christ; but the meaning is, that he preached that Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah, was not a mere man, but a divine person, even the Son of God: he set out in his ministry, with the principal and most fundamental article of the Christian religion, that which Christ asserted, and for which he suffered, and which all the apostles, and first Christians believed. The Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read "Jesus", instead of "Christ".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv24, 26, 27 They guarded the gates day and night - That…
They guarded the gates day and night - That is, the governor did, at their request, 2 Cor. xi, 32.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv20–29 Verse 20. Preached Christ in the synagogues] Instead of…
Verse 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 of the Jews, was that JESUS was the Son of God. That the Christ, or Messiah, was to be the Son of God, they all believed. Saul was now convinced that Jesus, whom they had crucified, and who had appeared to him on the way, was the Son of God, or Messiah; and therefore as such he proclaimed him. The word Christ should be changed for Jesus, as the latter is, without doubt, the genuine reading.
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The first offers of the grace of the Gospel were uniformly made to the Jews. Saul did not at first offer Jesus to the heathens at Damascus; but to the synagogues of the Jews.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv20, 23, 26 Act 9:20-22. And straightway — That is, immediately after…
Act 9:20-22. And straightway — That is, immediately after his conversion; he preached Christ in the synagogues — Some writers have given it as their opinion, (see Dr. Wells on the place, and Script. Geog., vol. 3. p. 375,) that as soon as Saul had strength to go anywhere abroad, he retired into the desert of Arabia, and there was favoured with a full revelation of Christianity, and spent some considerable time in devotion; and that after this he returned to Damascus and preached, which they argue from Gal 1:16-17. But this opinion seems inconsistent with what is here said of his preaching, ευθεως, immediately. It seems, therefore, probable, that by his going into Arabia, to which Damascus now belonged, we are to understand his making excursions from that city into the neighbouring parts of that country, which he might do, perhaps, between the time in which he began to preach in Damascus, and his quitting it, after repeated labours there, to go to Jerusalem. That he is the Son of God — Foretold Psalms 2.; which he knew and proved Christ to be by incontestable arguments. But all that heard him were amazed — As well they might be; and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name — And now doth he call on this name himself, and persuade others to call upon it, and strengthen the hands of those that do! Nay, and did he not come hither for that intent — To seize all the Christians he could find; and bring them bound to the chief priests? — Who would have thought then that he should preach Christ as he doth? No doubt this was looked upon by many to be, what indeed it was, a great confirmation of the truth of Christianity, that a person who had been such a notorious persecutor of it, should come on a sudden to be such an intelligent and strenuous preacher of it. This miracle upon the mind of such a man outshone the miracles upon men’s bodies, and the giving Saul such another heart was more than giving men to speak with other tongues. But Saul increased the more in strength — Became more intimately acquainted with the gospel of Christ, and his pious affections became more strong, his faith and hope firm, and his love to Christ and his disciples, and to all mankind, more fervent. He also became more bold and resolute in the defence of the gospel: and confounded the unbelieving Jews, proving that this Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ — The true Messiah, the Son of God. He answered their objections to the satisfaction of all indifferent persons, and pressed them with arguments to which they could make no reply. And we can have no reason to doubt that he was instrumental in converting many to the faith of Christ, and therefore of building up the church at Damascus, which he had come thither to destroy.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv20–29 And straightway - Immediately. It was an evidence of…
And straightway - Immediately. It was an evidence of the genuineness of his conversion that he was willing at once to avow himself to be the friend of the Lord Jesus.
He preached Christ - He proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ. See Act 9:22. Many manuscripts read here Jesus instead of Christ. Griesbach has adopted this reading. Such is also the Syriac, the Vulgate, and the Ethiopic. The reading accords much better with the subject than the common reading. That Christ, or the Messiah, was the Son of God, all admitted. In the New Testament the names Christ and Son of God are used as synonymous. But the question was whether Jesus was the Christ, and was therefore the Son of God, and this Paul showed to the Jews. Paul continued the practice of attending the synagogues; and in the synagogues anyone had a right to speak who was invited by the officiating minister. See Act 13:15.
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That he is the Son of God - That he is the Messiah.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv23, 27, 29 When many days were passed. By the account St.…
When many days were passed. By the account St. Paul gives of himself, (Galatians chap. i.) soon after his conversion he went into Arabia, and about three years after he might come to Damascus. Then it seems to have happened that they were for killing him, for becoming a Christian; and the brethren saved his life, by conveying him down the walls of the town in a basket. After this, he went to Jerusalem, where the disciples knew little of him, and were afraid of him, till St. Barnabas introduced him to the apostles, and gave an account of his conversion. (Witham) --- Many days. That is, three years. For Saul went for a time from Damascus to Arabia. (Galatians i. 17. and 18.) It was on his return from thence, that he Jews conspired against his life, as is here related. (Tirinus)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v26 E. He Visits Jerusalem, From Which City Also He…
E. He Visits Jerusalem, From Which City Also He Withdraws, In Consequence Of The Plots Of The Jews
Act_9:26-30
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26And [But] when Saul [he]17 was come to18 Jerusalem, he assayed19 [attempted] to join [attach] himself to the disciples: but [and] they were all afraid of him, and believednot [as they did not believe] that he was a disciple. 27But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared [narrated] unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached [spoken]boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. 28And he was with them coming in and going out20 [And he went in and out with them for a season] at Jerusalem, [atJer. and spake boldly … Jesus, (Act_9:29)] 29And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus,21 [He spake also] and disputed against the Grecians [with the Hellenists]Acts 22 :but they went about to slay him. 30Which when the brethren knew [ascertained], they brought [conducted] him down to Cesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Act_9:26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem. This event occurred, according to Gal_1:18, three years after his conversion. The narrative before us, does not, it is true, suggest that such a long period had intervened; the fear with which the Christians of Jerusalem regarded Saul, and the recommendation and intercession of Barnabas, which were, in consequence, rendered necessary, rather convey the impression that the change which had occurred in the former, was of a comparatively recent date, and not one that had taken place three years previously. Nevertheless, it should be carefully noticed that Luke does not say μὴ εἰδὸτες, but μὴ πιστεύοντες ὅτι ἐστὶ μαθητής. They did not believe that he was a disciple of Christ, a truly converted man; they lacked confidence in the purity of his sentiments—in the genuineness of his Christianity. They may have possibly suspected that his conversion to Christ was merely a feint, a bait intended to deceive the Christians, and thus more easily effect their destruction. It is, besides, very probable that such views were held with most tenacity precisely in the spot where his earlier inquisitorial efforts had been made, so that when he at first presented himself in Jerusalem, even after the lapse of years, the believers withdrew from his presence with dread, and it became difficult for him to attach himself (κολλᾶσθαι) to the congregation of Christians.
Act_9:27-28. a. But Barnabas took him.—It is probable that Saul and Barnabas had been previously acquainted; such may have been the more easily the case, as both were Hellenists, and many points of contact existed between Barnabas, a native of Cyprus (Act_4:36), and Saul, a native of Cilicia [ch. Act_21:39], which was not far distant. [“Cyprus is within a few hours’ sail from Cilicia.” (Conyb. and H. Life of Paul. I. 113.)—Tr.]. Barnabas took Saul (ἐπιλαβόμενος, not in the sense of took him to himself, but, graphically, took him by the hand). [Comp. Act_17:19, and especially Act_23:19, τῆς χειρὸς; αὐτὸν is governed by ἤγαγε, as in the analogous cases, Act_16:19; Act_18:17; Luk_14:4, as ἐπιλαμβάνεσθαι is always connected with the Gen. (Meyer).—Tr.]. He conducted Saul to the apostles, and related to these the circumstances that had occurred both at the time of the appearance of Jesus, by which Saul was converted, and also subsequently, during the Christian labors of the latter at Damascus (τῶς—ει̇͂δε, καὶ πῶς—ἐπαῤῥησιάσατο) [“not merely that, but how, i. e., in what manner, etc.” (Alex.)—Tr.]. Barnabas does not seem so much; to have imparted new information, as rather to have communicated with authority and precision, as a trustworthy voucher, certain facts to the apostles, of which they had previously derived their knowledge only from remote sources.
b. Brought him to the apostles.—Paul himself states, Gal_1:18-19, that his visit to Jerusalem referred to Peter, and that he had, on that occasion, seen no other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother. Now when Luke says: ἤγαγεπρὸς τοὺς ἀποτόλους, his language does not necessarily express the whole number of the Twelve, and it is unjust to assert (Zeller) that Act_9:27-28 contradict Gal_1:18-19. Still, we cannot conceal it from ourselves, that Luke does not here seem to possess a full knowledge of all the details. [But the fact which he states, fully agrees with Paul’s remark that he had seen two apostles (plur.); his language can as little suggest a doubt of the fulness of his knowledge, as the same general mode of expression, when adopted by Paul (who says, Act_13:40 that a certain passage occurs in the prophets, using the plural number), would imply a want of precise knowledge on his part. So, too, Luke’s omission here of all mention of the trance reported by him, Act_22:17, and noticed in the following note on Act_9:30, is no indication that he was unacquainted with it.—Tr.]
Act_9:29. And disputed against the Grecians [Hellenists.].—[For this word see above, Act_6:1, b. Exeg., and note 6, appended to the text of the present chapter, Act_9:29.—Tr.]. Saul very naturally directed his attention at first to those Jews who were, on account of their birth in heathen countries, more nearly allied to him, as it were, than others, since he himself, as a native of Tarsus [the capital of Cilicia, in Asia Minor], was also a Hellenist. He spoke with these men (ἐλάλει), but as they would not receive the witness which he bore concerning Jesus, their discourse at once became a debate or controversy (συζητεῖν, Act_6:9). The result was, that a feeling of hatred was engendered in the Jews, which speedily prompted them to devise plans for murdering him.
Act_9:30. They brought him down to Cesarea.—The Christians are termed brethren (άδελφοί), for they had now conceived a warm affection for Saul, whom they had at first met with reserve and fear. It appears from the narrative before us, that they ascertained that Saul’s life was threatened, and were hence induced to aid him in withdrawing from the city. Paul himself relates to the Jews, Act_22:17-21, that when he was in the temple, Jesus appeared to him in a trance, and commanded him to “get quickly out of Jerusalem,” as his testimony concerning Jesus would not be willingly received. Both accounts perfectly agree, for the fact that the Jews in Jerusalem were contriving plans for murdering Saul, furnished indubitable evidence that they would not receive his testimony. We may, besides, easily conceive that Saul would not have determined to leave the city in consequence of the information which the brethren imparted to him, but that he did not hesitate a moment to withdraw, after the command which the Lord gave him in a vision.—Paul says in Gal_1:21, that he went from Jerusalem to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. This statement precisely agrees with the passage before us, which names Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, as the point which he intended to reach. He is more precise in his statements than Luke, only in adding that his route conducted him through Syria. [The Cesarea here mentioned is not Cesarea Philippi, Mat_16:13, etc., near the sources of the Jordan, but Cesarea Stratonis, a seaport on the Mediterranean, mentioned above, Act_8:40.—Tr.]. Hence Paul did not at once proceed by sea from Cesarea to Tarsus, as the present narrative would allow us to conjecture, but either travelled entirely by land, along the coast, after leaving Cesarea, passing through Phenicia and Syria (Meyer), or took ship at Cesarea, the capital, but landed at Tyre, Sidon, or some other city on the coast, for which the vessel chanced to be bound, and from that point traversed Syria by land. The latter supposition is the more probable, as the Christians accompanied him as far as Cesarea; this circumstance indicates that he continued his journey by water, after reaching that city, for if he had proceeded further by land, the nearest road would have conducted him through Samaria, Galilee, etc.—At this point we lose sight of Saul; he reappears in Act_11:25. The preceding facts lead us to assume that when he reached his home, he did not fail to proclaim the tidings concerning Jesus Christ. [Possibly, (according to Conyb. and H. Life of Paul, I. 114), the conversion of his “kinsmen” (Rom_16:7; Rom_16:11; Rom_16:21), and, specially, of his sister, the mother of the nephew mentioned in Act_23:16, may be assigned to this last visit which Paul appears to have made to the home of his youth.—Tr.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Even at this comparatively late period, Saul does not yet announce himself in Jerusalem as an apostle, but only desires to be recognized as a disciple, and to be received by the brethren in that city as a genuine member of the church of Christ. And the testimony which he delivered in Jerusalem concerning Jesus, is, in its whole character, simply the declaration of an ordinary, but faithful Christian, whose joy proceeded from faith; it is not that of a man who had received a commission, or been invested with a special office.
2. The discussions of Saul and the Hellenists in Jerusalem vividly remind us of those which Stephen had previously held with the same class of people [Act_6:9 ff.]; the latter had likewise assumed a controversial character. It is, besides, remarkable, that the same man who had entertained such hostile sentiments with respect to Stephen, and had heartily rejoiced when he witnessed his execution (Act_8:1), should now walk in the footsteps of the latter, and assume the same functions which had previously been assigned to Stephen. Christ is a King who enlarges and governs his kingdom in a wonderful manner.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Act_9:20. And straightway he preached, etc.—He now appropriated the words to himself: “I believe, therefore have I spoken.” [Psa_116:10; 2Co_4:13]. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the life and soul of all evangelical preaching.
Act_9:21. But all that heard him were amazed.—The amazement created by the conversion of Saul: I. It exercised a salutary influence on the converted man himself, by humbling him, since it reminded him of his former evil course. So, too, the new convert must always expect to be regarded not only with hatred and scorn by his former associates in sin, but also with doubt and distrust by his new brethren in the faith. But it, H. Furnished, at the same time, most honorable testimony to the wonderful power of the Lord. He turns the hearts of men as the rivers of water [Pro_21:1], and the reality of his works of grace is not affected either by the doubts of a weak faith, or the mockery of unbelief, while the wolf is found dwelling in peace with the lamb, and the leopard with the kid, etc. [Isa_11:6].
Act_9:22. But Saul increased the more in strength.—“Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.” [Mat_13:12].—Our growth in the new life is the best refutation of those who doubt the sincerity of our conversion.—And confounded the Jews.—He now contends, not with carnal, but with spiritual weapons.—The opponents of Christianity are not successfully repelled by ingenuity and learning alone; we need, besides, a knowledge, derived from experience, of the salvation wrought by Christ, so that we can say with Paul: “Christ liveth in me.” [Gal_2:20]. (From Ap. Past.)—Proving that this is very Christ.—The Holy Ghost directed Paul in the choice of the most appropriate themes—those that were most of all needed at that time, and at all times, namely, that Jesus is the Son of God, (Act_9:20), and that Jesus is the Christ, (Act_9:22), (Ap. Past.).
Act_9:23. And after that many days were fulfilled.—God has appointed certain times, years, places and circumstances, for each of his servants, in which he is to learn, to experience, and to perform certain things. Happy is he who rightly discerns his appointed task, and faithfully redeems the time. The ἡμέραι ἱκαναὶ at length come to an end. (Ap. Past.).—The Jews took counsel to kill him.—Already are the Lord’s words fulfilled, that Saul must suffer many things for His name’s sake [Act_9:16]. Hatred and persecution are among the signs of true conversion.
Act_9:24. But their laying wait was known of Saul.—He had previously united with the Jews in their evil counsel to slay the disciples of Jesus. Hence, when God caused him to be informed that the Jews were now seeking his own life, he must have been conscious alike of a feeling of shame, and of a feeling of blessedness. (Ap. Past.).—They watched the gates day and night.—The enemies watch day and night for the purpose of killing the servant of the Lord, but the faithful Keeper of Israel also neither slumbers nor sleeps [Psa_121:4-5], and He guards the life of his servant with even greater vigilance. King Aretas had placed his men at the disposal of the enemies of Christ, but the King of heaven and earth gave his angels charge over his elect, that not a hair of his head should be touched. (Prom Leonh. and Sp.).
Act_9:25.—Let him down … in a basket.—Saul, in whose case the Lord had already performed such great miracles, nevertheless does not reject the simple means of a basket which his brethren offered for the purpose of effecting his escape. We are not permitted to expect extraordinary aid from God, when ordinary means can be employed. (Ap. Past.).
Act_9:26. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem.—We learn from Gal_1:17-18, that he had previously withdrawn to Arabia, and allowed three years to pass, before he came to Jerusalem. This was, no doubt, an important and blessed triennium for him, during which he was prepared and qualified by God, in silence and retirement, for his future office. Studiosi theologiæ and candidati ministerii may here find an excellent example. We could wish that no one would assume the office of the Christian ministry, until he had passed such a blessed triennium præparatorium in the school of the Holy Ghost. (Ap. Past.).—They were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.—The suspicions of the Christians were pardonable: it is not prudent at once to embrace every one who professes to be a brother in Christ. Paul met with a painful humiliation, but also with a salutary trial, when he was compelled to suffer for his former conduct, although three years had passed since his repentance and conversion.—It was a hard beginning, when he found that, after having scarcely escaped from his enemies, he was not received by the disciples. But when he thought on his former course, he did not wonder that he was regarded with horror, and when the brethren, influenced by a justifiable fear, repelled him, he patiently submitted. By this course he demonstrated the genuineness of his conversion; for he who had once been so furious and cruel, now calmly endures persecution and contempt. (Calvin).—It is well when any one is ultimately found to be better, than he had at first been supposed to be. (Rieger).
Act_9:27. But Barnabas took him, etc.—The kind and loving act of Barnabas must have indeed exhibited him to the sorrowing soul of the rejected Paul, as a “son of consolation.” [Act_4:36]. (Leon, and Sp.).—Thus the Lord always infuses his consolations into the bitterest cup of sorrow, especially by means of the faithful love of a like-minded friend. (Langbein).—And declared how he had seen the Lord in the way.—Biographies, accounts of the conversion of others and of the dealings of divine grace in their case, may often instruct, edify and humble us. Still, we should always remember that the ways of God are manifold, and that the souls of all are not conducted in the same path.
Act_9:28. And he was with them, etc.—He is, consequently, now recognized as a brother, and the old enmity is forgotten. It is in accordance with the usage of the world, but inconsistent with Christian love, when men obstinately hold up to view the sins of those whose words and conduct prove that they are truly converted, solely for the purpose of veiling a work of grace, and causing the name of Christ to be blasphemed. (Leonh. and Sp.).
Act_9:29. And disputed against the Grecians [with the Hellenists].—He adopted precisely the course of Stephen [Act_6:9], whose death had given him
pleasure, but who had now risen up in him with augmented power. Such are the wonderful ways of God in his kingdom, and his gracious acts in dealing with the souls of men.
Act_9:30. Which when the brethren knew, they brought him, etc.—The flight and deliverance of the apostle (as on the previous occasion in Damascus, [Act_9:25]), furnish a testimony, I. For Paul himself; he appears to have been induced to flee rather by the persuasions of the brethren, than by any anxiety on his own account; II. For the brethren, who could appreciate him, and whose faithful love led them to adopt measures for his deliverance; III. For the Lord, who watched over the life of his servant, and was his refuge in Jerusalem as in Damascus, in Tarsus as in Cesarea. [See above, Exeg. Act_9:30.]
ON THE WHOLE SECTION, Act_9:20-30.
The testimony concerning Christ: I. The source from which it must proceed—a heart apprehended of Christ [Php_3:12], and converted; II. Its substance: Christ, as the Son of God, and the Saviour of men; III. The effects produced by it: amazement, on the one hand—blessed fruits, on the other. (Langbein).
The evidences of a genuine conversion: I. Joyful confession of Christ, (Act_9:20); II. Willing endurance of the enmity of the world, (Act_9:23); III. Humble intercourse with believers, (Act_9:26); IV. A godly walk in the service of the Lord, (Act_9:28). (Leonh. and Sp.).
The dangers of newly converted persons: I. The hatred and persecution of the world (Act_9:23); II. Distrust on the part of believers (Act_9:26); III. The spiritual pride of their own hearts; IV. Contempt for the Church and the appointed means of grace, (ib).
The progress of the conversion of Paul (Act_9:7-23): I. The first impression—a deep feeling of his spiritual inability (Act_9:8); II. The first sign of life—“behold, he prayeth.” (Act_9:11); III. His first testimony—“that Christ is the Son of God.” (Act_9:20); IV. His first experience—the cross, for Christ’s sake (Act_9:23). (Jaspis).
The evidences of faith furnished by the newly converted Paul: I. Joyful confession of Christ before men (Act_9:20; Act_9:22; Act_9:28); II. Decided growth in the new life (Act_9:22); III. Undaunted courage amid the persecutions of the world (Act_9:23-25); IV. Humble and patient endurance of the distrust of the brethren (Act_9:26).
The first essay of arms of a soldier of Christ [2Ti_2:3]: it is his duty, I. To take an oath that he will be unchangeably faithful to his banner (Act_9:20; Act_9:23); H. To exercise himself diligently in the use of his weapons (Act_9:22); III. To take his position in the ranks with modesty (Act_9:26; Act_9:28); IV. To advance against the enemy with courage (Act_9:22; Act_9:29); V. To retire obediently at the signal (Act_9:25; Act_9:30).
The early years of probation in the office of the ministry: I. The first official tasks; II. The first official joys; III. The first official sorrows.
[The experience of Paul at his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion (Act_9:26-30; Gal_1:17-19); I. His reception by the Christians; II. The conduct of Barnabas; III. His interviews with Peter and James; IV. His discussions with the Jews; V. Their enmity; VI. The manner of his escape from the city. —Tr.]
Footnotes:
[17]Act_9:26. a. The reading ὁ Σαὐλος in some MSS. [G. H.], or ὁ Παῦλος in one MS. [E.] is spurious. [Omitted in A. B. C.; Cod. Sin. Vulg.; “an insertion, as in Act_9:19;” Alford; omitted by him, Lach. and Tisch.—Tr.]
[18]Act_9:26. b. The reading εἰς Ἱερ. [in A. B. C. and also Cod. Sin.] is not as strongly supported as ἐν [found in B. E. G. H.]; the latter is, besides, the more difficult reading, as παραγίνεσθαι is usually followed by εἰς; hence ἐν is preferred by all the recent critics. [But Alf. reads εἰς, regarding ἐν as a corruption, since παραγενόμενος is “taken absolutely.” De Wette also prefers ει̇͂ς, as Luke uniformly employs it in conjunction with this verb; but precisely for this reason Meyer prefers ἐν, which could have been more easily changed into εἰς. than vice versâ.—Tr.]
[19]Act_9:26. c. Ἐπειρᾶτο [of text. rec.] is as well sustained by external evidence [E. G. H.] as the Act. ἐπείραζεν (Lachmann) [found in A. B. C.; Cod. Sin.], but is less usual than the latter, and is therefore to be considered as genuine. [ἐπειρᾶτο, Alf. and Tisch.—Tr.]
[20]Act_9:28. The words καὶ ἐκπορ. are wanting in two MSS. [G. H.] of the first, and in many of the second rank [minuscules]; they were probably omitted only on account of the preposition εἰς which follows, and to which ἐκπορ. did not seem to correspond: but the reading is supported by Cod. Sin. also, and should be retained [as in Lach., Tisch. and Alf.].—Εἰς is sustained by decisive evidence [A. B. C. E. G.; Cod. Sin.], and should (in opposition to Meyer’s view) be preferred to ἐν, which occurs only in one of the older MSS. [H.].—Παῤῥηαι., without καί before it, is sufficiently attested [καί found in E. G. H., but omitted in A. B. C.; Cod. Sin.]; καί may have been the more readily inserted [by copyists] as two of the MSS. [G. H.] of three [E. G. H.] which exhibit it, omit καὶ ἐκπορ.
[21]Act_9:29. a. [Luther, Lechler, etc. in their versions, Lach., Tisch., etc., in the original, attach παῤῥηαιαζόμενος etc. to Act_9:28, and begin Act_9:29 with Ἐλάλει.—The text. rec. has immediately before Ἐλάλει the following: τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ, with G. H.; τοῦ κυρ. is omitted in C., which exhibits only Ἰησοῦ, while A. B. E.; Cod. Sin.; Syr. Vulg. omit Ἰησοῦ. Alf. with Lach. and Tisch., accordingly exhibits only τοῦ κυρίου.—Tr.]
[22]Act_9:29. b. Instead of Ἑλληνιστὰς, [of text. rec.] A., which is followed by some ancient Latin versions, exhibits ̔́Ελληνας. There can be no doubt that the latter is spurious [a later correction from Act_11:20 (Meyer; Alf.)]. The authority of Cod. Sin. has also been recently found to sustain Ἑλληνιστάς [which appears in the editions of Lach., Tisch. and Alf.—Tr.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 preached Christ . . . that he is the…
preached Christ . . . that he is the Son of God--rather, "preached Jesus," according to all the most ancient manuscripts and versions of the New Testament (so Act 9:21, "all that call on this name," that is, Jesus; and Act 9:22, "proving that this Jesus is very Christ").
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29 20. Straightway—Saul is prompt to appear forthwith in public,…
20. Straightway—Saul is prompt to appear forthwith in public, both to testify what Jesus had done for him, and to demonstrate that he boasts rather than blushes at the change he had made.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–29 20. And straightway he preached Christ [proclaimed Jesus] in…
20. And straightway he preached Christ [proclaimed Jesus] in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God] The best MSS. read Jesus in this verse, and this naturally is correct. The preaching which was to be to the Jews a stumbling-block was that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ, their long-expected Messiah.
He went, as was Christ’s custom also, into the synagogues as the most likely places where to find an audience who would listen to his proclamation. His letters to the synagogues (Act_9:2) were not delivered, but he came as the herald of one of higher authority than the chief priests. For St Paul’s constant practice of teaching in the Jewish synagogues, see Act_13:5, Act_14:1, Act_17:1; Act_17:10, Act_18:4; Act_18:19, Act_19:8.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv20–29 (20) And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues.—The…
(20) 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 work was continued for some length of time. What he had to proclaim was, first, that the Christ was actually and verily the Son of God no less than the Son of David; and, secondly, that Jesus of Nazareth had been shown to be the Christ. The better MSS., however, give the reading, preached Jesus. The line of reasoning we may assume to have been identical with that of Act_13:16-41. It is not without interest to remember here also that the Samaritans had a synagogue of their own at Damascus, and that he may thus have preached to them, so following in the footprints of Philip and taking his first step in the great work of breaking down the barriers that divided Israel from the world.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv20–29 In the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus for he preached…
In the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus for he preached Christ in the synagogues, A.V. and T.R. The preponderance of manuscript authority, and the onoma of ver. 21, and the oti outov ejstin oJ Cristov of ver. 22, seem conclusive in favor of Jesus rather than Christ. As regards the expression straightway, we must understand it as descriptive of Saul"s action upon his return from Arabia. Is it possible that St. Luke uses it with the same meaning as he may have heard St. Paul use it in when speaking of his Damascus preaching, in the same sense as St. Paul actually does speak Gal_1:17, viz. as expressing that he did not wait for authority from the apostles, but at once, fresh from the Divine call, and having a direct commission from Christ himself, entered upon his apostolic ministry? If the Epistle to the Galatians was written A.D. 58, it would be just about the time that St. Luke joined St. Paul, and might be commencing to collect materials for his history. So that the phrase in the Galatians and the phrase in this twentieth verse might really be the expression of one thought committed to paper by St. Paul on the one hand, and uttered in the ear of Luke on the other. It is a confirmation of this view that in 2 Corinthians, written about the same time, there is also an account of Saul"s escape from Damascus. In the synagogues; the very synagogues (ver. 2) to which the letters of the high priest were addressed, empowering him to arrest either man or woman who called upon the Name of Jesus, and bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem to be tried before the Sanhedrim. No wonder they were amazed.
Saul"s first sermons.
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Revised Version, "And straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, that he is the Son of God." "The point to which all the effort of the apostle was first directed was naturally the Messiahship of Jesus, and that in the higher view in which Christianity exhibits the Messiah, namely, as the Son of God" (Olshausen). Very different ideas are entertained as to the advisability of encouraging young converts to begin preaching at once. The difficulty arose in the China mission field, and the new convert earnestly pleaded to be allowed to tell the little he did know, and so grow to know more. This principle Saul followed, beginning at once to preach the faith which once he destroyed," and he made the opportunities just where he was, going into the synagogues, and using his privilege as a rabbi to read and expound the Scriptures. The text briefly indicates what truth Saul had gripped, and, taken with ver. 22, it shows how large his grip was, and that it concerned the very basis-truth of Christianity. He saw that
I THE CHRIST HAD COME. Explain that Christ" is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah," and would often be wisely changed for the Hebrew term. Deal with
(1) the foregoing prophecies of Messiah, showing how they had given tone to the national and religious sentiment;
(2) the actual expectation of the coming of Messiah about that time, which seems to have possessed both the Jews and the Gentiles. The practical question dividing public opinion at the time was the question which divides the Jew anti the Gentile up to this present hour; it was this Had Messiah come, or had he not come? Saul was now able to deal with this question, and he proclaimed openly that Messiah had come. Show the importance of this step, and how it narrowed the field of inquiry for all those pious souls who looked for redemption in Israel.
II THE CHRIST CAME IN THE PERSON OF JESUS OF NAZARETH. The better manuscripts give the reading, "preached Jesus." If Messiah had conic, had he been recognized, and acknowledged? Saul firmly answered," Yes; Messiah was Jesus of Nazareth, the Prophet, Teacher, Healer, holy Man, who was crucified, had risen from the dead, and was exalted to heaven." Surely this was a great theme for his preaching, one demanding explanation, argument, evidence, and the "accent of his own conviction." But Saul had seen more than even this, and so further proclaimed that
III JESUS THE CHRIST WAS THE SON OF GOD. Explain that term as
(1) compared with "Son of man;" and
(2) as gaining to the apostles its deeper and fuller meaning.
To Saul had evidently come an insight into the glorious mystery of the Incarnation. He realized
(1) that Jesus was the Christ in a high spiritual sense;
(2) that Jesus was entrusted with a present power to save and to sanctify;
(3) that Jesus had Divine rights, and made Divine claims to the immediate surrender to him of the heart and will and lives of men. So it is evident that Saul grasped at once the very essence of the gospel, and the very center of that doctrinal system which, urged by the necessities of the Churches, his genius developed. There is still no more searching test of our religious condition than can be found in the question, "What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is he?" If we feel that we must say, "He is the Son of God," then we are bound to bow our souls before him, seek his grace, accept his salvation, acknowledge his authority, and bind on our whole lives the livery of his service. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv23, 26 And after many days were fulfilled, the Jews took…
Act_9:23-25
And after many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him … Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.
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Pauls deliverance by the basket
I. God wages war with pride in every form.
1. There is, perhaps, no greater wonder than that man should be proud. Turn where we will, everything seems to teach humility. The grass whispers, You are dependent on us for food. The beasts say, You have to borrow our strength. The clouds drop down a voice: If we descend not upon you, you die.
2. And God, from time to time, makes man learn this lesson, whether he be His friend or foe. Frogs, flies, lice, locusts--all petty in themselves, become terrible to proud Pharaoh; and worms become fatal beneath the royal purple, when the proud Herod is to be destroyed.
3. To none does God more unmistakably teach the folly of pride than to His own people. A great part of lifes discipline is just a self-emptying in this respect--that man may learn that God is all-in-all. The greatest of Gods servants are, from time to time, reduced to be dependent upon the poorest earthly instrumentality--Elijah upon a handful of meal; Jeremiah upon old rags and clouts, as he is drawn up out of the pit; Paul upon a basket. God so often uses poor instrumentalities for accomplishing the deliverance of His people, because the tendency of man is to glorify the instrument (Hab_1:16).
4. God will fix mans eye upon Himself.
5. God would show His lordship in energising them.
II. The good effects of a knowledge of this. If we see plainly that God often uses very poor earthly instrumentality--
1. We shall not despair in great troubles, because great ways of deliverance are not opened up before us. Goliath, armed in his panoply of brass, must surely be met with something in proportion; but God teaches the secret of the smooth stones of the brook--the proportion that He knows of, though we knew it not. Many a child of God is like the lion entangled in the meshes of the net, that found deliverance by the nibbling of the mouse.
2. We shall be very cheerful in our times of trial, feeling that there are possibilities of deliverance all around us. With God all things are possible. The man of God is taught that he has resources in everything.
3. We shall be in a very humble frame of mind, ready to receive help from any direction. Sometimes God has to make His people ready. The spirit of Naaman is too much in them; they have Abanas and Pharpars of their own, which they think better than anything else, unless it be something very striking and grand. And, sometimes, our blessing comes by a very humble hand. During one of his severe illnesses, Bengel, the great commentator, sent for a student, and requested him to impart a word of consolation. The youth replied, Sir, I am but a pupil; I dont know what to say to a teacher like you. What, said Bengel, a divinity student! and not able to communicate a word of Scriptural comfort! The student, abashed, contrived to utter the text, The blood of Christ, the Son of God, cleanseth us from all sin. That is the very word I want, said Bengel; it is quite enough; and, taking him affectionately by the hand, dismissed him. The great commentator was ready to receive the blessing from the hand of the humble student; and God was ready to give it.
4. We shall be hearty to use the means we have at hand. We never know what such means will do until we try. There is a wonderful elasticity in little means, when God is giving them His blessing. In taking down the scaffolding of a huge mill chimney, the men forgot to affix the rope by which the foreman, directing their operations from the top, was to descend. Amid the frantic cries of the poor fellow above, and of the crowd below, the shrill voice of his wife was heard exclaiming, Tak off thy stocking, lad, and unravel it, and let down the thread with a piece of mortar. Presently the little thread came waving down the chimney, and reached the outstretched hands waiting for it; then it was attached to a ball of string, which Jem was asked to pull gently up. To the end of the string was attached the forgotten rope, which was drawn up in turn, and amidst cries of Thank God! was fastened to the iron, and bore the man safely to the ground. That is as good an instance as we could find anywhere of making good use of little means, and let us follow it ourselves.
5. The circle of possible aids will be enlarged. We are very apt in time of trouble to take very contracted views of the circle in which God is likely to work. We shut out all the little ways of help, and then the great ones are reduced to very few indeed; and as a necessary consequence, down sinks our heart in distress. We need continually to be reminded that even the stones can be made bread.
6. We shall be kept humble in the day of prosperity, not knowing when, and for how much, we may be indebted to little things. (P. B. Power, M. A.)
Humiliating deliverance
(Cf. 2Co_11:32-33)
. Saul had returned from his Arabian retirement, and his powerful preaching aroused the animosity of the Jews. The Ethnarch, under the king of the Nabothaean Arabs, sided with them, and watched the gates of the city to take Saul. It was a close investment, and with such powerful enemies the chances were all against him. At this juncture a device occurred to his friends, recalling that of Rahab (Jos_2:15), and David (1Sa_19:12). It was a humiliating circumstance, and is placid by Paul amongst the things that concern my infirmities. Most men would have banished it from their thoughts and concealed it. Of such odd and inconvenient things the religion of Christ can make splendid use. This was--
I. An instance of peculiar discipline.
1. That there was something in Pauls mental constitution requiring to be so dealt with we may be certain--over-sensitiveness, a sense of personal dignity, pride of race. In such ways we get the starch taken out of us.
2. There was need for the most contradictory qualities in an apostle. He had to be strictly upright, yet all things to all men; firm and stern in rebuking sin, yet gentle and forgiving the penitent; keenly sensitive to the claims of the Master and His representatives, but oblivious to mere personal consideration. Whilst he had to confess that he was less than the least of all saints; he had to withstand pillars, and those who seemed to be somewhat to the face (Gal_2:1-21). Of the stiff Pharisee God was making a keen and flexible weapon.
3. This circumstance was in a line with his confusion on the highway, when he was led by the hand. That it made a deep impression on his mind we learn from the minuteness of the description after so many years. He uses the specific word for rope work hamper, while Luke employs the more general basket.
4. Many would have hesitated to avail themselves of such a means of escape as making them ridiculous, and thus detrimental to authority and usefulness.
II. A test of the faith of the disciples. There are many who cannot receive the truth for its own worth. Moral influence is with them bound up with personal position and external dignity. Yet a humble exterior is no proof of real lowering. Splendour may cloak corruption and spiritual death. The appearance of an apostle dangling in a rope basket was therefore a trial to the new converts. One might fancy themselves exclaiming, Where is the miracle, the Sign? So Paul banters the Corinthians--I am a fool! bear with me. With men God ever pursues this reparative process, dissolving the temporal and accidental from the essential and eternal.
III. A specimen of the irony of providence. In certain historical events one seems to detect such a mood, especially in the cries of nations and churches. The O.T., e.g., in the stories of Moses, Jacob, Gideon, is full of them. The means of checkmating the enemy of souls is reduced to a minimum--a ridiculous, preposterous circumstance, but it is sufficient. And when one compares the huge preparations and complex machinery of Satan with the simplicity of the Divine instrumentalities, the power and wisdom of God are thrown into relief. There are traces of a contempt for Satan in the Bible. Let us take heart, then, as we think of the grim laughter of the angels over abortive schemes and transparent blunders of the prince of darkness. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)
The methods of Divine providence
I. Never involve an unnecessary miracle. Had occasion required it, all the forces of the universe would have been at Pauls disposal. The circumstances were apparently desperate, but not beyond the God-directed ingenuity of brotherly hearts. God helps those who help themselves--and Gods ministers. A chariot of fire is not harnessed when a rope basket will do. In trouble or work expect deliverance or help, not from some striking supernatural interposition, but rather from some humble source overlooked because so commonplace and seemingly inadequate.
II. Often involve curious expedients. An ambassador of Christ making his escape in a rope basket! Yet spies, defeated warriors, and kings have been glad of the even more ridiculous disguises. And Gods people in escaping persecution or seeking truth must not be, and have not been, particular as to what people think. Carey posed as an Indigo planter, Zacchaeus perched himself in a sycamore tree, and the Bible had to be smuggled into Italy under a ladys crinoline.
III. Are frequently the simplest and the easiest of adoption. There would be no trouble in getting a basket. Saul would have had no difficulty in making one if necessary. And when hit upon, how much more effective this plan must have seemed than a score of others that possibly may have been entertained--bribing the governor, dodging the guard, etc. How often God rebukes us by setting aside our apparently clever but really cumbrous contrivances, and using the humblest instruments. Shamgars ox goad, Samsons jaw bone, Davids sling and stone, wrought wonders at times impossible to the whole might of Israel.
IV. Are always the best under the circumstances. The question for Saul is the question for this practical age--not How does it look? but How will it do? And the rope basket did admirably. It was soft, light, strong, and no one would dream of looking for an apostle in it. Do not then criticise the form which a given method of providence may take? Whatever it may be, it is the best because God employs it.
V. Differ according to various requirements. Paul was often afterwards in peril, but never had occasion to use the rope basket again. This would have been useless in a similar crisis (chap. 23), where a band of soldiers was required. Because God delivers us in a given fashion, or blesses us in a certain way at one time, it does not follow that the specific acts will be repeated. There is as much variety in the methods of providence as in the methods of nature; both deal with needs as they arise. (J. W. Burn.)
Providence: its methods strange only to us
I looked upon the wrong or back side of a piece of arras (or tapestry): it seemed to me as a continued nonsense. There was neither head nor foot therein, confusion itself had as much method in it--a company of thrums and threads, with many pieces and patches of several sorts, sizes, and colours; all which signified nothing to my understanding. But then, looking on the reverse, or right side thereof, all put together did spell excellent proportions, and figures of men and cities; so that, indeed, it was a history, not wrote with a pen, but wrought with a needle. If men look upon some of Gods providential dealings with a mere eye of reason, they will hardly find any sense therein, such their muddle and disorder. But, alas! the wrong side is objected to our eyes, while the right side is presented to the high God of heaven, who knoweth that an admirable order doth result out of this confusion: and what is presented to Him at present may, hereafter, be so showed to us as to convince our judgments in the truth thereof. (T. Fuller, D. D.)
Providence, interposition of
A story is related--in connection with the ejectment of the two thousand ministers from the Church of England--of Henry Havers, of Catherine Hall, Cambridge. Being pursued by enemies who sought to apprehend him, he sought refuge in a malt house and crept into the kiln. Immediately afterward he observed a spider fixing the first line of a large and beautiful web across the narrow entrance. The web being placed directly between him and the light, he was so much struck with the skill of the insect weaver, that for a while he forgot his own imminent danger; but by the time the network had crossed and recrossed the mouth of the kiln in every direction the pursuers came to search for him. He listened as they approached, and distinctly overheard one of them say, Its of no use to look in there; the old villain can never be there. Look at that spiders web; he could never have got in there without breaking it.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v29 Chapter 4
Chapter 4
SAUL AND SINAI
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Act_9:29-30
WE have bestowed a great deal of attention upon the incidents at Damascus, because the conversion of Saul of Tarsus is more closely connected with the truth and authenticity of Christianity than any other event save those immediately connected with the life and ministry of our Lord Himself. We shall, however, in this chapter, endeavour to discuss the remaining circumstances of it which the Acts of the Apostles brings under our notice.
I. We are told in verse 17 {Act_9:17), of the visit of Ananias to Saul. "Ananias departed, and entered into the house; and laying his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." This conversation with Ananias is largely expanded by St. Paul himself in the account which he gives us in Acts 22, while in his speech to Agrippa in the twenty-sixth chapter he entirely omits all mention of Ananias, and seems to introduce our Lord as the only person who spoke to him, and yet there is no real inconsistency. St. Paul, in fact, in the latter address is intent on setting vividly before Agrippa the sum total of the revelations made by Christ. He ignores, therefore, every secondary agent. Ananias was Christs messenger. His words were merely those which Christ put into his mouth. St. Paul goes, therefore, to the root of the matter, and attributes everything, whether uttered by our Lord or by Ananias, to the former alone, who was, indeed, the great Inspirer of every expression, the true Director of every minutest portion of this important transaction.
The ninth chapter, on the other hand, breaks the story up into its component parts, and shows us the various actors in the scene. We see the Lord Jesus consciously presiding over all, revealing Himself now to this person and again to that person. We get a glimpse for a moment behind the veil which Divine Providence throws around His doings and the doings of the children of men. We see Christ revealing Himself now to Saul and then to Ananias, informing the latter of the revelations made to the former; just as He subsequently revealed Himself almost simultaneously to Cornelius at Caesarea and to Simon Peter at Joppa, preparing the one for the other. The Lord thus hints at an explanation of those simultaneous cravings, aspirations, and spiritual desires which we often find unaccountably arising amid far distant lands and in widely separated hearts. The feelings may seem but vague aspirations and their coincidence a mere chance one, but the typical cases of Saul and Ananias, or of Cornelius and St. Peter, teach the believer to see in them the direct action and government of the Lord Jesus Christ, turning the hearts of the fathers to the children and of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. Surely we have an instance of such simultaneous operations of the Divine Spirit, and that on the largest scale, in the cravings of the world after a Saviour at the age and time when our Lord came! Virgil was. then preaching in tones so Christian concerning the coming Saviour whom the world was expecting that the great Italian poet Dante exempts him from hell on account of his dim but real faith. The Wise Men were then seeking Christ from a far country; Caiaphas was prophesying concerning a man who was to die for Gods people. Mankind, all the world over, was unconsciously longing with a divinely inspired desire for that very salvation which God was then revealing; just as, upon the narrower stage of Damascus or Caesarea, Jesus Christ inspired Saul and Cornelius with a Divine want and prepared Ananias and Peter to satisfy it. John Keble in his poem for Easter Monday has well seized and illustrated this point, so full of comfort and edification, turning it into a practical direction for the life of the human spirit:-
"Even so the course of prayer who knows?
It springs in silence where it will;
Springs out of sight, and flows
At first a lonely rill."
Unheard by all but angel ears,
The good Cornelius knelt alone,
Nor dreamed his prayers and tears
Could help a world undone.
"The while upon his terraced roof,
The loved apostle to the Lord,
In silent thought aloof,
For heavenly vision soared."
"The saint beside the ocean prayed,
The soldier in his chosen bower,
Where all his eye surveyed
Seemed sacred in that hour."
"To each unknown his brothers prayer,
Yet brethren true in dearest love
Were they - and now they share
Fraternal joys above."
Ananias, guided by Divine Providence, enters into Sauls presence, states his mission, lays his hands upon him, and restores him to sight. Ananias is careful, however, to disclaim all merit, as far as he is himself concerned, in the matter of this miracle. His language is exactly the same in tone as that of the apostles Peter and John when they had healed the impotent man: "Why marvel ye at this man? or why fasten ye your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him to walk? By faith in His name hath His name made this man strong," were their words to the people. "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk," was their command to the man himself. And so in the case of Ananias, he attributes the healing power to Jesus Christ alone. "The Lord Jesus, who appeared unto thee" "hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy sight." The theology and faith of the Church at Damascus were exactly the same as those of the Apostles and Church at Jerusalem. And what a confirmation of Sauls own faith must this miracle have been! It was then no passing vision, no fancy of a heated imagination which he had experienced; but he had the actual proof in his own person of their objective reality, a demonstration that the power of Jesus of Nazareth ordered all things, both in heaven and earth, healing the bodily as it could illuminate the spiritual eye.
II. Ananias restored Sauls sight. According to the ninth of Acts his mission was limited to this one point; but, according to St. Pauls own account in the twenty-second chapter, he made a much longer communication to the future Apostle: "The God of our fathers hath appointed thee to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from His mouth. For thou shalt be a witness for Him unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptised, and wash away thy sins, calling on His name." Ananias predicted to Saul his future mission, his apostleship to all nations, and the fact that the Apostle of the Gentiles would find the root and sustenance of his work in the force of personal conviction with which his miraculous conversion had endowed him. Personal knowledge, individual acquaintance with the things of the eternal world, was then, as it is still, the first condition of successful work for Jesus Christ. There may be intellectual power, intense energy, transcendent eloquence, consummate ability; but in the spiritual order these things avail nothing till there be joined thereto that sense of heavenly force and reality which a personal knowledge of the things unseen imparts. Then heart answers to heart, and the great depths of mans nature respond and open themselves to the voice and teaching of one who speaks as St. Paul did of what "he had seen and heard."
There are two points in this address of Ananias as reported by St. Paul himself to which we would direct special attention. Ananias baptised Saul, and used very decided language on the subject, language from which some would now shrink. These two points embody important teaching. Ananias baptised Saul though Christ had personally called him. This shows the importance which the Holy Scriptures attach to baptism, and shows us something too of the nature of Holy Scripture itself. St. Luke wrote the Acts as a kind of continuation of his Gospel, to give an account to Theophilus of the rise and progress of Christianity down to his own time. St. Luke in doing so tells us of the institution of the Eucharist, but he does not say one word in his Gospel about the appointment of baptism. He does not record the baptismal commission, for which we must turn to Mat_28:19, or to Mar_16:16. Yet St. Luke is careful to report the baptism of the three thousand on the Day of Pentecost, of the Samaritans, of the eunuch, and now of St. Paul, as afterwards of Cornelius, of Lydia, of the Philippian jailor, and of the Ephesian followers of John the Baptist. He records the universality of Christian baptism, and thus proves its obligation; but he does not give us a hint of the origin of this sacrament, nor does he trace it back to any word or command of the Lord Jesus Christ. He evidently took all these things as quite well known and understood, and merely describes the observance of a sacrament which needed no explanation on his part. The writings of St. Luke were intended to instruct Theophilus in the facts concerning our Lords life and the labours of certain leading individuals among His earliest followers; but they make no pretence, nor do the other Gospels make any pretence, of being an exhaustive history of our Lords ministry or of the practice of the earliest Church; and their silence does not necessarily prove that much was not known and practised in the early Church about which they have no occasion to speak. The words of Ananias and the obedience of Saul show us the importance which the Holy Spirit attached to this sacrament of baptism. Here was a man to whom Christ Himself had personally appeared, whom Christ had personally called, and to whom He had made long-continued revelations of His will. Yet He instructed him by the mouth of Ananias to receive the sacrament of baptism. Surely if any man was ever exempted from submission to what some would esteem the outward ordinance, it was this penitent and privileged convert! But no: to him the words of Gods messenger are the same as to the humblest sinner, "Arise, and be baptised, and wash away thy sins." I have known of truly good men who showed their want of spiritual humility, or perhaps I should rather say of spiritual thought and reflection, in this direction. I have known of persons aroused from religious torpor and death by powerful though one-sided teaching. God has blessed such teaching to the awakening in them of the first elements of spiritual life, and then they have stopped short. They were called, as Saul was, in an unbaptised state. They had never previously received the sacrament of regeneration according to Christs appointment, and when Christ aroused them they thought this primal blessing quite sufficient, and judged it unnecessary to obey the full commands of Christ and be united by baptism to His Body the Church. They judged, in fact, that the blessing of conversion absorbed them from the sacrament of responsibility; but such was not the view of the primitive Church. The blessing of conversion as in St. Pauls case, the visible and audible descent of the Holy Ghost as in the case of Cornelius, hindered not the importance nor dispensed with the necessity of the sacrament of baptism, which was the door of admission to the Divine society and to a higher level in the Divine life than any hitherto attained. Persons who act as those misguided individuals of whom we have spoken stop short at the first principles of the doctrine of Christ, and they attain to none of its heights, they sound none of its depths, because they bend not their wills, and learn not the sweetness and the power involved in spiritual humiliation and in lowly self-denying obedience taught by the Master Himself when He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
The language, again, of Ananias about baptism sounds strange in some ears, and yet the experience of missionaries is a sufficient explanation of it. What is that language? "Arise, and be baptised, and wash away thy sins." These words sound startling to one accustomed to identify the washing away of sin with the exercise of faith, and yet there they stand, and no method of exegesis will avail to make them say anything else than this, that baptism was for Saul the washing away of sin, so that if he did not accept baptism his sins would not have been washed away. The experience, however, of those who labour in the mission field explains the whole difficulty. Baptism is the act of open confession and acknowledgment of Christ. St. Paul himself teaches the absolute importance of this confession: "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." {Rom_10:10} Pagan converts are even still abundantly found who are willing to accept the pure morality and the sublime teaching of Christianity, who are willing to believe and see in Jesus Christ the supreme revelation of God made to the human race, but who are not willing to incur loss and persecution and trial, for His sake by the reception of Christian baptism add a public confession of their faith. They may believe with the heart in the revelation of righteousness and may lead moral lives in consequence, but they are not willing to make public confession leading them into a state of salvation. They are, in fact, in the position of Saul of Tarsus as he prayed in the house of Judas, but they will go no farther. They will not act as he did, they will not take the decisive step, they will not arise and be baptised and wash away their sins, calling on the name of Jesus Christ. And if Saul of Tarsus had been like them. and had acted as they do, he might have received the vision and have been convinced of the truth of Jesus Christ and of His mission, but yet his moral cowardice would have spoilt the whole, and Saul would have remained in his sins, unpardoned, unaccepted, reprobate from Christ, because he remained unbaptised. Christianity, in fact, is a covenant, and forgiveness of sins is one of the blessings attached to this covenant. Until men perform its conditions and actually enter into the covenant the blessings of the covenant are not granted. Baptism is the door of entry into the covenant of grace, and till men humbly enter within the door they do not exercise true faith. They may believe intellectually in the truth and reality of Christianity, but, till they take the decisive step and obey Christs law, they do not possess that true faith of the heart which alone enables them, like Saul of Tarsus, to obey Christ and therefore enter into peace.
III. The next step taken by the Apostle is equally plainly stated: "Straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, that He is the Son of God." But, though the words of the Acts are plain enough, it is not so easy to reconcile them with St. Pauls own account, as given in the Epistle to the Galatians, {Gal_1:15-17} where he states, "When it was the good pleasure of God to reveal His Son in me, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood, but I went away into Arabia, and again I returned to Damascus." In the ninth chapter of the Acts we find the statement made that immediately after his baptism he preached Christ in the synagogues of Damascus, while in his own biographical narrative he tells us that immediately after his baptism he went away into Arabia. Is there any way in which we can reconcile them? We think so, and that a very simple one. Let us first reflect upon the story as told in the Acts. St. Luke is giving a rapid history, a survey of St. Pauls life of public activity. He is not telling the story of his inner spiritual experiences, his conflicts, temptations, trials, revelations, as St. Paul himself set them forth. He knew not of them, in fact. St. Luke knew merely the exterior public life of which man has cognisance. He knew nothing, or but little, of the interior life of the Apostle, known only to himself and to God. St. Luke therefore tells us of his early work at Damascus. St. Paul himself tells us of that early work, but also shows us how he was prepared for that work by his retirement into Arabia. Both agree in the main point, however, and place the scene of his earliest Christian efforts in the very spot, Damascus, which he had in his human prevision destined for himself as the field of his bitterest antagonism to the faith of the Crucified. This is an important point. St. Luke wrote his historical narrative twenty-five years or thereabouts after St. Pauls conversion. He may have often visited Damascus. Tradition makes Antioch, a town of the same district, his birthplace. St. Luke must have had abundant opportunities of consulting witnesses who could tell the story of those eventful days, and could describe St. Pauls earliest testimony to his new convictions. But these men only knew St. Paul as he appeared in public. They may have known very little of the inner history of his life as he reveals it in his Epistle to the Galatians when vindicating his apostolic authority and mission.
Let us now see whether we cannot harmonise St. Pauls autobiographical narrative in the Epistle with the Evangelists narrative in the Acts; always remembering, however, that an imperfect knowledge is never more completely felt than in such cases. When we try to harmonise an account written from the subjective side by one individual with an objective and exterior narrative written by some one else, we are like a man looking at a globe and trying to take it all in at one glance. One side must be hidden from him; and so in this case, many circumstances are necessarily concealed from us which would solve difficulties that now completely puzzle us. But let us to our task, in which we have derived much assistance from the commentary of Bishop Lightfoot upon Galatians. St. Paul, we are told in Act_9:19, received meat after the visit of Ananias and was strengthened. St. Paul was never one of those high-wrought fanatics who despise food and the care of the body. There was nothing of the Gnostic or the Manichean about him, leading him to despise and neglect the body which the Lord has given to be the souls instrument. He recognised under all circumstances that if the human spirit is to do its work, and if Gods glory is to be promoted, the human body must be sustained in force and vigour. When he was on board ship and in imminent peril of shipwreck and death, and men thought they should be at their prayers, thinking of the next world alone, he took bread and blessed and set the crew and passengers alike the healthy example of eating a hearty meal, and thus keeping his body in due preparation for whatever deliverances the Lord might work for them; and so, too, at Damascus, his spiritual joy and hallowed peace and deep gratitude for his restoration to sight did not prevent him paying due attention to the wants of his body. "He took food, and was strengthened." And now comes the first note of time. "Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. And straightway (ϵὐθέωϛ) he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God." The very same expression is used by St. Paul in Galatians, where, after speaking of his conversion, he says, "Immediately (ϵὐθέωϛ) I conferred not with flesh and blood, but went away into Arabia, and again returned unto Damascus." Now my explanation, and not mine alone, but that of Bishop Lightfoot, is this. After the new convert had rested for a short time at Damascus, he retired into the Sinaitic desert, where he remained for several months, perhaps for a whole year.
During this period he disappeared from the sight and knowledge of men as if the earth had opened its mouth and swallowed him. Then he returned to Damascus and preached with such power that the Jews formed a plot against his life, enlisting the help of the governor on their side, so that even the gates were watched that he might be arrested. He escaped their hands, however, through the assistance of his converts, and went up to Jerusalem.
But here another difficulty arises, The Acts tells us that "when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple," whereupon Barnabas, fulfilling his office of mediation, explanation, and consolation, took him and introduced him to the Apostles; while on the other hand in the first chapter of Galatians St. Paul himself speaks of his first visit to the Jerusalem Church thus: "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and tarried with him fifteen days. But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lords brother." Now the difficulty consists in this. First, how could the disciples at Jerusalem have been suspicious of St. Paul, if at least a year and a half had elapsed since his conversion? for the Jewish method of counting time would not require three whole years to have elapsed since that event. Secondly, how could Barnabas have brought him to the Apostles as the Acts states, if St. Paul himself says he saw none of them save Peter and James? As to the first difficulty, we acknowledge at once that it seems at first sight a very considerable one, and yet a little reflection will show that there are many explanations of it. If St. Paul kept quiet, as we believe he did, after his conversion and baptism, and departed into the solitudes of Arabia, and then upon his return to Damascus, perhaps after a years retirement, began his aggressive work, there may not have been time for the Church at large to get knowledge of the facts. Communication, again, may have been interrupted because of the contest between Herod and Aretas, in which Damascus played no small part. Communication may not have been possible between the two Churches. Then, again, the persecution raised by Saul himself seems to have practically extirpated the Jerusalem Church for a time. "They were all scattered abroad except the Apostles," is the account given of the Christian community at Jerusalem. The terror of that persecution may have lasted many a long month. Numbers of the original members may never have ventured back again to the Holy City. The Jerusalem Church may have been a new formation largely composed of new converts who never had heard of a wondrous circumstance which had happened a year or two before to the high priests delegate, which the Sanhedrin would doubtless desire to keep secret.
These and many other considerations offer themselves when we strive to throw ourselves back into the circumstances of the time and help to a solution of the first difficulty which we have indicated: Human life is such a complex thing that the strangest combinations may easily find place therein. In this particular case we are so ignorant of the facts, so many hypotheses offer themselves to account for the seeming inconsistencies, that we hesitate not to identify the visit to Jerusalem mentioned in the Acts with that recorded by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Galatians. The second difficulty to which we have alluded is this, How could Barnabas have brought him to the Apostles, if St. Paul himself states that he saw none of the Apostles save Peter and James the Lords brother? We must remember, however, that St. Luke and St. Paul wrote with two distinct objects. St. Paul, in the Galatians, wished to show the independence of his revelations as regards the Apostles of the circumcision, the Twelve technically so called. Of these Apostles he saw not one, save St. Peter. St. Luke is giving a broad external account of the new converts earliest religious history, and he tells us that on his first visit to the Holy City his conversion was acknowledged and guaranteed by the apostles, -not the Twelve merely, but the apostles, that is, the senior members of the Christian community, embracing not merely the original company chosen by Christ, but all the senior members of the Church, like Barnabas, James, and others who may have formed a supreme council to guide the affairs of the infant society. The word apostle, in fact, is used very variously in the New Testament; sometimes in a limited sense as confined to the Twelve, sometimes in a wider and more general sense, embracing men like Barnabas, as in Act_14:4; Act_14:14; St. James, the Lords brother, as in 1Co_15:7; Andronicus and Junias, as in Rom_16:7, and many others. It is quite possible, then, that Barnabas may have brought Saul to the Apostolic council, and told there the tale of his conversion, though not one of the original Twelve was present save St. Peter.
We have now endeavoured to explain some of the difficulties which a comparison of St. Pauls own auto-biographical narrative with the Acts discloses. Let us look again at the retirement into Arabia. This retirement seems to us full of instruction and pregnant with meaning for the hidden as well as the practical life of the soul. St. Paul, as soon as he was baptised, retired into Arabia; and why, it may be asked, did he retire thither? Some of the ancient expositors, as St. Chrysostom and St. Jerome, both of whom wrote about the same period, A.D. 400, thought that St. Paul retired into Arabia in order that he might preach to the Arabians. St. Chrysostom, for instance, comments thus: "See how fervent was his soul, he was eager to occupy lands yet untilled. He forthwith attacked a barbarous and savage people, choosing a life of conflict and of much toil." And the explanations of Hilary, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and OEcumenius, all of them ancient and acute expositors, are of exactly the same character. Now this would have been a reversal of the Divine order in one important aspect. The power of the keys, the office of opening the kingdom of heaven to the Gentiles, had been committed to St. Peter by Jesus Christ. He had not as yet baptised Cornelius, and thus formally opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. If St. Paul had preached to the Arabians, he would have usurped St. Peters place and function. We believe, on the other hand, that God led the converted persecutor into the deserts of Arabia for very different purposes. Let us note a few of them.
The Lord led Saul there for the purpose of quiet and retirement. The great commentators and expositors of the early Church, as we have already noted, used to call St. Paul by the special title of "Vas Electionis," the chosen vessel par excellence, chosen because surpassing in his gifts and graces and achievements all the other Apostles. Now it was with the "Vas Electionis" in the New Testament as with many of his types in the Old Testament. When God would prepare Moses for his lifes work in shepherding, ruling, and guiding His people through the deserts of Arabia, He first called him for many a long day into retirement to the Mount of Horeb and the solitudes of the Sinaitic desert. When God would strengthen and console the spirit depressed, wounded, and severely smitten, of his servant Elijah, He brought him to the same mysterious spot, and there restored his moral and spiritual tone, and equipped him with new strength for his warfare by the visions of the Almighty lovingly vouchsafed to him. The Founder or Former of the Jewish Dispensation and the Reformer of the same Dispensation were prepared and sustained for their work amid the Solitudes of the Arabian deserts; and what more fitting place in which the "Vas Electionis," the chosen vessel of the New Dispensation, should be trained? What more suitable locality where the Lord Jesus should make those fuller and completer revelations of Christian doctrine and mystery which his soul needed, than there where lightning-blasted cliff and towering mountains all alike spoke of God and of His dealings with mankind in the mysterious ages of a long-departed past? The Lord thus taught St. Paul, and through him teaches the Church of every age, the need of seasons of retirement and communion with God preparatory to and in close connection with any great work or scene of external activity, such as St. Paul was now entering upon. It is a lesson much needed by this age of ours when men are tempted to think so much of practical work which appears at once in evidence, making its presence felt in tangible results, and so very little of devotional work and spiritual retirement which cannot be estimated by any earthly standard or tabulated according to our modern methods. Men are now inclined to think laborare est orare, and that active external work faithfully and vigorously rendered can take the place and supply the want of prayer and thought, of quiet study and devout meditation. Against such a tendency the Lords dealings with St. Paul, yea more, the Divine dealings with and leadings of the eternal Son Himself, form a loud and speaking protest. The world was perishing and men were going down to the grave in darkness and Satan and sin were triumphing, and yet Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days, and Saul was brought out into the deserts of Arabia from amid the teeming crowds of Damascus that he might learn those secrets of the Divine life which are best communicated to those who wait upon God in patient prayer and holy retirement. This is a lesson very necessary for this hot and fitful and feverish age of ours, when men are in such a hurry to have everything set right and every abuse destroyed all at once. Their haste is not after the Divine model, and their work cannot expect the stability and solidity we find in Gods. The nineteenth-century extreme is reproved by St. Pauls retirement into Arabia. Man is, however, such a creature that if he avoids one extreme he generally tumbles into another. And so it is in this matter. Men have been ready to push this matter of retirement into an extreme, and have considered that they were following St. Pauls example in retiring into Arabian and similar deserts and remaining there. But they have made a great mistake. St. Paul retired into Arabia for a while, and then "returned again unto Damascus." They have retired into the deserts and have remained there engaged in the one selfish task of saving their own souls, as they thought, by the exercises of prayer and meditation, apart from that life of active good works for the sake of others which constitutes another department of Christianity equally vital to the health of the soul.
The history of Eastern monasticism is marked from its earliest days by an eager desire to follow St. Paul in his retirement into Arabia, and an equal disinclination to return with him unto Damascus. And this characteristic, this intense devotion to a life of solitude, strangely enough passed over to our own Western islands and is a dominant feature of the monasticism which prevailed in Great Britain and Ireland in the days of Celtic Christianity. The Syrian and Egyptian monks passed over to Lerins and Southern Gaul, whence their disciples came to England and Ireland, where they established themselves, bringing with them all their Eastern love of solitary deserts. This taste they perpetuated, as may be seen especially, on the western coast of Ireland, where the ruins of extensive monastic settlements still exist, testifying to this craving. The last islands, for instance, which a traveller sees as he steams away from Cork to America, are called the Skelligs. They are ten miles west of the Kerry coast, and yet there on these rocks where a boat cannot land sometimes for months together the early monks of the fifth and sixth centuries established themselves as in a desert in the ocean. The topography of Ireland is full of evidences and witnesses of this desire to imitate the Apostle of the Gentiles in his Arabian retirement. There are dozens of town lands-subdivisions of the. parishes-which are called deserts or diserts, because they constituted solitudes set apart for hermit life after the example of St. Paul in Arabia and John the Baptist in the deserts of Judaea. While, again, when we turn northwards along the western seaboard of Ireland, we shall find numerous islands like the Skelligs, Ardoilen or the High Island, off the coast of Connemara, and Innismurry off the Sligo coast, where hermit cells in the regular Egyptian and Syrian fashion were built, and still exist as they did a thousand years ago, testifying to the longing of the human mind for such complete solitude and close communion with God as Saul enjoyed when he departed from Damascus. The monks of ancient times may have run into one extreme: well would it be for us if we could avoid the other, and learn to cultivate self-communion, meditation, self-examination, and that realisation of the eternal world which God grants to those who wait upon Him apart from the bustle and din and dust of earth, which clog the spiritual senses and dim the heavenly vision.
We can see many other reasons why Paul was led into Arabia. He was led there, for instance, that he might make a thorough scrutiny of his motives. Silence, separation, solitude, have a wondrous tendency to make a man honest with himself and humbly honest before his God. Saul might have been a hypocrite or a formalist elsewhere, where human eyes and jealous glances were bent upon him, but scarcely when there alone with Jehovah in the desert. Again, Saul was led there that his soul might be ennobled and enlarged by the power of magnificent scenery, of high and hallowed associations. Mountain and cliff and flood, specially those which have been magnified and made honourable by grand memories such as must have crowded upon Sauls mind, have a marvellous effect, enlarging, widening, developing, upon a soul like Sauls, long cribbed, cabined, and confined within the rigorous bonds of Pharisaic religionism. Saul, too, was led up into those mysterious regions away from the busy life and work, the pressing calls of Damascus, that he might speak a word in season to all, and especially to those young in the Christian life, who think in the first burst of their zeal and faith as if they had nothing to do but go in and possess the whole land. Saul did not set out at once to evangelise the masses of Damascus, or to waste the first weak beginnings of his spiritual life in striving to benefit or awaken others. He was first led away into the deserts of Arabia, in order that there he might learn of the deep things of God and of the weak things of his own nature, and then, when God had developed his spiritual strength, He led him back to Damascus that he might testify out of the fulness of a heart which knew the secrets of the Most High. The teaching of Sauls example speaks loudly to us all. It was the same with Saul as with a greater than he. The Eternal Son Himself was trained amid years and years of darkness and secrecy, and even after His baptism the day of His manifestation unto Israel was delayed yet a little. Jesus Christ was no novice when He came preaching. And Saul of Tarsus was no novice in the Christian life when he appeared as the Christian advocate in the synagogue of Damascus. Well would it have been for many a soul had this Divine example been more closely copied. Again and again have the young and ignorant and inexperienced been encouraged to stand up as public teachers immediately after they have been seriously impressed. They have yielded to the unwise solicitation. The vanity of the human heart has seconded the foolish advice given to them, and they have tried to declare the deep things of God when as yet they have need of learning the very first principles of the doctrine of Christ. Is it any wonder that such persons oftentimes make shipwreck of faith and a sound conscience? Truth is very large and wide and spacious, and requires much time and thought if it is to be assimilated; and even when truth is grasped in all its mighty fulness, then there are spiritual enemies within and without and spiritual pitfalls to be avoided which can be known only by experience. Woe is then to that man who is not assisted by grace and guided by Divine experience, and who knows not God and the powers of the world to come, and the devious paths of his own heart, as these things can only be known and learned as Saul of Tarsus knew and learned them in the deserts of Arabia. There was marvellous wisdom contained in the brief apostolic law enacted for candidates for holy orders in words gathered from St. Pauls own personal history, "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29 20. Straightway. Following this he began to preach Christ…
20. Straightway. Following this he began to preach Christ in the synagogues. Jesus in the Revision. He preached that the Crucified Jesus is the Son of God.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v26 Act_9:27. Barnabas (Act_4:36) appears here as the patron of…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_9:27. Barnabas (Act_4:36) appears here as the patron of Saul, whom he takes by the hand (not literally, but metaphorically), and introduces to the apostles.
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Act_9:28-29, should read: And he was with them going in and going out—i.e., publicly and privately,—at Jerusalem preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. Saul stayed in Jerusalem not more than fifteen days (Gal_1:18).
Act_9:29. Grecians, or Greek-speaking Jews.—These were addressed by Saul probably because he himself was a foreign Jew, or because they may have been present in large numbers in the metropolis attending a feast, but chiefly (might it not be?) because they belonged to the synagogues or synagogue which murdered Stephen (Act_6:9). They went about to kill him—Compare Act_22:17-21, in which the motive for his withdrawing from Jerusalem is represented not as the murderous designs of the Jews, but a vision in the temple. But the two accounts are by no means inconsistent.
Act_9:30. Cæsarea.—See on Act_8:40. Tarsus.—Upon the monuments of Shalmanezer II., about the middle of the ninth century B.C., Tarzi (Schrader). The capital of Cilicia (Act_21:39). Founded, according to tradition, by Sennacherib (705–681 B.C.). After the fall of the Assyrian empire it became, under Persian supremacy, the seat of the Syennesian princes of Cilicia. In Alexander’s time it was the residence of a Persian satrap, and in that of the Diadochi, an important place of the Seleucidæ. Under the old Cæsars Cilicia was conjoined with Syria; but Hadrian restored it to the dignity of an independent province with Tarsus as its chief town. In the time of Saul Tarsus was the seat of one of the most celebrated schools of philosophy and philology. “Strabo, a contemporary of Saul’s, names a whole series of famous teachers out of Tarsus, who all belonged to the first half of the first Christian century, and says: ‘So great zeal for philosophy, and for the circle of all other sciences, have the inhabitants of this town that they have surpassed even Athens and Alexandria, and, indeed, every other place where schools of philosophy and learning exist’ ” (Langhans, Biblische Geschichte und Literatur, ii. 704).
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_9:26-30
Saul’s First Visit to Jerusalem; or, his Discipleship confirmed
I. Saul’s object in visiting Jerusalem (Act_9:26).—
1. To associate himself with the disciples there, and thus obtain recognition of his standing as a member of the Church. The instinct which impels a disciple to seek after the communion of saints is healthy as well as right; that which leads a believer to dissociate himself from other believers, and to cultivate piety apart, is as unsound as it is wrong, and as hurtful to the individual himself as it is contrary to the mind of Christ (Luk_22:32) and the teaching of Christ’s apostles (Col_3:16; Heb_10:25; Jas_5:16; 1Jn_1:7).
2. To make the acquaintance of Peter (Gal_1:18). Though implying a recognition of Peter’s tacitly allowed supremacy in the Church at Jerusalem, this cannot be cited as an acknowledgment of his primacy, since on a second visit fourteen years later (Gal_2:1) Saul (then called Paul) recognises James (the Lord’s brother), Cephas, and John equally with Peter as pillars in the Church (Gal_2:9).
II. Saul’s reception by the disciples at Jerusalem.—
1. His sincerity was suspected. Not by one or two of the more timid of the community, but by all. Not by the ordinary membership, but by its leaders, or at least by Peter and James, since the rest of the apostles appear to have at this time been absent from Jerusalem (Gal_1:19). Nor was their suspicion of him unreasonable. His conversion, of which they had doubtless heard, must have seemed to them beforehand unlikely. Then its miraculous and sudden character must have struck them at least as a reason for caution in accepting it as genuine. And if the larger portion of the three years passed since that occurrence had been spent in retirement in Arabia, their lack of trustworthy information about his manner of life in the interval must be held as having justified their want of forwardness in taking him to their bosoms. “The sudden appearance of Voltaire in a circle of Christians, claiming to be one of them, would have been something like this return of Saul to Jerusalem as a professed disciple” (Hackett).
2. His conversion was attested.
(1) To whom? To the apostles, or rather to Peter and James, the latter of whom Luke includes among the apostles, using the term in a less strict way than that in which it is commonly employed. Either, as above suggested, the other apostles were absent from Jerusalem, or Saul attended no public meeting of the disciples.
(2) By Whom? Barnabas, the Levite of Cyprus, who may have been a former acquaintance of Saul’s—a not unlikely supposition, since Saul’s early occupation as a tent-maker may have brought him into trade relations with the Cyprus farmer, and who apparently had personal knowledge obtained in some way not stated, both of Saul’s conversion and of his evangelistic labours at Damascus.
(3) How? By declaring how Christ had appeared to him in the way to Damascus, and by certifying that he had preached boldly in Christ’s name at Damascus. No one in Jerusalem could have spoken a more powerful word for Saul than the Brother of Consolation, and none could have spoken a better word than that uttered by him.
III. Saul’s evangelistic activity in Jerusalem.—
1. The nature of it.
(1) Preaching boldly—not defiantly or vehemently, but confidently and courageously—in the name of the Lord Jesus; and all who preach in or about Christ’s name should, and might, exhibit the same mental and spiritual characteristics.
(2) Disputing against the Grecian Jews, the party with whom Stephen had argued, and at whose hands he met his death (Act_6:9-12), and who were probably most zealous in opposing him.
2. The continuance of it. Only fifteen days (Gal_1:18), the exercise of his ministry having been—not abandoned for want of success or forsaken through weariness, or love of novelty, but—cut short by the murderous designs of his hearers. Whether these listened to him longer than they did to Stephen cannot be told.
IV. Saul’s precipitate flight from Jerusalem.—
1. Dictated by prudence. “A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself” (Pro_22:3). No man is required to make a martyr of himself even for religion, unless he cannot avoid doing so without sin.
2. Approved by Christ. This must be inferred from Christ’s own dictum (Mat_10:23). What applied to the Twelve held good of the thirteenth apostle.
3. Assisted by his friends. His brethren in the faith, realising how valuable a coadjutor had been sent them, “took steps” to have him conveyed to Cæsarea (see on Act_8:40 “Critical Remarks”), and sent forth to Tarsus, his native city (see “Critical Remarks”).
4. Rejoiced in by the whole Church of Christ since. What would the Church not have lost had Saul been cut off in the beginning of his glorious career? A heavier blow to Christianity would his fall then have been than his conversion was to Judaism!
Learn.—
1. That sudden and more especially violent conversions are always more or less open to suspicion.
2. That there are times when the services of a Christian brother are invaluable.
3. That the soundest evidence of sincerity in religion is patient and courageous perseverance in well doing.
4. That Christianity can hold the field against all opponents.
5. That Christ’s servants can hardly expect to be better treated than their Master.
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_9:8-23. The Progress of Saul’s Conversion.
I. The first impression.—The deep feeling of spiritual inability (Act_9:8).
II. The first signs of life.—“Behold he prayeth” (Act_9:11).
III. The first testimony.—That Christ is the Son of God (Act_9:20).
IV. The first experience.—The cross for the sake of Christ (Act_9:23).—Jasper in Lange.
Act_9:27. What the Name of Jesus is to a Preacher.
I. His theme.
II. His authority.
III. His power.
IV. His aim.
V. His protection.
VI. His reward.
Act_9:29. “They went about to slay him.”—What the Church and the world would have lost had this plot succeeded.
I. The Church would have lost—
1. The brightest example of Christianity.
2. The greatest missionary.
3. The most eloquent preacher. And—
4. The most influential writer that has ever appeared within her borders.
II. The world would have lost—
1. Its foremost pioneer of civilisation.
2. Its noblest philanthropist.
3. Its most gifted teacher.
4. Its most influential personality.
Act_9:20-30. The Marks of True Conversion.
I. Joyful confession of Christ (Act_9:20).
II. Willing endurance of the world’s enmity (Act_9:23).
III. Humble intercourse with believers (Act_9:26).
IV. Godly conduct in the service of the Lord (Act_9:28)—Leonhard and Spiegel in Lange).
Act_9:26-30. The Qualifications, Work, and Reward of a True Minister, as exemplified in the case of Paul.
I. His qualifications.—Declared not by Paul himself, but by Barnabas.
1. A personal interview with Christ. Paul had seen the Lord in the way; and the man who has not had personal dealings in his own soul with Jesus Christ may be an eloquent and even thoughtful lecturer on religion as he understands it, but is not a true minister.
2. A direct message from Christ. Christ had spoken to Paul, and therefore Paul had somewhat to communicate to the world. The true business of the preacher is to communicate not his own but Christ’s thoughts to his fellow-men.
3. A proved fitness to speak for Christ. Paul had shown himself to possess this by his experiment at Damascus; and Christian Churches are specially cautioned against making those bishops, presbyters, or preachers who are not “apt to teach” (1Ti_3:2).
II. His work.—
1. Generally and chiefly to preach, to proclaim the main facts and doctrines of the Gospel of Christ.
2. Particularly and specially to confirm and defend the Gospel against all objectors and objections. In other words, he should be both an evangelist and an apologist.
III. His reward.—Not his ultimate and final, but his present and immediate recompense.
1. The opposition of the world. Here typified by the hostility of the Jews, who first attempted to silence and then to murder Paul.
2. The sympathy of his brethren. If at first regarded with suspicion, the true minister will eventually secure the kindly regards and hearty co-operation first of the Barnabases and then of the Peters, and lastly, of the Johns and Jameses, etc., among the brethren.
3. The protection of God. The Almighty arm will be his shield and buckler till his work is done. No weapon forged against him will prosper. The devices of his enemies will be outwitted and their counsels turned to folly.
Act_9:19-30. Saul Preaching Christ.
I. For this work he had long preparation.—Were the Book of Acts our only source of information, we should conclude that the beginning of Paul’s work as a preacher followed close upon the end of his career as a persecutor. The interval between his persecuting and his preaching would seem to have been only the three days of his blindness at Damascus. We should then be obliged to explain, as best we might, how he so suddenly gained his wonderful insight into Christian truth in its relations to Judaism. We should have to seek, and should seek in vain, a reasonable explanation of the great revolution in his moral sentiments. The work of the Spirit in regeneration may be instantaneous, but the readjustments of character and convictions are always slow and progressive. Happily, we have another resource. In the Epistle to the Galatians Paul wrote: “But when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood … but I went into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.” His preaching was preceded, we may believe, by three years of study and reflection in the solitude of Arabia. St. Paul is not, therefore, to be cited as an instance of a man one day ignorant of Christian truth, and the next day, by means entirely supernatural, the wisest exponent of it. The world, in its love of the wonderful, is too ready to believe in such men. His knowledge of Christ and of Christian truth was in part a revelation, but in part also the result of patient thought and of piety prolonged through studious years. God never works needless miracles. Every view of Christian truth and duty which Paul attained had a long history behind it, stretching back through those years of meditation in Arabia.
II. His conviction that Jesus is the Son of God was reached in the face of the greatest obstacles.—As a Pharisee burning with zeal for the law and its traditions, he looked upon Christ as a dangerous innovator, and upon Christian doctrine as heretical and revolutionary. Salvation by the law-method he advocated with all his heart. That there was any other righteousness than obedience to a ceremonial law he did not for a moment imagine or allow. The sincerity of his intensely religious nature made it the more improbable that his convictions would ever be changed. The sect of the Nazarenes was unnoticed or despised. To him, as to them, the cross was a stumbling-block. No natural bias in favour of Christian truth, then, no motive of self-interest, no social influence, drew him into the number of Christ’s disciples. No greater or more improbable change in character and purpose is conceivable than that by which Saul the inquisitor, hurrying men and women to prison and persecuting to the death believers in the Christian way, became the apostle of the cross, “determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” How, then, were these obstacles removed? His own explanation always was, “Christ was seen by me also.… It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.” In this glorious revelation lay the power which revolutionised his moral sentiments, levelled all obstacles, and brought him to an undying faith in the crucified and risen Son of God.
III. The value of Paul’s testimony that Jesus is the son of God is further enhanced by the motive which prompted him to give it.—Human testimony is to be measured by the motive to its utterance. And it might be said that he was an impostor, bearing witness to a lie, and setting up claims which he knew to be false. But, whenever men have reflected that imposture always reacts upon him who tries it, that false claims demoralise him who makes them, and have seen in St. Paul’s life, not a spiritual declension, but a steady progress in holiness, they have been both unable and unwilling to call him an impostor. Besides, the motive to imposture is wanting. Review the list of selfish motives which impel men to make false claims, and not one of them can be applied to him. It was not pride of intellect; for, with supreme self-denial, Paul resolved to count as nothing all other learning than the knowledge of Christ and of His cross. The love of Christ constrained Him. This was the motive. The grateful desire to make some return for Christ’s love to him impelled Paul to labour, to preach, to suffer, “in His name.”
IV. The spiritual power of St. Paul’s life greatly augments the value of his testimony.—Never was there a more powerful life. Or, if we were to admit that St. Paul’s power rested in his natural gifts; if we were to enumerate the elements of a strong character—sobriety, sagacity, impartial judgment, courage, hopefulness, and whatever things enter into a powerful personality—and were to find in these a sufficient cause for his pre-eminence as a religious leader—we might then attach no greater value to his testimony than to that of any other wise and truthful man. But the fact is otherwise. Exalt his natural gifts as we will; say that his own personal powers made him “a greater preacher than Chrysostom, a greater reformer than Luther, a greater theologian than Thomas Aquinas”—it yet remains entirely true that the imperishable power of St. Paul’s life was derived from Christ. He was consciously dependent. “I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.”
V. His testimony is comprehensive.—“In the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, that He is the Son of God.” A review of the ministry of St. Paul is fruitful of practical lessons.
1. He has set before us the superiority of the Christian religion to morality.
2. He has shown us that men may exalt the character of Christ.
3. His ministry rebukes all half-hearted service of the Master.—Monday Club Sermons.
Saul Preaching Christ.
I. There is a public confession of Christ, an unofficial preaching of Him, incumbent upon every one who is converted by His grace.—Saul is a noble example of this generous testimony for Christ. “Immediately” (R.V.) “he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues that He is the Son of God.” Notice in reference to this confession—First, it was prompt. “Immediately” he entered upon it. There was no unnecessary hesitation, no dalliance with duty, no waiting upon frames and feelings. Love, gratitude, joy, a desire to retrieve the wrongs of the past, a yearning to direct others to the fountain at which his thirst had been assuaged. Second, it was brave. He did not simply enter his name upon the roll of the disciples. He did not content himself with speaking privately to such of his former acquaintances or associates as he might chance to meet. In the face of friend and foe he made public confession of Jesus his Lord. Third, it was uncompromising. He did not undertake to strike a balance between his own convictions and the prejudices of his hearers, as so many faint-hearted confessors now do. He “proclaimed Jesus that He is the Son of God.”
II. A higher and official preaching of Christ is incumbent upon those, and those only, who are duly called, qualified, and commissioned to enter upon it.—This is the preaching which Saul did after his return from Arabia to Damascus. A study of his course in reference to it throws much light upon the prerequisites to the gospel ministry.
1. It must be preceded by a Divine call. None may enter upon it without such vocation. The call of Saul of Tarsus was in many respects extraordinary.
2. It must be preceded by thorough preparation.
3. It must be preceded by orderly commission. Saul was commissioned of God to preach.
III. The matter, the manner, and the effects of preaching Christ are the same in all ages.—They are strikingly illustrated in the passage which we study to-day.
1. The matter or substance of all gospel preaching is the same. Saul sounds here the key-note of his whole after-ministry.
2. The manner of all true gospel preaching is the same. Saul’s ministry at Damascus and in Jerusalem affords, in these respects, a faithful representation of his methods everywhere, and an instructive example of the manner in which the minister or teacher should hold forth Christ as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. Saul’s preaching was scriptural. He confounded the Jews by proving from the Old-Testament Scriptures that Jesus was Christ. Saul’s preaching was fearless. He preached “boldly” both in Damascus and in Jerusalem. He did not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. Saul’s preaching was humble. He “preached in the name of the Lord Jesus.” He assumed no authority and asserted no superiority of his own.
3. The effects of all gospel preaching are the same. The Apostle found in Damascus and at Jerusalem what he did everywhere else: “To the one we are the savour of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto life.” Finally, the fruits of faithful teaching are gathered after the teacher is gone. Saul has been “brought down to Cæsarea, and sent away to Tarsus,” but the Church of God remains; and this Church, for which he has laboured and prayed, and which sorely misses him now that he has gone, nevertheless “has peace, being edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, is multiplied.”—T. D. Witherspoon, D.D.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv20, 23, 26, 29 20-25. (Gal 1:15-22 and Romans 7.) Saul had long…
PAUL’S SANCTIFICATION
20-25. (Gal 1:15-22 and Romans 7.) Saul had long been a preacher of no ordinary ability. Hence he was a fluent orator when thus powerfully converted under the impetus of a spiritual Niagara. He preached Jesus boldly in Damascus, to the unutterable surprise of all who had trembled with awe at the mention of his name. Luke’s scanning history is here elliptical, involving the conclusion of an inward conflict, accompanied by divine leadership off to Arabia, where God taught Moses forty years and sanctified him at the burning bush. John the Baptist was also taught in God’s theological school, i. e., the desert of Judea, preparatory for his wonderful ministry. So Saul must spend three years amid the wild beasts and Bedouins of the Arabian desert. Gal 1:16 :
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“When God was pleased to reveal his Son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood, but went away into Arabia.”
This is included in Luke’s narrative (Act 9:22), “And Saul continued to be more and more fi]led up with dynamite.” This is his Arabian experience of sanctification, testified in Rom 7:25, the preceding chapter describing his conflict with inbred sin, while in the justified state. On the Damascus Road the Holy Ghost revealed to him the Son of God, shining on him from without. In Arabia (Gal 1:15), He revealed to him Jesus within sitting on the throne of his heart. It is our privilege all to have Pauline experiences, in which Jesus first appears to us, shining on us from without in regeneration. Then it is our privilege to receive the Holy Ghost, our sanctification, who in that case always enthrones Jesus in the heart and gives you the blessed consciousness that Jesus henceforth sits on the throne of your heart, making your life a cloudless sunshine and lighting up your entire being with the glory of His presence. Be sure your experience is Pauline; first Jesus appearing to you and shining on you, and then revealed in you, sitting on the throne of your heart. Saul did not dare to go up to Jerusalem, appear before the apostles and claim his apostleship, to which Jesus called him when He met him, without receiving in addition to his conversion in the house of Judas a clear Pentecostal sanctification, thus rendering him experimentally homogeneous with the other apostles. Act 9:9: “And he mightily confounded the Jews, proving that He is the Christ.” This was after he returned from Arabia. He is now a cyclone of fire and logic irresistible.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv20–29 19-22. No sooner had Saul obeyed the gospel and…
19-22. No sooner had Saul obeyed the gospel and obtained pardon, then he began to devote all his energies to building up what he had sought to destroy. (19) " Then Saul was some days with the disciples in Damascus, (20) and immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that this is the Son of God. (21) And all who heard him were astonished, and said, Is not this he who destroyed those in Jerusalem who called upon this name, and came hither for this purpose, that he might take them bound to the high priests? (22) But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus, proving that this is the Christ. " The one great gospel proposition, that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God, the belief of which had wrought in him all the wondrous change on the road to Damascus is now his constant theme. The synagogues being for a time open to him, and the curiosity of the people intensely exited, in reference to his change of conduct, it is probable that he had more ready access to the unbelieving Jews in Damascus than had been enjoyed by those who preceded him. Whatever opponents he encountered, were "confounded" by the proofs he presented.
In addition to proofs employed by the other apostles and teachers, Saul stood up in the synagogues as a new and independent witness of the resurrection, and glorification of Jesus. He had seen him alive, and arrayed in divine glory. He had conversed with him face to face. If any man doubted the truth of his statements in reference to the vision, his traveling companions, who saw the same light, and heard the same voice, could testify with him. If any man, still incredulous, ventured the supposition that all of them were deceived by an optical illusion, or by some human trickster, the actual blindness which remained after the vision had passed away, and was witnessed by both believers and unbelievers, proved, indisputably, that it was a reality. No illusion or deception could have produced this effect. If it were suspected that Saul and his companions had made up the story, in order to deceive, the suspicion was silenced by the fact that the blindness was real, and could not be feigned. Whether, therefore, they regarded him as honest and dishonest, such was the combination of facts that they could not find an excuse for doubting his testimony. No wonder that he " confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus."
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Such was the force of Saul's testimony, as it was addressed to his cotemporaries in Damascus. To others, not eye-witnesses of his career, and to men of subsequent generations, it stands thus: If the vision which he claimed to have witnessed was a reality, then Jesus is the Christ, and his religion is divine. But if it was not a reality, then Saul was deceived, or was himself a deceiver. His blindness precludes the supposition that he could have been deceived. Was he, then, a deceiver? His whole subsequent career declares that he was not. All the motives, in reference to both time and eternity, which can prompt men to deception, were arrayed against the course he was pursuing. His reputation among men, his hopes of wealth and power, his love of friendship, and his personal safety, all demanded that he should adhere to his former religious position. In making the change, he sacrificed them all, and, if he was practicing deception, he exposed himself, also, to whatever punishment he might suppose the wicked to incur in eternity. It is possible to believe that a man might, through miscalculation as to the immediate results, begin to practice a deception which would involve such consequences; but it is entirely incredible that he should continue to do after his mistake was discovered, and persist in it through a long life of unparalleled sufferings. It is incredible, therefore, that Saul was a deceiver. And, as he was neither deceived himself, nor a deceiver of others, his vision must have been a reality, and Jesus is the Christ.
There is no way to evade the force of this argument, except by denying Luke's account of Saul's career, after his supposed conversion. But this would be to deny to Luke even the ordinary credibility attached to ancient history; for the argument depends not upon miracles, but upon the ordinary events of Saul's life, which are in themselves most credible. Supposing this much to be granted, as a basis for the argument (and it is granted by all who are acquainted with history,) the proof of the Messiahship of Jesus from the conversion of Saul is perfectly conclusive.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv20, 22, 26, 29 that he is the Son of God
that he is the Son of God
Cf. Act 2:36. Peter, while maintaining the deity of Jesus--"God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ"--gives especial prominence to His Messiahship. Paul, fresh from the vision of the glory, puts the emphasis on His Deity. Peter’s charge was that the Jews had crucified the Son of David Act 2:25-30 Paul’s that they had crucified the Lord of glory 1Co 2:8. In the A.V. the sense is largely lost. The point was, not that the Christ was God, a truth plainly taught by Isaiah.; Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6; Isa 9:7 but that Jesus, the crucified Nazarene, was the Christ and therefore God the Son.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv20, 23, 26 Saul preaches Christ:
Saul preaches Christ:
v. 20. And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that He is the Son of God.
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v. 21. But all that heard him were amazed and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?
v. 22. But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.
Saul had, by the Word of the Lord through Ananias and probably also by direct command of God, received his commission as preacher and missionary. And he lost no time in entering upon his duties. Quickly, as soon as possible, he preached in the synagogues, heralding the message, proclaiming Jesus that He is the Son of God. He proved to the assembled Jews that the same Jesus that had been put to death by them could be none else than the promised Messiah, the very Son of God, concerning whom Psa 2:7 spoke. That is the great message of the New Testament, the sum and substance of all preaching of the person and office of the Savior. The result was that all those that heard Saul speak were stupefied with astonishment, which they voiced in the excited inquiry: Is not this the man that destroyed, laid waste, in Jerusalem those that called upon this name, and has come here for the purpose of leading them bound to the high priests? The mission of Saul had become known among the Jews, probably through his companions or by message from Jerusalem, and his former hatred had been a matter of general knowledge. His complete change, therefore, was altogether inexplicable to his former companions. Meanwhile Saul was growing in spiritual and religious strength day by day, in his understanding of Scriptures and of their great central theme, and in his power to apply the import of the wonderful news to the situation before him. Whenever he had the opportunity, he argued his inexhaustible topic and confounded the Jews, literally, poured them together, mired them up, making it impossible for them to stand up before his mighty exposition and demonstration that this man Jesus is the Christ. This truth he proved by demonstrating the agreement between the Messianic predictions and the historical facts in the life of Jesus, and he testified to it from the soundness and firmness of his conviction. The power of the Holy Spirit in his message, added to his confidence and joyfulness, could not fail to make a deep impression, even as it does to this day.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20, 23, 26, 28 General Information:
General Information:
Here only the second "he" refers to Jesus, the Son of God. The first "he" and the other ones refer to Saul.
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Son of God
This is an important title for Jesus. (See: Translating Son and Father)
All who heard him
The word "All" is a generalization. AT: "Those who heard him" or "Many who heard him" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
Is not this the man who destroyed those in Jerusalem who called on this name?
This is a rhetorical and negative question that emphasizes that Saul was indeed the man who had persecuted the believers. AT: "This is the man who destroyed those in Jerusalem who called on this name Jesus!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
this name
Here "name" refers to Jesus. AT: "the name of Jesus" (See: Metonymy)
causing distress among the Jews
They were distressed in the sense that they could not find a way to refute Saul's arguments that Jesus was the Christ.
translationWords
preach
Jesus
synagogue
Son of God
amazed
Jerusalem
call
chief priests
power
Jew
Christ
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20, 22, 26, 29 9:20-21 immediately he began preaching about Jesus: The genuineness…
9:20-21 immediately he began preaching about Jesus: The genuineness of Saul’s encounter with the risen Christ is attested by the enthusiasm and boldness of his preaching. Saul’s outspoken declaration provoked astonishment, for he was the very man who had created such devastation among Jesus’ followers in Jerusalem.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.