Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 9:5

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: [it is] hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

5. And he said, Who art thou, Lord? ] Saul is sensible of the Divine nature of the vision, and shews this by his address. The appearance of Christ, though in a glorified body, must have been like that which He wore in His humanity, and since Saul does not recognize Jesus, we may almost certainly conclude that he had not known Him during His ministerial life.

And the Lord said ] The best texts have only “And he,” the verb “said” being understood.

I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ] In Act 22:8 St Paul gives the fuller form of the sentence, “I am Jesus of Nazareth.” By using this name, the being whose Divine nature Saul has already acknowledged by calling him “Lord,” at once and for ever puts an end to Saul’s persecuting rage, for he is made to see, what his master Gamaliel had before suggested (Act 5:39), that to persecute Jesus was to “fight against God.”

it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. 6. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him ] These words have been inserted here in some MSS. for the sake of making in this place a complete narrative by the combination and adaptation of the additional particulars given in Act 26:14 and Act 22:10. It is easy to understand the desire which prompted such a combination. The best MSS. omit the words here, giving them where they more naturally find place, in the personal narratives of St Paul himself.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? – The word Lord here, as is frequently the case in the New Testament, means no more than sir, Joh 4:19. It is evident that Saul did not as yet know that this was the Lord Jesus. He heard a voice as of a man; he heard himself addressed, but by whom the words were spoken was to him unknown. In his amazement and confusion, he naturally asked who it was that was thus addressing him.

And the Lord said – In this place the word Lord is used in a higher sense, to denote the Saviour. It is his usual appellation. See the notes on Act 1:24.

I am Jesus – It is clear, from this, that there was a personal appearance of the Saviour; that he was present to Saul; but in what particular form – whether seen as a man, or only appearing by the manifestation of his glory, is not affirmed. Though it was a personal appearance, however, of the Lord Jesus, designed to take the work of converting such a persecutor into his own hands, yet he designed to convert him in a natural way. He arrested his attention; he filled him with alarm at his guilt; and then he presented the truth respecting himself. In Act 22:8, the expression is thus recorded: I am Jesus of Nazareth, etc. There is no contradiction, as Luke here records only a part of what was said; Paul afterward stated the whole. This declaration was suited especially to humble and mortify Saul. There can be no doubt that he had often blasphemed his name, and profanely derided the notion that the Messiah could come out of Nazareth. Jesus here uses, however, that very designation. I am Jesus the Nazarene, the object of your contempt and scorn. Yet Saul saw him now invested with special glory.

It is hard … – This is evidently a proverbial expression. Kuinoel has quoted numerous places in which a similar mode of expression occurs in Greek writers. Thus, Euripides, Bacch., 791, I, who am a frail mortal, should rather sacrifice to him who is a god, than, by giving place to anger, kick against the goads. So Pindar, Pyth., 2:173, It is profitable to bear willingly the assumed yoke. To kick against the goad is pernicious conduct. So Terence, Phome., 1, 2, 27, It is foolishness for thee to kick against a goad. Ovid has the same idea, Tristam, ii. 15. The word translated pricks here kentron means properly any sharp point which will pierce or perforate, as the sting of a bee, etc. But it commonly means an ox-goad, a sharp piece of iron stuck into the end of a stick, with which the ox is urged on. These goads among the Hebrews were made very large. Thus, Shamgar killed 600 men with one of them, Jdg 3:31. Compare 1Sa 13:21. The expression to kick against the prick is derived from the action of a stubborn and unyielding ox kicking against the goad. And as the ox would injure no one by it but himself; as he would gain nothing, it comes to denote an obstinate and refractory disposition and course of conduct, resisting the authority of him who has a right to command, and opposing the leadings of Providence, to the injury of him who makes the resistance. It denotes rebellion against lawful authority, and thus getting into greater difficulty by attempting to oppose the commands to duty. This is the condition of every sinner. If people wish to be happy, they should cheerfully submit to the authority of God. They should not rebel against his dealings. They should not complain against their Creator. They should not resist the claims of their consciences. By all this they only injure themselves. No man can resist God or his own conscience and be happy. People evince this temper in the following ways:

(1) By violating plain laws of God.

(2) By attempting to resist his claims.

(3) By refusing to do what their conscience requires.

(4) By attempting to free themselves from serious impressions and alarms.

(5) By pursuing a course of vice and wickedness against what they know to be right.

(6) By refusing to submit to the dealings of Providence. And,

(7) In any way by opposing God, and refusing to submit to his authority, and to do what is right.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Act 9:5

And he said, Who art Thou, Lord?

Pressing questions of an awakened mind

The manifestation of Jesus subdued the great man into a little child. He inquires, with sacred curiosity, Who art Thou, Lord? and then surrenders at discretion, crying, What wilt Thou have me to do?

I. The earnest inquirer seeking to know his Lord.

1. He is not only willing to learn, but he is eager to be taught. If men were but anxious to understand the truth, they would soon learn it and receive it.

2. The subject he wished to be taught. You have heard that Christ is the Saviour, let your ambition be to know all about Him. Saints on earth, and even saints in heaven, are always wanting to have this question more fully answered, Who art Thou, Lord?

(1) What is Thy person? Learn well that He is man, thy brother, touched with the feelings of thy infirmities, yet is He God eternal, infinite, full of all power and majesty.

(2) What are Thy offices? He is a Prophet; thou must be instructed by Him. He is a Priest; He has offered sacrifice, and thou must accept it as being for thee. He is a King, and thou must let Him govern thee.

(3) What are Thy relationships? The Son of the Highest, and yet the brother of the lowest. King of angels and of kings, and yet the friend of sinners.

3. What were the results of having this question answered?

(1) When Paul knew that He whose face had shone upon him brighter than the sun was Jesus of Nazareth, he was seized with contrition. When Christ is unknown we can go on refusing and even persecuting Him; but when we clearly perceive that it is the Son of God and the bleeding Lamb whom we have refused and persecuted, then our hearts melt; we beg His forgiveness, and cast ourselves at His feet.

(2) Hope was encouraged, for though Paul at the sight of the Lord Jesus must have been full of bitter anguish, it was by that same sight that he was afterwards comforted. Art Thou He who came to seek and to save that which was lost? Then is there hope for me. Oh, then, I will trust Him.

(3) It led him to complete submission. He said, Is this Christ whom I have rejected Lord of all? Then it is indeed hard for me to kick against the pricks. If all power be in His hands, then to oppose Him is as hopeless as it is wicked. O Lord Jesus, be my king. Some human leaders have had such extraordinary influence over their soldiery that they have been cheerfully obeyed, even at the cost of life. The Christ of God has a superlative power over all hearts that know Him. See how Paul felt His influence, and scoured the world to win Christs lost ones.

4. He sought instruction from the best possible Master; for who can tell us who Christ is but Christ Himself? Here is His book. It is the looking glass. Jesus is yonder, and He looks into it, and you may see His reflected image; darkly, however, at the best. So, too, when you hear His faithful servants preach you may see somewhat of Christ; but there is no sight of Christ like that which comes personally to your own soul by the Holy Spirit.

II. The obedient disciple requesting direction. Whosoever believeth in Jesus has everlasting life is the basis doctrine of the gospel; but you may not believe in Him and then live as you like. Hence the question, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? The apostle here puts himself into the position of a soldier waiting for orders. He will not stir till he has received his officers command. Before it used to be, What will Moses have me to do? And with some now present it has been, What should I like to do? Now take heed that Christ be your Master, and nobody else. It would never do to say, What would the Church have me to do? nor even What would an apostle have me to do? Paul said, Be ye followers of me, even as I am also of Christ. But if Paul does not follow Christ, we must not follow Paul. Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel, let him be accursed. One is your Master, even Christ. This obedience is–

1. Personal. I have little enough to do with my neighbours. They have their duty; but, Lord, what wouldst Thou have me to do? Other persons must follow the light they have; but, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? Let it separate the nearest ties, let it cause your past friends to give you the cold shoulder, let it subject you to persecution even unto death; you have nothing to do with these consequences, your business is to say, Show me what Thou wouldst have me to do, and I will do it. Note again–

2. Prompt. He does not ask to be allowed a little delay. If you would have salvation, you must be ready to follow Christ tonight. Tonight, it may be, is the time when the Spirit of God is struggling with you, and if resisted He never may return.

3. Unconditional. Saul little knew what the doing of his Masters will would involve, but he was prepared for it. Oh, you that would be Christians, do not suppose that it is just believing something–an article of a creed, or undergoing a ceremony–that will save you; you must, if you are Christs, yield yourselves up to Him. Conclusion: It is by knowing Christ that you will learn to obey Him, and the more you obey Him the more easy it will be: and in obeying Him you will find your honour. Paul at this day stands in a most honourable place in the Church of God, simply because being called of God to do His will he did it faithfully even to the end. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.—

The ways of sin hard and difficult

You often hear of the narrow and rugged road which leadeth unto life; and some of you, I am afraid, have not courage enough to venture upon it. You rather choose the smooth, broad, downhill road, though it leads to death. It must be owned, that a religious life is a course of difficulties, and it is fit you should be honestly informed of it; but then it is fit you should also know that it is disagreeable and difficult only as a course of action is difficult to the sick, though it affords pleasure to those that are well. There are difficulties in the way of sin, as well as in that of holiness, though the depravity of mankind renders them insensible of it. It may be easy and pleasing to you to sin, just as it is easy to a dead body to rot, or pleasing to a leper to rub his sores. If it be hard, in one sense, to live a life of holiness, it is certainly hard, in another sense, to live a life of sin; namely, to run against conscience, reason, honour, interest, and all the strong and endearing obligations you are under to God, to mankind, and to yourselves.

I. Is it not a hard thing to be an unbeliever, while the light of the gospel shines around us with full blaze of evidence. Before a man can work up himself to the disbelief of a religion attended with such evidence, and inspiring such Divine dispositions and exalted hopes, what absurdities must he embrace! what strong convictions must he resist! what tremendous doubts must he struggle with! what glorious hopes must he resign! what violence must be offered to conscience! what care must be used to shut up all the avenues of serious thought, and harden the heart against the terrors of death and the supreme tribunal! How painful to reject the balm the gospel provides to heal a broken heart and a bleeding conscience, and the various helps and advantages it furnishes us with to obtain Divine favour and everlasting happiness! How hard to work up the mind to believe that Jesus was an impostor, or at best a moral philosopher! or that the religion of the Bible is the contrivance of artful and wicked men! These are no easy things. There are many sceptics and smatterers in infidelity, but few, very few, are able to make thorough work of it. Such men find the arms of their own reason often against them, and their own conscience forms violent insurrections in favour of religion; so that whatever they pretend, they believe and tremble too. They find it hard, even now, to kick against the goads: how much harder they will find it in the issue! Christianity will live when they are dead and damned, according to its sentence. Infidels may hurt themselves by opposing it; as an unruly stupid ox, their proper emblem, may hurt himself, but not the goads, by kicking against them.

II. Is it not hard foe men to profess themselves believers and assent to the truth of Christianity and yet live as if they were infidels? If you believe Christianity–

1. You believe that there is a God of infinite excellency; the Maker, Preserver, Benefactor, and ruler of the world, and of you in particular. How, then, can you withhold your love from Him, and ungratefully refuse obedience? Is not this a hard thing? Does it not cost you some labour to reconcile your consciences to it? This would not be easy to the mightiest archangel. And if it be easy to you, it is in the same sense that it is easy to a dead body to rot. Your strength to do evil is your real weakness, or the strength of your disease.

2. You believe the doctrine of redemption through Jesus Christ. And is it no difficulty to neglect Him, to dishonour Him, to slight His love and disobey His commands? Does not at least a spark of gratitude sometimes kindle which you find it hard to quench entirely? Does not conscience often take up arms in the cause of its Lord, and do you not find it hard to quell the insurrection? Alas! if you find little or no difficulty in treating the blessed Jesus with neglect, it shows that you are giants in iniquity, and sin with the strength of a devil.

3. You must believe that holiness is essentially to constitute you a real Christian, and prepare you for everlasting happiness. And while you have this conviction, is it not a hard thing for you to be only Christians in name, or self-condemned hypocrites? Is it an easy thing to you to keep your eyes always shut against the light, which would show you to yourselves in your true colours?

4. You believe in a future state of rewards and punishments. And since you love yourselves, and have a strong desire of pleasure and horror of pain, how can you reconcile yourselves to the thoughts of giving up your portion in heaven, and being engulfed forever in the infernal pit?

III. Is it not hard for a man to live in a constant conflict with himself? I mean with his conscience. When the sinner would continue his career to hell, conscience, like the cherubim at the gates of paradise, or the angel in Balaams road, meets him with his flaming sword, and turns every way, to guard the dreadful entrance into the chambers of death. The life of the sinner is a warfare, as well as that of the Christian. Conscience is his enemy, always disturbing him; that is, he himself is an enemy to himself, while he continues an enemy to God. Some, indeed, by repeated violences, stun their conscience, and it seems to lie still. But this is a conquest fatal to the conquerors.

IV. Is it not hard for you to deprive yourselves of the exalted pleasures of religion? Is not this doing violence to the innate principle of self-love and desire of happiness? Can you be so stupid as to imagine that the world, or sin, or anything that can come in competition with religion, can be of equal or comparable advantage to you? Sure your own reason must give in its verdict in favour of religion. And is it not a hard thing for you to act against your own reason, against your highest and immortal interest, and against your own innate desire of happiness? (S. Davies, A. M.)

Kicking against the pricks

This expression is highly characteristic of the Saviour–

1. From its figurative form. While He was on earth, without a parable spake He not unto the people; and speaking out of heaven He still adopts the parabolic style, as He did in Patmos. He does not say to Saul, It is injurious to thee to resist My appeals, that would be mere abstract fact, but He puts it more pictorially, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

2. From the tenderness of the rebuke. It is not, It is wicked of thee to resist Me. The Saviour leaves Sauls conscience to say that; nor It is hard for My people to bear thy cruelties; nor It is very provoking to Me, and I shall ere long smite thee in My wrath. No, it is not, It is hard for Me, but It is hard for thee. We have in the parable of the text–

I. An ox. No other beast is driven by a goad.

1. How low is man fallen that he can be compared to a brute beast! Oh, saith the proud heart, cloth God compare me to a beast? Ah! and it is the beast which hath cause to complain rather than you; for what beast is that who has rebelled against God? Do not be angry, for if you knew yourself you would cry with Asaph, So foolish was I and ignorant, I was as a beast before Thee. Penitent sinners have wished that they had been beasts rather than men, feeling as if sin had degraded their nature below the meanest reptile.

2. But courage! The ox is a valuable animal. The text does not liken a man to a wild beast without an owner, but to an ox for which its master careth, and for which he hath paid a price. I, says Jesus, whom Thou persecutest, redeemed thee, with My own precious blood; thou art Mine, and I will break thee in. Why dost thou kick against Me? I have paid for thee too dearly to let thee be lost.

3. The ox is dependent upon its master for the supply of its needs. The ox knoweth its owner. Thou, who art an enemy to God, dost thou not know that thou art the object of His daily providence? We have been worse than oxen. We have not known the hand that feeds us, but have kicked against the God from whom all our mercies have been flowing.

4. An ox is a creature of which service is rightly demanded. So does God expect of those creatures whose wants He supplies that they should do His bidding. Wherefore should God keep them, and they do Him no service? For if He gets nothing out of thee, He will not forever spare thee. The bullock which is not good for its master in the furrows shall soon be good for the butcher in the shambles.

5. The ox is a perverse creature, not easily made accustomed to the yoke. Hence the rough and cruel instrument used by the Eastern husbandman–a long stick with a sharp prong at the end. Ah, how perverse are our wills! We will not go in the right way; we choose the wrong naturally. We go to the fire of sin, and we put our finger in it, and we burn it; but we do not learn better; we then thrust our hands into it, and though we suffer for it we return and plunge our arm into the flame.

6. Yet the ox is a creature which can be of great service to its master. When it becomes docile, it is one of the most valuable possessions of the Oriental husbandman. And when once the brutish heart of man is conquered by Divine grace, of what use he is.

II. The ox goad. A cruel instrument, but one thought by the Oriental husbandman to be needful for the stubborn nature of the ox. God has many ways of goading us, but He does not use that where gentler means will avail. I should think that a kind man would speak to his ox, and might get it into such a condition that it would be obedient to his word. Now God does bring His people into such a state as that. God does not come to blows with men till He has first tried words with them. Before the tree is cut down there is a time of sparing, in which it is digged about if haply it may bring forth fruit. But when words are of no avail, then the Lord in tender mercy adopts sharper means, and comes from words to blows and wounds–that He may come in all His power to heal.

1. Some of us felt the ox goad when we were children. Under the government of our parents we were often very restive, and felt it hard to sin.

2. Since that time some of you have felt the irksome goad in the good advice of friends with whom you have been situated. You do not like to be talked to about religion.

3. The teachings of Gods Word acts like a goad to unconverted men. I have known people come in here, and the sermon has made them feel so angry that they could almost have knocked the preacher down, but yet they could not help coming again. They could not tell why, but they could not stop away; and yet they hated the truth they heard. When a man thinks enough about the truth to begin to fight against it, I am in hope that the truth will never let him go till it has fairly beaten him into better things.

4. At times the Lord will goad us by personal afflictions; a sickness, a failure in business, a loss of property, a disappointment in marriage, or the death of friends, or a gradual decay of the constitution, or the loss of a limb or an eye. Loud voices these, if men had ears to hear. Some of you have had so many afflictions that the Lord might well inquire, Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more.

5. Sometimes God stirs men with the common operations of the Holy Ghost in their consciences. Saul was being goaded at that very moment when Christ said, Why persecutest thou Me? And take care you do not resist these goadings. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not, etc.

III. The kicks. The ox when wounded is so foolish as to dash its foot against the goad, and consequently drives it deeper into himself and hurts himself the more. This is the natural manner of men till God makes something more than beasts of them.

1. Even when we were children we rebelled against our teachers; prayer was distasteful, the Sabbath was dull, and the house of God wearisome, and therefore we kicked against them.

2. As some of you grow up, you took to sneering at those who kindly advised you. Many, the moment they get a word of counsel from any person, treat him at once as an enemy, and vow that they will take no further notice of such a cant. Many sinners when the Word of God is too hot for them, take to cavilling at it, or disputing over it. A man who is reproved by a sermon will perhaps feel that he must give up his drunkenness. But, say she, I will not give up my drunkenness; I do not want to do that, and therefore I do not believe that the sermon is true. Or another says, If this is correct, I must shut up my shop on the Sunday, and so lose my Sundays profits. I cannot afford to lose money, and therefore I will abuse the preacher. The guilty conscience cries, I will pick a hole in the ministers coat, because he has found one in mine.

3. There are many who persecute Gods people. They cannot burn them, nor shut them up in prison; but they vex them with cruel mockings, they twist their innocent actions into something wrong, and then they throw it in their teeth.

4. Certain profane men have gone so far as to kick at God Himself. Mind that He does not answer you, blasphemer.

IV. The result. Christ says, It is hard. It has been very hard for your mother, for your families, for your neighbours and employers; Christ says it is hard for you. You know that sin does not make you happy. You have had your swing of it, and you are miserable. You are afraid to die. Do you know what will very likely be your history if you run into sin and persist in it? You will make your present afflictions grow worse, and cause your present losses to accumulate. You are kicking against the pricks, and are making the wounds already received ten times worse, and so it always will be so long as you keep on kicking. He that is converted to God finds it hard to have been a sinner so long. His repentance is bitter in proportion to the greatness of his sin. Those who are saved late in life feel that their sins will be their plague till they die. A man does not go and plunge into the ditch of sin without bearing the stench of its vileness in his memory all his life. An old song that you used to sing will come up and defile your closet prayers, and perhaps the recollection of some unholy scene will trouble you even when you are at the sacramental table. The apostle Paul always bore the memory of his sin. God forgives me, said one, but I never can forgive myself.

V. The good counsel.

1. Since it is hard for you to kick against the pricks, and there is nothing to be got by it, cease.

2. Yield thy heart to the goadings of Divine love. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Sauls goads

The figure of speech is borrowed from a custom of Eastern countries: the ox driver wields a long pole, at the end of which is fixed a piece of sharpened iron, with which he urges the animal to go on or stand still or change its course; and, if it is refractory, it kicks against the goad, injuring and infuriating itself with the wounds it receives. This is a vivid picture of a man wounded and tortured by compunctions of conscience. There was something in him rebelling against the course of inhumanity on which he was embarked, and suggesting that he was fighting against God. It is not difficult to conceive when these doubts arose. He was the scholar of Gamaliel, the advocate of humanity and tolerance, who had counselled the Sanhedrin to leave the Christians alone. He was himself too young yet to have hardened his heart to all the disagreeables of such ghastly work. Highly strung as was his religious zeal, nature could not but speak out at last. But probably his compunctions were chiefly awakened by the character and behaviour of the Christians. He had heard the noble defence of Stephen, and seen his face in the council chamber shining like that of an angel. He had seen him kneeling on the field of execution and praying for his murderers. Doubtless, in the course of the persecution he had witnessed many similar scenes. Did these people look like enemies of God? As he entered their homes to drag them forth to prison, he got glimpses of their social life. Could such spectacles of purity and love be products of the powers of darkness? Did not the serenity with which his victims went to meet their fate look like the very peace which he had long been sighing for in vain? Their arguments, too, must have told on a mind like his. He had heard Stephen proving from the Scriptures that it behoved the Messiah to suffer; and the general tenor of the earliest Christian apologetic assures us that many of the accused must on their trial have appealed to passages like the fifty-third of Isaiah, where a career is predicted for the Messiah startlingly like that of Jesus of Nazareth. He heard incidents of Christs life from their lips which betokened a personage very different from the picture sketched for him by his Pharisaic informants; and the sayings of their Master which the Christians quoted did not sound like the utterances of the fanatic he conceived Jesus to have been! (J. Stalker, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 5. Who art thou, Lord?] , ; Who art thou, SIR? He had no knowledge who it was that addressed him, and would only use the term , as any Roman or Greek would, merely as a term of civil respect.

I am Jesus whom thou persecutest] “Thy enmity is against me and my religion; and the injuries which thou dost to my followers I consider as done to myself.”

The following words, making twenty in the original, and thirty in our version, are found in no Greek MS. The words are, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks: and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? and the Lord said unto him. It is not very easy to account for such a large addition, which is not only not found in any Greek MS. yet discovered, but is wanting in the Itala, Erpen’s Arabic, the Syriac, Coptic, Sahidic, and most of the Slavonian. It is found in the Vulgate, one of the Arabic, the AEthiopic, and Armenian; and was probably borrowed from Ac 26:14, and some marginal notes. It is wanting also in the Complutensian edition, and in that of Bengel. Griesbach also leaves it out of the text.

It is hard for thee, c.] . This is a proverbial expression, which exists, not only in substance, but even in so many words, both in the Greek and Latin writers. , kentron, signifies an ox goad, a piece of pointed iron stuck in the end of a stick, with which the ox is urged on when drawing the plough. The origin of the proverb seems to have been this: sometimes it happens that a restive or stubborn ox kicks back against the goad, and thus wounds himself more deeply: hence it has become a proverb to signify the fruitlessness and absurdity of rebelling against lawful authority, and the getting into greater difficulties by endeavouring to avoid trifling sufferings. So the proverb, Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim. Out of the cauldron into the fire. “Out of bad into worse.” The saying exists, almost in the apostolic form, in the following writers. EURIPIDES, in Bacch. ver. 793:-

‘ ,

, , .

“I, who am a frail mortal, should rather sacrifice

to him who is a GOD, than, by giving place to

anger, kick against the goads.”

And AESCHYLUS, in Agamemnon, ver. 1633:-

.

Kick not against the goads.

And again in Prometh. Vinct. ver. 323:-

,

‘ .

“Thou stretchest out thy foot against goads, seeing

the fierce monarch governs according to his own will.”

Resistance is of no use: the more thou dost rebel, the more keenly thou shalt suffer. See the Scholiast here.

PINDAR has a similar expression, Pyth. ii. ver. 171-5 :-

‘

‘ .

,

.

“It is profitable to bear willingly the assumed yoke.

To kick against the goad is pernicious conduct.”

Where see the Scholiast, who shows that “it is ridiculous for a man to fight with fortune: for if the unruly ox, from whom the metaphor is taken, kick against the goad, he shall suffer still more grievously.” TERENCE uses the same figure. Phorm. Act i. scen. 2, ver. 27:-

Venere in mentem mihi istaec: nam inscitia est,

Adversum stimulum calces._______

“These things have come to my recollection, for it

is foolishness for thee to kick against a goad.”

OVID has the same idea in other words, Trist. lib. ii. ver. 15:-

At nunc (tanta meo comes est insania morbo)

Saxa malum refero rursus ad icta pedem.

Scilicet et victus repetit gladiator arenam

Et redit in tumidas naufraga puppis aquas.

But madly now I wound myself alone,

Dashing my injured foot against the stone:

So to the wide arena, wild with pain,

The vanquish’d gladiator hastes again;

So the poor shatter’d bark the tempest braves,

Launching once more into the swelling waves.

Intelligent men, in all countries and in all ages of the world, have seen and acknowledged the folly and wickedness of fighting against God; of murmuring at the dispensations of his providence; of being impatient under affliction; and of opposing the purposes of his justice and mercy. The words contain a universal lesson, and teach us patience under affliction, and subjection to the sovereign will of God; and they especially show the desperate wickedness of endeavouring, by persecution, to hinder the dissemination of the truth of God in the earth. He that kicks against this goad does it at the risk of his final salvation. The fable of the viper and the file is another illustration of this proverb: it gnawed and licked the file, till it destroyed its teeth and wasted away its tongue. The maxim in the proverb should be early inculcated on the minds of children and scholars; when chastised for their faults, resistance and stubbornness produce increased coercion and chastisement. And let parents and masters learn that the oft-repeated use of the goad and ferula seldom tend to reclaim, but beget obduracy and desperation. The advice of Columella to the ploughman, having some relation to the proverb in the text, and a strong bearing on this latter part of the subject, is worthy of the most serious regard: “Voce potius quam verberibus terreat: ultimaque sint opus recusantibus remedia plagae. Nunquam stimulo lacessat juvencum, quod retrectantem calcitrosumque eum reddit: nonnunquam tamen admoneat flagello.” COLUMELLA, De Re Rustica, lib. ii. cap. 2, in fine. “Let the husbandman intimidate his oxen more by his voice than by blows, to which he should never have recourse but in extreme cases. A young steer should never be goaded, for this will induce him to kick and run back; but on proper occasions the whip, as an incentive to activity, may be profitably used.” In reference to the same subject, which all concerned should feel to be of the greatest importance I shall close with the advice of one greater than the Roman agriculturist: Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged, Col 3:21; but bring them up ( ) in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, Eph 6:4, using the authority that God has given you with a steady hand, actuated by a tender and feeling heart.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Who art thou, Lord? Saul was in a great consternation and doubting, whether it was God, or an angel.

Jesus whom thou persecutest: though he did not intend this persecution against Christ, yet our Saviour looks upon the good or evil done unto his members as done unto himself.

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks: this kicking against the pricks is a proverbial speech, taken either from oxen or slaves, whom they used with goads to prick on to their work, which when they kicked against, or opposed themselves to, they did not hurt the goads or pricks, but themselves; so shall all persecutors find that their mischiefs recoil upon themselves; Christ and his members shall be made here glorious by it: this metaphor is common in Scripture, Deu 32:15; 1Sa 2:29. The pricks Saul had kicked against, were the sermons and miracles of St. Stephen and others.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. Who art thou, Lord?“Jesusknew Saul ere Saul knew Jesus” [BENGEL].The term “Lord” here is an indefinite term of respect forsome unknown but august speaker. That Saul saw as well as heardthis glorious Speaker, is expressly said by Ananias (Act 9:17;Act 22:14), by Barnabas (Ac9:27), and by himself (Ac26:16); and in claiming apostleship, he explicitly states that hehad “seen the Lord” (1Co 9:1;1Co 15:8), which can refer onlyto this scene.

I am Jesus whom thoupersecutestThe “I” and “thou” here aretouchingly emphatic in the original; while the term “JESUS”is purposely chosen, to convey to him the thrilling information thatthe hated name which he sought to hunt down”the Nazarene,“as it is in Ac 22:8 was nowspeaking to him from the skies, “crowned with glory and honor”(see Ac 26:9).

It is hard for thee to kickagainst the pricksThe metaphor of an ox, only driving the goaddeeper by kicking against it, is a classic one, and here forciblyexpresses, not only the vanity of all his measures for crushing theGospel, but the deeper wound which every such effort inflicted uponhimself.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And he said, who art thou, Lord?…. For he knew not whether it was God, or an angel, or who it was that spake to him; he knew not Christ by his form or voice, as Stephen did, when he saw him standing at the right hand of God; he was in a state of ignorance, and knew neither the person, nor voice of Christ, and yet his heart was so far softened and wrought upon, that he was desirous of knowing who he was;

and the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. The Alexandrian copy, and the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, “read Jesus of Nazareth”; and one of Beza’s copies, and another of Stephens’, as in Ac 22:8 whose name thou art doing many things against, and whose people thou art destroying:

it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks; or “to resist me”, as the Arabic version renders it; and which is the sense of the phrase; it is a proverbial expression, taken from beasts that are goaded, who kick against the goads or pricks, and hurt themselves the more thereby; and Christ uses it, suggesting hereby, that should Saul go on to persecute him and his people, to oppose his Gospel, and the strong evidence of it, in doctrine and miracles, and notwithstanding the present remonstrances made in such an extraordinary manner; he would find himself in the issue greatly hurt by it, and could not rationally expect to succeed against so powerful a person. This clause in the Syriac version is placed at the end of the fourth verse.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Lord (). It is open to question if should not here be translated “Sir” as in 16:30 and in Matt 21:29; Matt 21:30; John 5:7; John 12:21; John 20:15; and should be so in Joh 9:36. It is hardly likely that at this stage Saul recognized Jesus as Lord, though he does so greet him in 22:10 “What shall I do, Lord?” Saul may have recognized the vision as from God as Cornelius says “Lord” in 10:4. Saul surrendered instantly as Thomas did (Joh 20:28) and as little Samuel (1Sa 3:9). This surrender of the will to Christ was the conversion of Saul. He saw a real Person, the Risen Christ, to whom he surrendered his life. On this point he never wavered for a moment to the end.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

It is hard for thee, etc. Transferred from ch. 26 14, and omitted by the best texts.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And he said, who art thou, Lord?” (eipen de tis ei kurie) “Then he said, who are you, Lord?” That Paul was here saved and surrendered to the call of the Lord at that time is evident, (1Co 12:3) for none can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Spirit.

2) “And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: (ho de ego eimi lesous hon diokeis) “Then He (the Lord) responded, I am Jesus, the one whom you are really persecuting,” the risen and living Lord who tasted death for every man and now lives to intercede, Heb 2:9; Heb 7:25; 1Jn 2:1-2; Act 2:33-36.

3) “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,” (omitted in earlier manuscripts) “To resist the Holy Spirit’s convincing call, Act 2:37; Act 7:51; Act 7:54; Act 24:25; Act 26:27-28; Pro 1:22-30; Pro 29:1; Heb 3:7-8; Heb 4:7.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

5. Who art thou, Lord? We have Paul now somewhat tamed, but he is not yet Christ’s disciple. Pride is corrected in him, and his fury is brought down. But he is not yet so thoroughly healed that he obeyeth Christ; he is only ready to receive commandments, who was before a blasphemer. Therefore, this is the question of a man that is afraid, and thrown down with amazedness. For why doth he not know, by so many signs of God’s presence, that it is God that speaketh? Therefore that voice proceeded from a panting and doubtful mind; therefore, Christ driveth him nigher unto repentance, When he addeth, I am Jesus, let us remember that that voice sounded from heaven. Therefore it ought to have pierced the mind of Paul when he considered that he had made war against God hitherto. It ought to have brought him by and by to true submission, when he considered that he should not escape scot free, if he should continue rebellious against him whose hand he could not escape.

This place containeth a most profitable doctrine, and the profit thereof is made manifold, for Christ showeth what great account he maketh of his gospel, when he pronounceth that it is his cause, from which he will not be separated. Therefore he can no more refuse to defend the same than he can deny himself. Secondly, the godly may gather great comfort by this, in that they hear that the Son of God is partner with them of the cross, when as they suffer and labor for the testimony of the gospel, and that he doth, as it were, put under his shoulders, that he may bear some part of the burden. For it is not for nothing that he saith that he suffereth in our person; but he will have us to be assuredly persuaded of this, that he suffereth together with us, (574) as if the enemies of the gospel should wound us through his side. Wherefore Paul saith, that that is wanting in the sufferings of Christ what persecutions soever the faithful suffer at this day for the defense of the gospel, (Col 1:24.) Furthermore, this consolation tendeth not only to that end to comfort us, that it may not be troublesome to us to suffer with our Head, but that we may hope that he will revenge our miseries, who crieth out of heaven that all that which we suffer is common to him as well as to us. Lastly, we gather hereby what horrible judgment is prepared for the persecutors of the Church, who like giants besiege the very heaven, and shake their darts, which shall pierce (575) their own head by and by; yea, by troubling the heavens, they provoke the thunderbolt of God’s wrath against themselves. Also, we are all taught generally, that no man run against Christ by hurting his brother unjustly, and specially, that no man resist the truth rashly and with a blind madness, under color of zeal.

It is hard for thee. This is a proverbial sentence, taken from oxen or horses, which, when they are pricked with goads, do themselves no good by kicking, save only that they double the evil by causing the prick to go farther into their skins. Christ applieth this similitude unto himself very fitly, because men shall bring upon themselves a double evil, by striving against him, who must of necessity be subject to his will and pleasure, will they nill they. Those which submit themselves willingly to Christ are so far from feeling any pricking at his hands, that they have in him a ready remedy for all wounds; but all the wicked, who endeavor to cast out their poisoned stings against him, shall at length perceive that they are asses and oxen, subject to the prick. So that he is unto the godly a foundation whereon they rest, but unto the reprobate who stumble at him, a stone which with his [its] hardness grindeth them to powder. And although we speak here of the enemies of the gospel, yet this admonition may reach farther, to wit, that we do not think that we shall get any thing by biting the bridle so often as we have any thing to do with God, but that being like to gentle horses, we suffer ourselves meekly to be turned about and guided by his hand. And if he spur us at any time, let us be made more ready to obey by his pricks, lest that befall us which is said in the Psalm, That the jaws of untamed horses and mules are tied and kept in with a hard bit, lest they leap upon us, etc.

In this history we have a universal figure of that grace which the Lord showeth forth daily in calling us all. All men do not set themselves so violently against the gospel; yet, nevertheless, both pride and also rebellion against God are naturally engendered in all men. We are all wicked and cruel naturally; therefore, in that we are turned to God, that cometh to pass by the wonderful and secret power of God, contrary to nature. The Papists also ascribe the praise of our turning unto God to the grace of God; yet only in part, because they imagine that we work together. But when as the Lord doth mortify our flesh, he subdueth us and bringeth us under, as he did Paul. Neither is our will one hair readier to obey than was Paul’s, until such time as the pride of our heart be beaten down, and he have made us not only flexible but also willing to obey and follow. Therefore, such is the beginning of our conversion, that the Lord seeketh us of his own accord, when we wander and go astray, though he be not called and sought; that he changeth the stubborn affections of our heart, to the end he may have us to be apt to be taught.

Furthermore, this history is of great importance to confirm Paul’s doctrine. If Paul had always been one of Christ’s disciples, wicked and froward men might extenuate the weight of the testimony which he giveth of his Master. If he should have showed himself to be easy to be entreated, and gentle at the first, we should see nothing but that which is proper to man. But when as a deadly enemy to Christ, rebellious against the gospel, puffed up with the confidence which he reposed in his wisdom, inflamed with hatred of the true faith, blinded with hypocrisy, wholly set upon the overthrowing of the truth, [he] is suddenly changed into a new man, after an unwonted manner, and of a wolf is not only turned into a sheep, but doth also take to himself a shepherd’s nature, it is as if Christ should bring forth with his hand some angel sent from heaven. For we do not now see that Saul of Tarsus, but a new man framed by the Spirit of God; so that he speaketh by his mouth now, as it were from heaven.

(574) “ Eadum ipsum sympathia tangi,” that he is touched with the same sympathy.

(575) “ Reditura,” recoil upon.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(5) Who art thou, Lord?The word Lord could not as yet have been used in all the fulness of its meaning. As in many cases in the Gospels, it was the natural utterance of respect and awe (Joh. 5:7; Joh. 9:36; Joh. 20:15), such as would be roused by what the persecutor saw and heard.

I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.Some of the best MSS. give Jesus of Nazareth; or better, perhaps, Jesus the Nazarene. It is probable, however, that this was inserted from Act. 22:18, where it occurs in St. Pauls own narrative. Assuming the words to have been those which he actually heard, they reproduced the very Name which he himself, as the chief accuser of Stephen, had probably uttered in the tone of scorn and hatred (Act. 6:14)the very Name which he had been compelling men and women to blaspheme. Now it was revealed to him, or to use his own suggestive mode of speech, in him (Gal. 1:16), that the Crucified One was in very deed, as the words of Stephen had attested, at the right hand of God, sharing in the glory of the Father. The pronouns are both emphatic, I, in my Love and Might and Glory, I am the Jesus whom thou, now prostrate and full of dread, hast been bold enough to persecute. It was not the disciples and brethren alone whom Saul was persecuting. What was done to them the Lord counted as done unto Himself (Mat. 10:40).

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.There is a decisive preponderance of MS. authority against the appearance of these words here, and the conclusion of nearly all critics is that they have been inserted in the later MSS. from Act. 26:14. As they occur in the English text, however, and belong to this crisis in St. Pauls life, it will be well to deal with them now. In their outward form they were among the oldest and most familiar of Greek proverbs. The Jew who had been educated in the schools of Tarsus might have read them in Greek poets (schylus, Agam. 1633; Pindar, Pyth. ii. 173; Eurip. Bacch. 791), or heard them quoted in familiar speech, or written them in his boyhood. They do not occur in any collection of Hebrew proverbs, but the analogy which they presented was so obvious that the ploughmen of Israel could hardly have failed to draw the same lesson as those of Greece. What they taught was, of course, that to resist a power altogether superior to our own is a profitless and perilous experiment. The goad did but prick more sharply the more the ox struggled against it. Two of the passages cited apply the words directly to the suffering which man is sure to encounter when he resists God, as e.g.

With God we may not strive:
But to bow down the willing neck,

And bear the yoke, is wise;

To kick against the pricks will prove
A perilous emprise.

Pind. Pyth. ii. 173.

We ask what lesson the words brought to the mind of Saul. What were the pricks against which he had been kicking? The answer is found in what we know of the facts of his life. There had been promptings, misgivings, warnings, which he had resisted and defied. Among the causes of these, we may well reckon the conversion of the friend and companion of his youth (see Note on Act. 4:36), and the warning counsel of Gamaliel (Act. 5:34-39), and the angel-face of Stephen (Act. 6:15), and the martyrs dying prayer (Act. 7:60), and the daily spectacle of those who were ready to go to prison and to death rather than to renounce the name of Jesus. In the frenzy of his zeal he had tried to crush these misgivings, and the effort to do so had brought with it discomfort and disquietude which made him more exceedingly mad against the disciples of the Lord. Now he learnt that he had all along, as his master had warned him, been fighting against God, and that his only safety lay in the surrender of his own passionate resolve to the gracious and loving Will that was seeking to win him for itself. In his later retrospect of this stage of his life he was able, as by a subtle process of self-analysis, to distinguish between the element of ignorance, which made forgiveness possible, and that of a wilful resistance to light and knowledge which made that forgiveness an act of free and undeserved compassion (1Ti. 1:12-13).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. The pricks The goad, or goad-points, with which oxen were stimulated and punished, and compelled to submit by their drivers. It was a proverb in antiquity used by AEschylus and other classic poets (as quoted by Dr. Clarke) to describe a vain resistance.

Christ, both personally and impersonated in his own on-moving, resistless cause, is, like a relentless driver, requiring Saul’s absolute submission; but Saul, like a refractory bullock, is kicking back, as if to overthrow his true Lord and Master. It is but to pierce himself. And the issue for him is submission or death.

These words, however, are found in no Greek manuscript here, but are borrowed from Act 26:14. And Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? is borrowed from Act 22:10.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise, and enter into the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” ’

Saul had been humbled to the ground and now he humbled himself in spirit and asked who it was who was speaking. His reference to ‘Lord’ was an expression of humility before divine authority. He wanted ‘the Lord’ to identify Himself. How could he be persecuting God when his whole life was given to His service? ‘Lord’ was later to become for him a recognised way of acknowledging Jesus, when it would take its full significance as Lord, Creator and Redeemer.

The reply came that ‘He’ was Jesus. In a blinding flash Saul was being made to face up with the One against Whom he was venting his anger and hatred, the One in Whom these people he was persecuting believed, and it was in a way that was revealing His divine nature. He had thought Him a charlatan, and now here He was speaking to him from heaven in this blinding glory. It turned his world and his theology upside down. The whole of his opposition to Jesus could only crumble at His feet. The conclusion smote him with irresistible force. Jesus really had risen! Stephen had been right after all when he had spoken of seeing the Lord Jesus in His glory.

It need hardly be pointed out that the last person he would have expected to hear from was Jesus. To him Jesus was just a dead body in a grave. He had not had the slightest conception that he would experience Him as alive. This was no hallucination brought on by pious hope. He was not seeing what he expected to see. It was a contradiction against everything that he had expected. Those who do not want to believe him will desperately weave unsatisfactory explanations about it. They will have to. For otherwise they will have to believe in the physical resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus Christ. But they will believe anything rather than that. However, none of their explanations will be based on reality. For the reality was that he knew from then on that he had met the risen Jesus (1Co 15:8; Gal 1:16).

The psychological condition of Saul has spawned a whole host of literature. But little of it ties in with what he himself tells us about his experience. He was unaware of any conscience over Stephen. Rather he speaks calmly, if guiltily, about how intractable he had been towards him. He simply lets us know that he had been quite contentedly pursuing his heartfelt belief in Pharisaic teaching until the moment when it was all torn apart by meeting Jesus on the Damascus Road.

We are only given here the briefest description of what the voice said. He was to arise, and enter the city, where he would be told what to do. But in Act 26:15-18 we are given more of the substance for there he is also told, “But arise, and stand on your feet, for to this end have I appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness both of the things in which you have seen me, and of the things in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light (Isa 42:6-7; Isa 49:6) and from the power of Satan to God (Zechariah 3; Isa 49:24-25; Luk 11:20-22; Col 1:13; Mar 3:27), that they may receive remission of sins (Act 2:38; Act 5:31; Act 13:38; Luk 24:47; Mar 1:4) and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me (Act 20:32; Joh 17:17; Mat 5:5; Mat 22:1-14; Mat 25:34).” He was being commissioned to fulfil the work of the Servant in Isa 49:6, compare Act 13:47.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (6) And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Nothing surely can be more simply and yet more beautifully related, than this wonderful action. Though it is a work wholly supernatural, in the Lord himself speaking from heaven to a poor sinner fallen to the earth, with the splendor of the glory which shone upon him; yet, through grace, we are enabled to enter into a proper apprehension of the whole scene. The Lord though overwhelming both the body and mind of Saul with shame and fear, yet gave him strength to put forth the earnest question of enquiry, and to ask who it was that thus condescended to speak to him. No doubt, the same Almighty power which shone without, shone no less within the mind of Saul, that when he said, w ho art thou Lord? his heart told him that it must be Jesus. He humbly and tremblingly put the question, but dreaded the answer. And when the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest! what must have been the terrors of his soul? For although the Lord spake no doubt with tenderness, (for Jesus cannot speak to his own, but with tenderness as Jesus,) yet the self-reproaches, and self-condemnation, rushing like a torrent through every chamber of Saul’s mind, could not but carry all before it, and must have left him a wreck of distress before the Lord. The only astonishment is, (and indeed can be ascribed to no other cause, but grace supporting him,) that he had not given up the ghost through anguish of spirit.

I admire the very blessed manner, and I think that the Reader will admire it also,) in which the Lord Jesus spake to Saul, in calling himself Jesus. Had he said, as he might have said, I am the God of thy Fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob; Saul might have pleaded, that his persecution of the Church of Christ was out of zeal for the Lord’s glory. But when from this Shechinah, Jesus himself spake to him as Abraham’s God, and called himself Jesus, the weapons of all warfare fell at once from his hands and all self-defense was taken away. And no doubt he lay trembling on the earth, expecting that the next words of the Lord would be to sentence him to hell.

Reader! pause, admire, and adore, the wonders of grace! For the same as was manifested here to Saul, is, and must be manifested, more or less, to every child of God. For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. And when a child of God is recovered from the Adam – state of a fallen nature, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; then to look back and review the wonderful mercy shewn him in all the properties of it, opens such a prospect, as cannot but melt down the soul to the very dust before God. The freeness of it, the seasonableness of it, the greatness of it, the unexpected, unlooked for, yea, unthought of, nature of it, and its everlasting, unchanging property; these till the soul with a joy unspeakable and full of glory! Oh! the wonders of distinguishing grace! That when sinners deserve wrath, they find mercy. And when in themselves they are hastening to hell, the Lord is bringing them in Christ to heaven!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Ver. 5. To kick against the pricks ] A metaphor from oxen pushing back upon the goad, when they are pricked therewith, as Beza showeth out of Aeschilus.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

5. ] That Saul saw , as well as heard, Him who spoke with him, is certain from Ananias’s speech, Act 9:17 , and ch. Act 22:14 , that of Barnabas, Act 9:27 , from ch. Act 26:16 ( ), and from the references by Paul himself to his having seen the Lord, 1Co 9:1 ; 1Co 15:8 . These last I unhesitatingly refer to this occasion, and not to any subsequent one, when he saw the Lord , ch. Act 22:17 . Such appearances could hardly form the subject of autoptic testimony which should rank with that of the other apostles: this, on the contrary, was no , but the real bodily appearance of the risen Jesus : so that it might be adduced as the ground of testimony to His Resurrection.

On the words excluded from our text, as having been interpolated from ch. Act 26:14 , and Act 22:10 , see note at Act 26:14 . It is natural that the account of the historian should be less precise than that of the person concerned, relating his own history . In ch. Act 26:15-18 , very much more is related to have been said by the Lord: but perhaps he there, as he omits the subsequent particulars, includes the revelations made to him during the three days, and in the message of Ananias.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 9:5 . , ; the title is here used in reverent and awestruck response to the question of a speaker, in whose voice, accompanied as it was by the supernatural light, Saul recognised a divine utterance it is therefore more than a mere word of respect, as in Act 16:30 , Act 25:26 ; it indicates, as St. Chrysostum noted, a purpose to follow the voice, whether it was that of an angel or of God Himself (Felten), “Jam parat se ad obediendum, qui prius insaniebat ad persequendum,” Augustine. : both pronouns are emphatic, and contrasted: , cf. Act 20:8 , and note. For rest of verse see critical notes.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

the Lord. The texts read “He”.

Jesus. App-98.

it is hard, &c. The texts omit “it is hard”, &c. to “unto him”, in the middle of Act 9:6. The words were probably supplied from the personal narrative in Act 26:14.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

5. ] That Saul saw, as well as heard, Him who spoke with him, is certain from Ananiass speech, Act 9:17, and ch. Act 22:14,-that of Barnabas, Act 9:27,-from ch. Act 26:16 ( ), and from the references by Paul himself to his having seen the Lord, 1Co 9:1; 1Co 15:8. These last I unhesitatingly refer to this occasion, and not to any subsequent one, when he saw the Lord , ch. Act 22:17. Such appearances could hardly form the subject of autoptic testimony which should rank with that of the other apostles: this, on the contrary, was no , but the real bodily appearance of the risen Jesus: so that it might be adduced as the ground of testimony to His Resurrection.

On the words excluded from our text, as having been interpolated from ch. Act 26:14, and Act 22:10, see note at Act 26:14. It is natural that the account of the historian should be less precise than that of the person concerned, relating his own history. In ch. Act 26:15-18, very much more is related to have been said by the Lord: but perhaps he there, as he omits the subsequent particulars, includes the revelations made to him during the three days, and in the message of Ananias.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 9:5. ; who art thou?) Conscience itself would readily say, that it is Jesus.-, I) The very One whom thou persecutest am I, Jesus. [I Jesus am the very One whom, etc.]- , whom thou persecutest) The verb is repeated, with the emphatic pronoun , thou. This very verb Saul, when once stricken with terror, often from time to time brought back to his memory. In conversion, the will of a man is broken and melted: the Divine will is taken up [as the ruling principle henceforth]: ch. Act 16:30. As to the efficacy of such terror, comp. Exo 20:20; 2Sa 6:9; 1Ch 21:30. The most solid arguments for the truth of Christianity are afforded by the conversion of Saul, Act 9:21 : and he is an extraordinary example of the amplitude of free (gratuitous, undeserved) grace.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Who: 1Sa 3:4-10, 1Ti 1:13

I am: Act 26:9

it is: Act 5:39, Deu 32:15, Job 9:4, Job 40:9, Job 40:10, Psa 2:12, Isa 45:9, 1Co 10:22

Reciprocal: Gen 31:29 – Take Gen 45:3 – I am Joseph Gen 45:4 – I am Joseph Exo 23:22 – an enemy Num 24:9 – Blessed 1Sa 17:36 – seeing 2Sa 3:8 – do show 1Ki 13:4 – his hand 2Ch 13:12 – fight ye Ezr 6:12 – destroy Job 15:25 – he stretcheth Job 33:13 – strive Jer 2:3 – all that Dan 4:35 – none Mat 18:6 – offend Mat 21:10 – Who Mat 25:40 – ye have done it unto me Mat 25:45 – Inasmuch Joh 5:16 – persecute Act 2:37 – what Act 7:5 – yet Act 9:17 – the Lord Act 10:4 – What Act 16:29 – and came Act 26:14 – Saul 1Co 8:12 – ye sin against 1Co 9:1 – have 1Co 15:55 – sting Rev 11:5 – fire Rev 17:14 – shall make

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

5

Act 9:5. Who art thou? Saul did not know it was the Lord speaking or he would not have asked the question. The word translated Lord is rendered “sir” 12 times in the King James version, which means merely a title of respect and was all that Saul meant. It is Luke that tells us it was the Lord speaking, who told Saul that He was the person whom he was persecuting. This charge was made on the principle of Mat 25:45. Pricks is from KEN-TRON which Thayer defines, “an iron goad,” and explains it to mean, “for urging on oxen, horses and other beasts of burden.” If an animal kicks back when his master prods him with the goad, it only makes it pierce him the more. Likewise, if Saul continues to rebel against the authority of the Lord, it will make his experience that much more disagreeable at last.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Act 9:5. And he said, Who art thou, Lord? For a moment, perhaps, the awe-struck earnest Pharisee, while he gazed on the sweet face of the Master, which if he had not seen he must so often have heard described, in the midst of the glory, and listened to the voice speaking to him, might have doubted who it was. So he stammered out the question in the text; but the hesitation could have been but momentary. Conscience itself, as Bengel remarks, would whisper, It is Jesus; he hardly needed the reply which quickly came.

And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. Why this answer, asks Chrysostom, from the glorified One? Why did he not say, I am the Son of God, I am the Eternal Word, I am He that sitteth on the Fathers right hand, I am He that stretcheth out the heavens . . . who made the angels? . . . Why, instead of speaking these deep, grand, lofty words, did He say simply, I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest? … If He had said to him (Saul), I am the Son of God, I am the Eternal Word, He who made the heavens, then he (Saul) would have been able to reply, The object of my persecution was a different one from this . . . So the glorified One simply replied: I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest.

It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. These words are an interpolation here: they are borrowed from Pauls own account of his conversion (chap, xx Act 6:14), where they are undoubtedly genuine. See the Excursus at the end of this chapter, where the words are discussed at some length.

Excursus.

The Omitted Words of Ver. 5, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.[1]

[1] The words, It is hard for thee to kick against the ricks, occur in the Authorised Version in the account of t. Pauls conversion contained in Acts 9, but all critical editors of the New Testament concur in expunging these words in this first narration of the conversion, as they are not contained in any of the older authorities. But though his was no place for their insertion, there is no shadow of doubt but that the words were uttered by the Lord, for all Mss. unite in inserting them in St. Pauls own account of his conversion (Act 26:14).

A peculiar interest is attached to these words. They were uttered by the Risen and Ascended Lord; they have been acknowledged without dispute by the Christian Church from the earliest days as a voice from the glory-throne in heaven. It is therefore to be expected that certain schools of theological thought would endeavour to find in a saying surrounded by so extraordinary a sanctity, an authoritative approval of the views which they advocated.

The metaphor, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks, was a favourite one in the heathen world; as, for instance:

With God we may not strive

But to bow down the willing neck,

And bear the yoke, is wise;

To kick against the pricks will prove

A perilous emprise.[2]

[2] See Pindar, Pyth. ii. 173 (the transl. is by Plumptre).

It was frequently used both by Greek and Roman writers. We find it in the works of Pindar, schylus, and Euripides, and also in Plautus and Terence.[3] The words do not occur in any known collection of Hebrew Proverbs, but probably the same or a similar saying was current among the Jews.

[3 ]See sch. Prom. 323, Agamemn. 1633; Eur. Bacch. 791; Plautus, Truc. iv. 2. 59; Ter. Phormio, i. 2. 27.

The proverb, no doubt a most ancient one, if derived from oxen at the plough, which, on being pricked with the goad, kick against it, and so cause it to pierce them more severely. Its meaning here is obvious: it was useless, nay injurious, to resist Christ by persecuting His disciples. So St. Augustine (sermon 116): Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? I am in heaven, thou art on earth, and yet thou persecutest Me. It is not My head that thou touchest, but it is My members that thou treadest under foot. Professor Plumptre, however, with great force suggests that Saul had, in a peculiar and especial way, been for some time past kicking against the pricks. There had been promptings, misgivings, warnings, which he had resisted and defied. Among the causes of these we may reckon . . . the warning counsel of Gamaliel (chap, Act 5:34-39), the angel-face of Stephen and the martyrs dying prayer (chap. Act 6:15, Act 7:60), and the daily spectacle of those who were ready to go to prison and to death rather than to renounce the name of Jesus. In the frenzy of his zeal he had tried to crush these misgivings, and the effort to do so had brought with it discomfort and disquietude, which made him more exceeding mad against the disciples of the Lord. But this proverb used by the glorified Lord possesses its own peculiar importanceit teaches a great truth. To resist the call of Christ is ever a hard and profitless task; one, too, which is far beyond mans power. Such a course of action must ever end in utter ruin and wreck for the unhappy one who struggles to resist. But hopeless as is such a resistance, certain as is the ruin which follows, the teaching of the passage shows it is possible for any of us to resist the Redeemers voice, and by this stubborn resistance, not by any means to bar the progress of His kingdom, but to bring misery and destruction upon oneself. We are led to this conclusion by the statement of Act 26:19, which followed the recital of his meeting with Jesus on his way to Damascus: Whereupon . . . I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. He might then have been disobedient to this summons of his Lord had he pleased. The call to Saul of Tarsus, then, was no irresistible summons. St. Augustine (sermon clxix.) well puts it: Thou art angry, but I pity; why persecutest thou me? For I have no fear of thee that thou shouldest crucify ME a second time; my wish is that thou shouldest know ME, lest thou shouldest slay not ME but thine own self.

It should be noticed that this utterance of Christ from His throne was made in the old sacred Hebrew tongue. Now Saul, to whom the voice came, was more conversant with Greek than with Hebrew. He seems to have generally adopted Greek as the language in which he conveyed his teaching in eastern as well as in western lands. The proverb, too, was no Hebrew, but a famous and well-known Greek saying. Hence Bengels comment on the employment of the Hebrew tongue by the voice from heaven, deserves grave attention, even if we hesitate fully to accept his conclusions. Hebrew, he says, is Christs language on earth; His language, too, when speaking from heaven (see Excursus following chap. 26, where this question is fully discussed).

The careful comparison of the several parts of this section of the Acts of the Apostles one with another is of great importance. Worked out after the manner of the Horae Paulinae, it leads to evidential results of considerable value. With the direct narrative are to be compared(1) The account of Cornelius given by his messengers; (2) Peters account of his own experience to Cornelius; (3) Corneliuss account, in turn, of his own experience to Peter; (4) Peters apologetic account at Jerusalem. To fulfil the conditions of the argument drawn from undesigned coincidences, these various sections must be in harmony with one another: yet they must have sufficient variation to suit their several occasions; and those variations must not be contrived: the whole must fit easily and naturally together. These particulars will be noticed as we go on, and the result will be summed up at the close in an Excursus on the two accounts of the conversion of Cornelius.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

5, 6. Though his conscience was now aroused, and he knew full well that the vision before him was from heaven, he can not comprehend it until he knows who it is that speaks to him and asserts himself the object of his persecutions. (5) “And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute.” It is impossible for us, who have been familiar with the glory of our risen Savior from our infancy, to fully appreciate the feelings which must have flashed, like lightning, into the soul of Saul, upon hearing these words. Up to this moment he had supposed Jesus an impostor, cursed of God and man; and his followers blasphemers worthy of death; but now, this despised being is suddenly revealed to him in a blaze of divine glory. The evidence of his eyes and ears can not be doubted. There he stands, with the light of heaven and the glory of God around him, and he says, “I AM JESUS!” “Now is Jesus risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept.” Stephen was a blessed martyr, and I have shed innocent blood. My soul is guilty. “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” I have gloried in my shame. All that I have gained is lost. It is filth and refuse. I will throw myself upon his mercy. (6) “And he, trembling and astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” The die is cast. The proud spirit yields, and the whole mighty current of that soul is turned back in its channel, to flow forever, deeply and strongly, in the opposite direction.

The glorious power of the one great gospel proposition was never more forcibly illustrated than on this occasion. A moment ago, Saul was sternly, and with fearful calmness, pressing to the destruction of the cause of Jesus, but now he is a trembling suppliant at his feet. What has produced this change? It is not the fact that he has seen a light and heard a voice. For when he fell to the ground in alarm, his unbelief and ignorance still remained, and he still had to ask the question, “Who art thou?” Thus far, he is no more convinced that Jesus is the Christ than he was before; but he is convinced that the vision is divine, and this prepares him to believe what he may further hear. When that heavenly being, whose word he can not doubt, says, “I am Jesus,” one new conviction, that must, from its very nature, reverse all the purposes of his life, takes possession of his soul. To stifle its effects he is not able; to resist its impulse is contrary to the honesty of his nature; and he has no time, if he would, to steel his heart against it. The change flashes over him in an instant, and he lies there a penitent believer. The word of the Lord, miraculously attested, gives him faith. The conviction that Jesus, whom he had persecuted in the person of his disciples, is really the Lord of glory, brings him to repentance. He mourns over his sins, and yields his will. These facts reveal the glorious simplicity of gospel salvation; and while we contemplate them, the sickly talk about “irresistible grace,” which floats, like the green scum on a stagnant pool, over the pages of many commentaries, in reference to this conversion, is swept away, while the sights and sounds which haunt the memory of many a superstitious convert are driven back to dwell with the ghosts and hobgoblins of a night of ignorance now nearly gone.

To the question, What wilt thou have me to do? the Lord gave an answer which naturally divides itself into two parts. One part is given by Luke, in the verse before us, and by Paul, in his speech to the Jerusalem mob; the other, in the speech before Agrippa. The latter contains his commission as an apostle, and is expressed in these words: “I have appeared to thee for this purpose, to appoint thee a minister and a witness of the things which thou hast seen, and of those in which I will appear to thee, delivering thee from the people and the Gentiles, to whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins, and inheritance among the sanctified, by faith in me.” In this sentence, which we will notice more at length in its proper connection, Jesus states the object of his personal appearance to Saul, and gives him his commission as an apostle. The former was necessary to the latter; for an apostle must be a witness of the resurrection, and this he could not be without having seen him alive since his crucifixion. Having now seen him, not only alive, but glorified, his evidence was afterward classed with that of the original apostles and witnesses. If he had been converted without having seen the Lord, he would not have been an apostle, unless the Lord had afterward appeared to him to make him one. Instead of this, the Lord chose to appear to him in connection with his conversion. While this appearance was necessary to his apostleship, we may not assume that it was necessary to his conversion, unless we take the strange position that it was impossible for him to be convinced in any other way.

Before Saul could enter upon the office of an apostle, it was necessary that he should become a citizen of the kingdom of which he was to be a chief officer. The other portion of the Savior’s reply has reference to his duty in this particular. It is stated by Luke in these words, constituting the last clause of verse 6 , of which we have already quoted a part: “Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” Saul’s own statement of it is more minute: “Arise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee concerning all the things which are appointed for thee to do.” The things which he was to do as an apostle had just been told him, and concerning these there had been no previous appointment. The things which had been appointed for him to do concerned him in common with all other penitent sinners. These having been already appointed by the Lord himself, and their execution committed to the hands of faithful men, the Lord shows respect to his own transfer of authority, by sending the suppliant to Damascus to learn them.

During his personal ministry, Jesus sometimes spoke pardon, at once, to penitent sinners. But, since his resurrection from the dead, and the appointment, by formal enactment, of the terms of pardon, there is no instance of this kind. Moreover, his refusal to tell Saul his appointed duty, or to pardon him on the spot, establishes the presumption that he will not do so in any case. If there ever was an occasion on which we would expect the glorified Savior to speak pardon, in person, to a sinner, it is here, when he is in actual conversation with the penitent, and the request is formally preferred. But he refuses to do so. Those, therefore, who imagine themselves to have received a direct communication of pardon from Christ, either orally, or by an abstract spiritual agency, are deluded. They claim for themselves what was not accorded to Saul, and what is inconsistent with the order established in the kingdom of Christ. The reply to all inquirers, if Christ should now speak, would be, as it was then, Go to Damascus, and it shall be told you; Go to the apostles and evangelists of the New Covenant, and the answer will now be given you by Peter, Philip, Ananias, in the same words, and by the same authority, that it was then.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

Verse 5

Kick against the pricks; an image taken from the case of the ox, kicking against the goad by which he is driven.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: [it is] {c} hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

(c) This is a proverb which is spoken of those who through their stubbornness hurt themselves.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

In what sense did Saul address Jesus as Lord (Gr. kyrios)? It seems from Saul’s reaction to this vision and his descriptions of it later that he realized the person addressing him was God. "Lord" therefore seems to be more than a respectful "Sir." Yet God was Saul’s master already, even before he became a Christian, so he probably addressed the voice as his personal master as well as God. The identity of the voice was not completely clear to Saul. When Stephen had a similar vision, he recognized Jesus (Act 7:55-56), but Saul did not recognize Him. This may imply that Saul had never seen Jesus during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Or perhaps he asked "Who are you?" because, even though he believed God was speaking to him, he had never heard a voice from heaven before.

Jesus’ self-revelation totally shocked Saul who until then had regarded Jesus as a blasphemous pretender to Israel’s messianic throne. Saul now discovered that Jesus was God or at least with God in heaven, yet He was in some sense also present in His followers whom Saul was persecuting. Jesus again referred to Saul’s persecution of Himself, a doubly convicting reminder of Saul’s erroneous theology and sinful conduct. Jesus did not condemn him but graciously commanded him to enter Damascus and to wait for further directions from Himself. Saul learned that Jesus had a mission for him though he did not know what or how extensive it would be.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)