Paul’s earlier position toward Jesus:

v. 9. I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

v. 10. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem; and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.

v. 11. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Paul here makes a frank confession of his enmity toward Christ and his believers, in order to bring out all the more strikingly the grace he had received in his conversion. He himself in those days had been of the opinion, he had held firmly to the conviction: it was an obligation which was the result of his willful self-delusion that he must do much against, in opposition to, the name of Jesus of Nazareth. The name of Jesus was so hateful to him that he gave himself wholly to the persecution of those that professed belief in Christianity. In those days his zeal against Christ and the Church had not been one whit behind that of the entire family of Herod: he considered it his most important duty in life to prevent the confession of the name of Jesus, and to enforce this idea with persecution and slaughter. This he did in Jerusalem, being instrumental in shutting up many of the saints in prison, holding authority to that effect from the high priests. Note that Paul here deliberately calls those people saints whom he formerly had persecuted with such unquenchable hatred. And when the believers were put to death, he cast his vote in favor of the execution, either as a member of the Sanhedrin. as some think, or he spoke in favor of the measure, throwing all his persuasive abilities into the balance against the hated name. Neither was his bloodthirstiness satisfied with the executions which he succeeded in bringing about, but in all the synagogues he punished them often, being careful not to overlook a single one, and he forced them to blaspheme. not only to deny and renounce, but even to execrate Christ, in order to save their lives; he made the attempt again and again: and it is only too probable that he had success at least in some cases. His hatred finally drove him to extreme madness, to insanity, so far as the Christians were concerned, the very thought of the extension of the faith drove him wild with fury, and he continued his persecutions of them also into other cities outside of Jerusalem. He had good reasons, therefore, to describe himself as a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. 1Ti 1:13. His example is that of a man whom the enmity toward Christ will give no rest, neither by day nor by night, who feels compelled to hurt the course of the Gospel by every means at his disposal. Such people Christians must expect to meet in the performance of their duty, and the fact dare not cause them too much anxiety.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Act 26:9-10 . In consequence of this unbelief ( ), I myself was once a decided opponent of the name of Jesus.

] mihi ipsi videbar . See examples in Wetstein. The view of Erasmus, Calovius, de Dieu, and Vater, who connect with , is to be rejected; for with the dative, although not without example in classical writers (Xen. Mem iii. 3. 10, Anab . iii. 4. 35, Oecon . vii. 20; see Khner, 551, note 5; Schoem. ad Is . p. 380), is foreign to the N.T. has the emphasis of his own personal opinion: I had the self-delusion , that I ought to exert myself. “Tanta vis errantis conscientiae,” Bengel.

] in reference to the name , namely, in order to suppress the confession and invocation of it. Observe how Paul uses . according to his standpoint as Saul .

] which I also actually did. Comp. Gal 2:10 . This is then more particularly set forth by ( and indeed ) . . . Mark the difference between and ; see on Joh 3:20 .

] spoken from the Christian standpoint of the apostle, with grief. The also has painful emphasis.

. . ] and when they were put to death (when people were on the point of executing them) I have given vote (thereto), calculum adjeci , i.e. I have assented , , Act 22:20 . The plural . . is not, with Grotius, Kuinoel, and others, to be referred merely to Stephen, but also to other unknown martyrs, who met their death in the persecution which began with the killing of Stephen. Comp. Act 8:1 , Act 9:1 . Elsner and Kypke make the genitive dependent on , and in that, case take – in a hostile reference (comp. ). Harsh, and without precedent in linguistic usage; . . is the genitive absolute, and . is conceived with a local reference, according to the original conception of the (the voting-stone), which the voter deposits in the urn. Classical authors make use of the simple (Plat. Legg . vi. p. 766 B, p. 767 D, and frequently), also of , or ., or ., or . . But to in our passage corresponds the classical (Plat. Tim . p. 51 D; Eur. Or . 754; Dem. 362. 6, and frequently).

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

XVI

SAUL, THE PERSECUTOR

Act 7:57-60 ; Act 8:1-4 ; Act 22:4-5 ; Act 22:19-20 ; Act 26:9-11 ; 1Co 15:9 ; Gal 1:13 ; Gal 1:22-24 .

In a preceding chapter on Stephen we have necessarily considered somewhat a part of the matter of this chapter, and now we will restate only enough to give a connected account of Saul. In our last discussion we found Saul and other members of his family residents in Jerusalem, Saul an accomplished scholar, a rabbi, trained in the lore of the Jewish Bible and of their traditions, a member of the Sanhedrin, an extreme Pharisee, flaming with zeal, and aggressive in his religion, an intense patriot, about thirty-six years old, probably a widower, stirred up and incensed on account of the progress of the new religion of Jesus.

In considering this distinguished Jew in the role of a persecutor, we must find, first of all, the occasion of this marvelous and murderous outbreak of hatred on his part at this particular juncture, and the strange direction of its hostility. On three all-sufficient grounds we understand why Saul did not actively participate in the recent Sadducean persecution. First, the issue of that persecution was the resurrection, and on this point a Pharisee could not join a Sadducean materialist. Second, the motive of that persecution was to prevent the break with Rome, and Saul as a Pharisee wanted a break with Rome. Third, the direction of that persecution was mainly against the apostles and Palestinian Christians, who, so far, had made no break with the Temple and its services and ritual, or the customs of Moses. To outsiders they appeared as a sect of the Jews, agreeing, indeed, with the Pharisees on many points, and while they were hateful in their superstition as to the person of the Messiah, they were understood to preach a Messiah for Jews only and not for Gentiles. That is why Saul did not join the Sadducean persecution because of the issue of it, because of the motive of it, and because of the direction of it.

1. Five causes stirred him up to become a persecutor: First, the coming to the front of Stephen, the Hellenist, whose preaching evidently looked to a Messiah for the world, and not only looked to a break with Jerusalem and the Temple, but the abrogation of the entire Old Covenant, or at least its supercession by a New Covenant on broad, worldwide lines that made no distinction between a Jew and a Greek. That is the first cause of the persecuting spirit of Saul.

2. Stephen’s Messiah was a God-man and a sufferer, expiating sin, and bringing in an imputed righteousness through faith in him wrought by the regenerating Spirit, instead of a Jewish hero, seated on David’s earthly throne, triumphant over Rome, and bringing all nations into subjection to the royal law. This is the difference between the two Messiahs. So that kind of a Messiah would be intensely objectionable to Saul.

3. Stephen’s preaching was making fearful inroads among the flock of Saul’s Cilicean synagogue, and sweeping like a fire among the Israelites of the dispersion, who were already far from the Palestinian Hebrews.

4. Some of Saul’s own family were converted to the new religion, two of them are mentioned in the letter to the Romans as being in Christ before him, and his own sister, judging from Act 23 , was already a Christian.

5. Saul’s humiliating defeat in the great debate with Stephen.

These are the five causes that pushed the man out who had been passive in the other persecution, now to become active in this persecution. They account for the vehement flame of Saul’s hate, and the direction of that hate, not toward the apostles, who had not broken with the Holy City, its Temple, its sacrifice, nor the customs of Moses, but against Stephen and those accepting his broader view. We cannot otherwise account for the fact that Saul took no steps in his persecution against the apostles, while he did pursue the scattered Christians of the dispersion unto strange cities.

We may imagine Saul fanning the flame of his hate by his thoughts in these particulars:

1. “To call this Jesus ‘God’ is blasphemy.

2. “To call this convicted and executed felon ‘Messiah,’ violates the Old Testament teaching of David’s royal son triumphing over all of his enemies.

3. “That I, a freeborn child of Abraham, never in bondage, must be re-born, must give up my own perfect and blameless righteousness of the law to accept the righteousness of another, is outrageous.

4. “That I must see Jerusalem perish, the Temple destroyed, the law of the Mosaic covenant abrogated, and enter into this new kingdom on the same humiliating terms as an uncircumcised Gentile, is incredible and revolting.

5. “That this Hellenist, Stephen, should invade my own flock and pervert members of my own family, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen [Rom 16:7 ], and my own sister [Act 23:16 ], and shake the faith of my other kinsmen, Jason and Sosipater [Rom 16:21 ], is insulting to the last degree.

6. “That I, the proud rabbi, a member of the supreme court of my people, the accomplished and trained logician, should be overwhelmed in debate by this unscholarly Stephen, and that, too, in my own chosen field the interpretation of the Law, Prophets, and Psalms, is crucifixion of my pride and an intolerable public shame. Let Stephen perish!

7. “But more humiliating than all, I find myself whipped inside. This Stephen is driving me with goads as if I were an unruly ox. His words and shining face and the Jesus he makes me see, plant convicting pricks in my heart and conscience against which I kick in vain; I am like a troubled sea casting up mire and filth. To go back on the convictions of my life is abject surrender. To follow, then, a logical conclusion, is to part from the counsel of my great teacher, Gamaliel, and to take up the sword of the Sadducee and make myself the servant of the high priest. Since I will not go back, and cannot stand still, I must go forward in that way that leads to prison, blood, and death, regardless of age or sex. Perhaps I may find peace. The issue is now personal and vital; Stephen or Saul must die. To stop at Stephen is to stop at the beginning of the way. I must go on till the very name of this Jesus is blotted from the earth.”

That is given as imagined, but you must bring in psychology in order that you may understand the working of this man’s mind to account for the flaming spirit and the desperate lengths of the persecution which he introduces.

Seven things show the spirit of this persecution, as expressed in the New Testament:

1. In Act 8:3 (Authorized Version), the phrase, “making havoc” is used. That is the only time in the New Testament that the word “havoc” is found. It is found in the Septuagint of the Old Testament. But it is a word which expresses the fury of a wild boar making havoc a wild boar in a garden: rooting, gnashing, and trampling. That phrase, “making havoc,” gives us an idea of the spirit that Saul had, which is the spirit of a wild boar.

2. In Act 9:1 , it is said of Saul, “Yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter.” How tersely expressed that is! The expiration of his breath is a threat, and death. Victor Hugo, in one place, said about a man, “Whenever he respires he conspires,” and that is the nearest approach in literature to this vivid description of the state of a man’s mind that the very breath he breathed was threatenings and slaughter.

3. The next word is found in Act 26:11 . He says, “being exceedingly mad against them.” That is the superlative degree. He was not merely angry at the Christians, but it was an anger that amounted to madness; he was not merely mad but “exceedingly mad.” So that gives you the picture of that wild boar.

4. “He haled men and women.” “Haled” is an old Anglo Saxon word. We don’t use it now, but it means “to drag by violence.” He didn’t go and courteously arrest a man; he just went and grabbed men and women and dragged them through the streets. Imagine a gray-haired mother, a chaste wife, a timid maiden, grabbed and dragged through the streets, with a crowd around mocking, and you get at the spirit of this persecution.

5. The next word is “devastate.” Paul used this word twice, and Ananias used it once (Act 9:21 ). That word is the term that is applied to an army sweeping a country with fire and sword. We say that Sherman devastated Georgia. He swept a scope of country seventy-five miles wide from Atlanta to the sea, leaving only the chimney stacks not a house, not a fence with fire and sword. And that word is here employed to describe Saul’s persecution.

6. Twice in Galatians he uses this word in describing it: “I persecuted them beyond measure,” that is, if you want to find some kind of a word that would describe his persecution, in its spirit, you couldn’t find it; you couldn’t find a word that would mean “beyond measure.”

7. The last phrase is in Act 22:4 , “unto death.” That was objective in spirit, whether men or women. These seven expressions, and they are just as remarkable, and more so, in the Greek, as they are in English, give the spirit of this persecution.

The following things show the extent of this persecution:

1. Domiciliary visits. He didn’t wait to find a man on the streets acting in opposition to any law. He goes to the houses after them, and in every place of the world. The most startling exercise of tyranny is an inquisition into a man’s home. The law of the United States regards a man’s home as his castle, and only under the most extreme circumstances does the law allow its officers to enter a man’s home. If you were perfectly sure that a Negro had burglarized your smokehouse, and you had tracked him to his house, you couldn’t go in there, you couldn’t take an officer of the law in there, unless you went before a magistrate and recorded a solemn oath that you believed that he was the one that did burglarize your place, and that what he stole would be found if you looked for it in his house.

2. In the second place, “scourges.” He says many times I have scourged them, both men and women, forty stripes save one; thirty-nine hard lashes he put on the shoulders of men and women. Under the Roman law it was punishable with death to scourge a Roman citizen. Convicts, or people in the penitentiary, can be whipped. Roman lictors carried a bundle of rods with which they chastised outsiders, but on home people they were never used. Cicero makes his great oration against Veres burn like fire when it is shown that Veres scourged Roman citizens. Seldom now do we ever hear of a case where a man is dragged out of his house and publicly whipped by officers of the law, just on account of his religion.

3. The next thing was imprisonment. He says, “Oftentimes I had them put in prison.” A thunderbolt couldn’t be more sudden than his approach to a house. Thundering at the door, day or night, gathering one of the inmates up, taking him from the home and taking him to jail. What would you think of somebody coming to your house when you were away in the night, and dragging your wife and putting her in jail, just because she was worshiping God according to the dictates of her conscience? We live in a good country over here. We have never been where these violent persecutions were carried on.

4. He says that when they were put to death he gave his voice against them. He arrested them and scourged them, and then in the Sanhedrin he voted against them.

5. In the next place he compelled them to blaspheme. The Greek doesn’t mean that he succeeded in making them blaspheme, but that he was trying to make them blaspheme. For instance, he would have a woman up, and there was the officer ready to give her thirty-nine lashes in open daylight: “You will get this lashing unless you blaspheme the name of Jesus,” Paul would say. Pliny, in writing about the Christians in the country over which he presided when he was ordered to persecute the Christians, says, “I never went beyond this: I never put any of them to death if when brought before me he would sprinkle a little incense before a Roman god. If he would Just do that I wouldn’t put him to death.”

6. Expatriation, ex , from, patria terra , “one’s fatherland” exiled from one’s country. It was an awful thing on those people at a minute’s notice either to recant or else just as they were, without a minute’s preparation, to go off into exile, father, mother, and children. The record says, “They were all scattered abroad except the apostles.”

7. Following them into exile into strange countries, and cities, getting a commission to go after them and arrest them, even though they had gotten as far from Jerusalem as Damascus.

8. The last thing in connection with the extent of this persecution is to see, first, the size or number of the church. Let us commence with 120 (that is, before Pentecost), add 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, add multitudes daily, add at another time 5,000 men and women, add twice more, multitudes, multitudes, then we may safely reach the conclusion that there were 100,000 Jewish communicants in that first church at Jerusalem. That represents a great many homes. This man Paul goes into every house, he breaks up every family. They are whipped; they are imprisoned; they are put to death or they are expatriated; and over every road that went out from Jerusalem they were fleeing, the fire of persecution burning behind them. The magnitude of the persecution has never been fully estimated.

There are eight distinct references by him in two speeches and four letters that show his own impressions of this sin. One of them you will find in the address that he delivered on the stairway in Jerusalem when he himself was a prisoner (Act 22 ); another one is found in his speech at Caesarea before King Agrippa (Act 26 ). You will find two references in Gal 1 of the letter to the Galatians (1:13, 23) ; there is one in 1Co 15:15 ; another in Phi 3 ; still another, and a most touching one, when he was quite an old man (1 Timothy). We may judge of the spirit and the extent of a thing by the impression that it leaves on the mind of the participator.

Everything that he inflicted on others, he subsequently suffered. He had them to be punished with forty stripes save one; five times he submitted to the same punishment. He had them put in prison; “oftentimes” he was imprisoned. He had them expatriated; so was he. He had them pursued in the land of expatriation; so was he. He had them stoned; so was he. He attempted to make them blaspheme; so they tried to make him blaspheme under Nero, or die, and he accepted death. He had them put to death; so was he. Early in his life, before a great part of his sufferings had yet commenced, we find his catalogue of the things that he suffered in one of the letters to the Corinthians, and just how many particular things that he had suffered up to that time.

Two considerations would naturally emphasize his unceasing sorrow for this sin:

1. His persecution marked the end of Jewish probation, the closing up of the last half of Daniel’s week, in which the Messiah would confirm the covenant with many. From this time on until now, only an occasional Jew has been converted. Paul did it; he led his people to reject the church of God and the Holy Spirit of God, the church which was baptized in the Spirit, and attested by the Spirit. He, Saul, is the one that pushed his people off the ground of probation and into a state of spiritual blindness judicial blindness from which they have not yet recovered.

2. The second thought that emphasized this impression was that he thereby barred himself, when he became a Christian, from doing much preaching to this people. In Rom 9 he says, “I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” “I bear them witness,” he says in the next chapter, “that they have a zeal for God,” and in Act 22 he says that when he was in the Temple wanting to preach to Jews, wanting to be a home missionary, God appeared to him, and said, “Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem; because they will not receive of thee testimony concerning me.” That was one of the most grievous things of his life, and we find it, I think (some may differ from me on this), manifested in the last letter of his first Roman imprisonment the letter to the Hebrews. He wouldn’t put his name to it. He didn’t want to prejudice its effect, and yet he did want to speak to his people.

Let us compare this persecution with Alva’s in the Netherlands, and the one following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In a few words, it is this: There were two great bodies of Christian people, so-called, in France the Romanists and the Huguenots. Henry of Navarre was a Huguenot. He became king of France, outwardly abjuring his Huguenot principles, but on the condition that liberty of conscience should be allowed to the people. His grandson, Louis XIV, revoked that great edict of toleration, and by its revocation, in one moment, commanded hundreds of thousands of his people to adopt the king’s religion. If they didn’t, troops or soldiers were placed in their homes with the privilege of maltreating them, and destroying their property, without being held responsible for any kind of brutal impiety that they would commit. Their young children were taken away from the mothers and put in the convents to be reared in the Romanist faith; the men had their goods confiscated, and in hundreds of thousands of instances were put to death. They were required to recant or leave France at once. Before they got to the coast an army came to bring them back, and when some of them did escape, my mother’s ancestors, the Huguenots, when that edict was revoked, came to South Carolina. Some of them went to Canada, some to other countries where there was extradition. The Romanists pursued them, and when they were able to capture them, brought them back to France to suffer under the law. Some of those that reached Canada left the settlements and went to live among the Indian tribes. There they were pursued.

When Alva came into the Netherlands (Belgium and Holland), the lowlands, under Philip, the King of Spain, the inquisition was set up and he entered the homes; he made domiciliary visits; he compelled them to blaspheme; he put to death the best, the most gifted, those holding the highest social and moral positions in the land, to the astonishment of the world. With one stroke of his pen he not only swept away all of their property, but anyone that would speak a kind word to them, or would keep them all night in the house, such a person was put to death. All over that country there was the smoke going up of their burning, and the bloodiest picture in the annals of the world was what took place when Alva’s soldiers captured a city. I would be ashamed before a mixed audience to tell what followed. The devastation was fearful.

This persecution illustrates the proverb, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Whenever Saul put one to death, a dozen came up to take the place of that one. Indeed, he himself caught on his own shoulders the mantle of Stephen before it hit the ground, as God put the mantle of Elijah on Elisha, and as God made John the Baptist the successor in spirit to Elijah. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

The effect of this persecution on the enlargement of the kingdom, and on missions, was superb. Those Jewish Christians in Jerusalem those terrapins would never have crawled away from there, if Saul hadn’t put fire on their backs, but when the fire began to burn and they began to run, as they ran, they preached everywhere. It was like going up to a fire and trying to put it out by kicking the chunks. Whenever a chunk is kicked it starts a new fire. When that persecution came, then Philip, driven out, preached to the Samaritans. Then men of Cyrene, pushed out, preached to Greeks in Antioch, and they opened up a fine mission field. Peter himself, at last, was led to see that an uncircumcised Gentile like Cornelius could be received into the kingdom of God. So it had a great deal to do with foreign missions.

The effect of this persecution in bringing laymen to the front was marvelous. They never did come to the front in the history of the world as they did in this persecution. The apostles were left behind. The preachers right in the midst of the big meeting in which 100,000 people had been converted, were left standing there, surrounded by empty pews, with no congregation. The congregation is now doing the preaching. A layman becomes an evangelist. These people carry the word of God to the shores of the Mediterranean, into Asia Minor, to Rome, to Ephesus, to Antioch, to Tarsus, to the ends of the earth, and laymen do an overwhelming part of this work.

It is well, perhaps, in this connection to explain how Saul, in this persecution, could put to death Christian people, since they, the Jews, had no such authority. In the case of Christ we know that it was necessary for the Jews to obtain Roman authority in order to put to death, but just as this time Pontius Pilate was recalled, the Roman Procurator was withdrawn, and a very large part of the Roman military force and the successor of Pilate had not arrived, so the Jews were left pretty much to themselves until that new procurator with new legions came to the country.

QUESTIONS 1. What of Saul already considered in a preceding chapter?

2. Why did not Saul participate actively in the Sadducean persecution?

3. What five causes stirred him up to become a persecutor?

4. How may we imagine Saul fanning the flame of his bate by his thoughts?

5. What seven things show the spirit of this persecution as expressed in the New Testament?

6. What things show the extent of this persecution?

7. What eight distinct references by him in two speeches and four letters which show his own impressions of this sin?

8. What were his own sufferings, in every particular? Were they such as he inflicted?

9. What two considerations would naturally emphasize the unceasing sorrow for this sin?

10. Compare this persecution with Alva’s in the Netherlands and the one following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

11. How does this persecution illustrate the proverb, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church”?

12. What was the effect of this persecution on the enlargement of the kingdom, and missions?

13. What was the effect of this persecution in bringing laymen to the front?

14. How do you explain that, in this persecution, Saul could put to death Christian people, since they, the Jews, had no such authority?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

9 I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Ver. 9. Contrary to the name, &c. ] Tertullian testifieth, that in the primitive Christians, nomen damnabatur, non crimen aut scelus: solum nomen innocuum, hominibus innocuis esse pro crimine, &c. And Tacitus to the same purpose, that when Nero had set the city on fire for his pleasure, and then fathered it upon the Christians, a great company of them were presently slaughtered, haud perinde in crimine incendii, quam odio humani generis, convicti: Not for any fault whereof they could be convicted, but out of a general hatred of their persons and religion.

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

9. ] Henceforward he passes to his own history, how he once refused, like them, to believe in Jesus: and shews them both the process of his conversion, and the ministry with which he was entrusted to others.

, well then , resuming the character described Act 26:4-5 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 26:9 . : the words may be taken as simply resuming the narrative of the Apostle’s life which he had commenced in Act 26:4-5 , the three succeeding verses forming a parenthesis, or as an answer to the question of Act 26:8 , the real antithesis to , Act 26:9 , and the narrative, Act 26:9-11 , being found in Act 26:12 and what follows. On see Rendall, Acts , Appendix, p. 163, and also Page on Act 2:41 , Acts , pp. 94, 95; see also critical note above. : mihi ipsi videbar ; so in classical Greek. If with Weiss, Wendt, Bethge we lay stress on ., the Apostle explains the fact that this obligation was his own wilful self-delusion. In classical Greek instead of the impersonal construction we have frequently the personal construction with the infinitive as here, cf. 2Co 10:9 only in Luke and Paul, indication of literary style, Viteau, Le Grec du N.T. , p. 152 (1893). . ., see on Act 4:10 ; Act 4:12 . , cf. Act 28:17 , and also 1Th 2:15 , Tit 2:8 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act 26:9-11

9″So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. 11And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.”

Act 26:9 Paul (eg, “I” and emaut, “myself”) confesses his misdirected religious enthusiasm, which he now realizes was not the will of God (cf. 1Ti 1:13). He thought that by persecuting the followers of Jesus he was serving God and pleasing God. Paul’s world and worldview totally changed on the Damascus road (cf. Acts 9).

“the name” This Semitic idiom means “ther person of” (cf. Act 3:6; Act 3:16). This is no magic formula, but a personal relationship!

“Jesus of Nazareth” See Special Topics at Act 2:22.

Act 26:10 “the saints” Literally this is “the holy ones.” Paul knew now exactly whom he had persecuted and killed, God’s people! What a shock, sorrow, and enlightenment Paul’s Damascus vision must have been, a total reorientation of thought and life!

For “saints” see Special Topic at Act 9:13.

“having received authority” Paul was the “official” persecutor for the Sanhedrin.

“when they were being put to death” This shows the intensity of the persecution. The “Way” was not a minor issue; it was a life-and-death issue and it still is!

“cast my vote against them” This is the technical word in Greek for an official vote either in the Sanhedrin or a local synagogue. But because no local synagogue could/would vote on death issues, it was probably the Sanhedrin. If it was in the Sanhedrin, then Paul had to have been married. The term originally meant “a pebble,” which was used to cast a voteeither a black one or a white one (cf. Rev 2:17)

Act 26:11 “tried to force” This is an imperfect tense of a Greek term that means to force or compel (cf. Act 28:19), but here it is used in the sense of tried. It refers to a repeated action in past time.

“to blaspheme” Saul attempted to force them to publicly affirm their faith in Jesus as the Messiah and then condemn them. In later persecutions, believers were forced to reject faith in Christ, but this context is a different cultural situation.

NASB”being furiously enraged”

NKJV”being exceedingly enraged”

NRSV”I was so furiously enraged”

TEV”I was so furious”

NJB”my fury against them was so extreme”

This is a very intense adverb (“much more”) and participle (present middle [deponent]). Festus uses the same root for Paul (i.e., rave in Act 26:24)

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

verily = therefore indeed.

to = unto. Greek. pros. App-104.

the name. See Act 2:38.

Jesus. App-98.

of Nazareth = the Nazarene. See Act 2:22. This is the seventh and last occ of the title in Acts.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

9.] Henceforward he passes to his own history,-how he once refused, like them, to believe in Jesus: and shews them both the process of his conversion, and the ministry with which he was entrusted to others.

, well then, resuming the character described Act 26:4-5.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 26:9. , I thought with myself, I seemed to myself bound) even above others.-, that I ought) So great is the power of the conscience even when in error.- , many things contrary) not as others, who neither treat with respect, nor yet injure (Christians). These contrary things the language of Paul enumerates with a remarkable increase of force.-) , presently. The words differ, as we observe elsewhere.[143]

[143] , agere; , facere. expresses the general state of the conduct and practice: , the particular acts.-E. and T.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Visions and Obedience

Wherefore, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.Act 26:19.

1. To the critic of the Christian religion there has always been one insuperable difficulty. That difficulty is St. Paul. Wherever the critic goes, and however successful he may find or fancy himself elsewhere in explaining and analysing, that strange, heroic figure stands before him on every path. How came St. Paul to be converted? How came this learned and dogmatic Pharisee to be the most devoted champion of a despised and rejected Christ? No adequate answer has ever been found to those questions, save the answer of St. Paul himself: that in one way or another he had seen a heavenly vision, and had not been disobedient to the call.

2. The scene suggested by the text is worth recalling. It was about the year a.d. 60, and Paul lay a prisoner in the Prtorium of Csarea. Two years he had been there, suffering on the most vexatious and frivolous of charges. Felix had little doubt of his innocence; and his conscience had been roused to painful activity by the Apostles arguments on righteousness, on the duty of self-restraint, and on the certainty of coming judgment. But a habit of self-seeking had long asserted its sway over conscience, and, to curry favour with the Jewish fanatics, Felix had gone out of office, leaving Paul bound.

Festus had come. Paul had naturally declined his unfair proposal to be tried at Jerusalem, and had appealed to Rome. Festus may have been annoyed at such rejection, but he was a man of sufficient capacity to recognize the high intellectual gifts and commanding character of the prisoner. Agrippa and his sister Bernice had come to pay court to him, and in conversation Festus mentioned the case of St. Paul. It excited the interest of Agrippa, who expressed a desire himself to hear the prisoner plead. It was an opportunity for Festusan opportunity for hearing the opinion of a Jew of distinction upon a question so perplexing to a Roman official as the law of heresy; an opportunity, also, for paying a compliment to his distinguished friends, and using Paul to make a Roman holiday.

The audience took place in the Prtorian Palace. Very striking the scene must have been. In the chair of state, and in the splendid hall, sat Festus, wearing the robes of office and representing the majesty of Rome. The hall was filled with soldiers; the procurator was attended by the officers of his guard and of the legions in their military accoutrements, and by the representatives of civic authority in their official robes. Then came the Jewish sovereign and his sister with the fullest pageantry of State. They were young, and Bernice was beautiful with the personal beauty which seemed to belong to the race of the Herods, in striking contrast to their moral depravity. Nothing that could make the occasion splendid and impressive was wanting. When all was ready the prisoner was called.

Paul appeared manacled and was conducted between guards to the judgment-seat, and the hearing began. The prisoner spoke of his earlier life and convictions; of his unflinching opposition to the nascent Christian sect; of his treatment of Stephen; then of the light which flashed upon him, convincing him of his mistake and showing him the truth; and then of his after action. Whereupon, he said, as he related the turning-point in his careerWhereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.

I

Visions

i. The Visions and Ideals of Life

1. I was not disobedient, he says, unto the heavenly vision. St. Paul is speaking of an experience which has come, in some form or other, to all great and good menthe dream, the vision, the sudden illuminating conviction of a Divine strength and a Divine consolationthe sense of a finger pointing and of a voice calling upward to a higher life, This is the way, walk ye in it. Those moments of light and inspiration will be found, sometimes in strange shapes, in the life of every great prophet or reformer. All the leading men of Old Testament historyJacob, Elijah, Isaiah, Ezekielhad some experience similar to St. Pauls: Jacob when he wrestled at Peniel with that mysterious Presence, and would not let Him go until He had blessed him with a new name, a new and serious thought of life and its deep meaning; Elijah when, from the darkness of his lonely cave amid the mountains, he heard a still, small voice, and was comforted; Isaiah when he saw the Lord sitting enthroned in His temple, and felt the angel lay upon his lips the live coal taken from the burning altar; Ezekiel when, as he sat captive by the river of Chebar, the heavens were opened upon him, and he saw visions of Godthe four Cherubim coming out of the whirlwind, and the glory of the sapphire throne.

2. Now, the revelation that is made to the understanding and the heart, to the spirit and the will, is the same whether it be made, as it was to Paul, through a heavenly vision; or, as it was to the other Apostles, through the facts of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, which their senses certified to them; or, as it is to us, by the record of the same facts, permanently enshrined in Scripture. Pauls sight of Christ was for a moment; we can see Him as often and as long as we will, by turning to the pages of Scripture. Pauls sight of Christ was accompanied with but a partial apprehension of the great and far-reaching truths which he was to learn and to teach, as embodied in the Lord whom he saw. To see Him was the work of a moment, to know Him was the effort of a lifetime. We have the abiding results of the lifelong process lying ready to our hands in Pauls own letters. And we have not only the permanent record of Christ in the Gospels instead of the transient vision in the heavens, and the unfolding of the meaning and bearings of the historical facts in the authoritative teaching of the Epistles; but we have also, in the history of the Church founded on these, in the manifest workings of a Divine power for and through the company of believers (as well as in the correspondence between the facts and doctrines of Christianity and the wants of humanity), a vision disclosed and authenticated as heavenly, more developed, fuller of meaning and more blessed to the eyes which see it than was poured upon the persecutor as he reeled from his horse on the way to the great city.

3. Besides outward and ordinary means, there are also golden moments of inspiration and encouragement; and such moments we all can and ought to watch for. Dull indeed, or very depraved, is the life that never knows them. Even the most apparently commonplace career is often lightened by them, unknown to men; and many are the channels through which God sends them into the twilight in which we move. Sometimes they come through the conversation of a friend, sometimes through the appeal of a noble life; now it is the voice of conscience that brings them, now it is the pathos or terror of some passing event; or, again, we receive them from a poets art, or from a wandering melody, or even from a purple blossom of the woods. There is no mysticism, no idle dreaming here: men have been strangely guided by such things ere now; they are strangely guided by them to-day. Doubtless we are the creatures of a mood: but then it is the higher moods that we have to seek, and these are some of the ways in which we find them.

A short time ago, at a Convention in which I had to take some part, a working man rose to give a testimony. He told us that he was the son of a Dorset labourer, that twenty years ago he came to Lancashire to work in the mill, that he was converted in the church where we met, and that ever since he had been a worker in the church. But last year he was stricken with an illness, and his spiritual joy left him. The depression was almost unbearable. One morning he started out for the moors. It was a beautiful May day, and the air was filled with the singing of the birds, and the heather was lit up with sunshine. The impulse to pray came upon him, and for an hourto use his own wordsfor an hour upon my knees I held a conversation. Suddenly I was wonderfully conscious of the Divine Presence. Christ spoke to me. He showed me the print of the nails and the wounded side, and my heart exclaimed, My Lord and my God. Then said he, Account for it as you may, but there streamed in upon me a heavenly joy which I had never known before, and which has never left me. It fills me with song. It transfigures my work. It gives me power. Such was his testimony.1 [Note: W. Redfern.]

4. Of course we must not look for heavenly visions of a miraculous kind. Our unimportance in the history of the world would not warrant us in indulging in any such vain anticipations. But in due measure and in proportion to that which we are, those very dreams of youth which inspire us to think and then to plan and to work, are Gods way of arousing us to fill worthily that place in life towards which He is calling us; and we should in that sense accept and obey the heavenly vision that is granted to us. Such day-dreams are often enough disfigured and degraded by elements of mere selfish and earthly ambition; but it is the province of religion to purge our ideals, while the ideal itself would perhaps be too little attractive if at the first it revealed itself to us in that austere form which on closer acquaintance we find that it really possesses.

Nobody is without ideals of heroism, of self-devotion, or disinterestedness. They are very common in books; they are not uncommon in life. Everybody knows some men and women whose hearts are touched with a profound pity for the infinite sorrows of humanity, whose lives are more or less governed by that pity; who count it a better thing (when opportunity offers) to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction than to spend a merry evening among their own. Everybody sees what a beneficent thing a womans life may be when it is wholly given up to the service of humanity and of God. You may be as keenly alive to the errors and mischiefs of Romanism as any one; but when you take note of one of those little Sisters of the Poor and the kind of life they lead, you perceive at once that they have seen a very heavenly Vision and are entirely obedient to it. Their active devotion to the needs of others belongs not in any sense to Romanism; it belongs to Christianity pure and simple. If one should compare their life with the life of an ordinary woman of fashion in this city, one sees that it possesses unspeakably more of nobility, more of happiness, more of reward, even in this world. No one can miss that.1 [Note: R. Winterbotham.]

I fear not Thy withdrawal; more I fear,

Seeing, to know Thee nothoodwinked with dreams

Of signs and wonderswhile, unnoticed, Thou,

Walking Thy garden still, communst with men,

Missed in the commonplace of Miracle!2 [Note: Dora Farncomb, The Vision of His Face, 4.]

5. But it is not by the gift of ideals only that Gods hand is found in our lives. It is by their constant surrender and the acceptance of higher ideals in their place. There was a vision before the eye of Saul of Tarsus, of this earth, and, in part, of his own creating. It took shape in a great measure out of the circumstances of his birth; it was such a vision as would naturally be seen by one who was of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews. Moreover, the vision took the colour of that strictest sect of the Jews religion to which he who saw it belonged. It was the vision of a justification wrought out for the man by the man himself, a salvation of his own obtaining; the dream of a life by which he would become touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. Perhaps, too, there rose before the mind of Saul a vision of fame and renown. His Epistles point him out as a man of profound intellectual power; his lifes story declares him a man of marvellous energy, daring, persistency. He had attached himself to the most illustrious rabbi of his day, one of the most celebrated in the records of Judaism. Might not this young Pharisee hope to succeed to some measure of the fame and influence of his master Gamaliel, and to be written on the same roll of merit with those whom his nation and generation delighted to honourSimon the Just, Abtalyon, and the great Hillel? Circumstances favoured such ambition; he was a young man, but apparently he was already wielding influence in the ecclesiastic councils of his peoplegiving his vote, and entrusted with inquisitorial powers. Probably if one part of this self-made earthly vision glowed with brighter hues, it was the destruction of the Nazarene heresy: against this, to use his own words, he was exceeding mad. But there rose before him another vision; no longer a self-made and earthly, but, as he terms it, a heavenly vision. It showed him the men and women, whom he would hale to prison, would condemn to suffering or death, or compel to blaspheme: but heSaul of Tarsuswas of that martyr-throng. It showed him that Jesus, whom they acknowledged as the Messiah and the Son of God as persecuted by Saul, and demanding, Why persecutest thou me?

Many the fields we reap,

And the secrets we divine;

We sink where the dim pearls sleep,

And soar where the planets shine,

While the race, with its restless heart, doth creep

Toward the far, grey limit-line.

The treasures weve won are nought,

The treasures to win are all;

The thing that the seeker sought

Is heldand then let fall;

For the prize well-grasped is not worth a thought

When the ungrasped gives a call.

The best is but the best

While it lies beyond the hand;

The subtle joy of the quest

Is the hope by the questing fanned;

And no man loveth the land possessed

As he loveth the promised land.

Thus doth the life indeed

Call to the life that seems;

Ever a larger creed

Stands writ in the land of dreams,

And read when the gloom of a wordless need

Is pierced by a far worlds gleams.

Thus it hath ever been,

And thus shall it ever be

This spell of the things not seen

Cast over the things we see

Till the gain and the praise of the days look mean

In the dream of eternity.1 [Note: P. C. Ainsworth, Poems and Sonnets, 12.]

It has been pointed out by the great Brighton preacher, Frederick Robertson, that it is largely by illusions that God in His mercy leads us on; as we find to have been the case in the story of His chosen people. And this same thought is also well illustrated in two verses (one of them autobiographical) written by Cardinal Newman about the year 1836

Did we but see,

When life first opend, how our journey lay

Between its earliest and its closing day,

Or view ourselves, as we one time shall be,

Who strive for the high prize, such sight would break

The youthful spirit, though bold for Jesus sake.

But Thou, dear Lord!

Whilst I traced out bright scenes which were to come,

Isaacs pure blessings, and a verdant home,

Didst spare me, and withhold Thy fearful word;

Wiling me, year by year, till I am found

A pilgrim pale, with Pauls sad girdle bound.

The dreams of boyhood are mostly dreams of realized ambition; and such dreams need, it is true, purification by the motives of religion; yet they are not to be despised; for ambitions are often noble in themselves, and the youth who in a kind of vision sees himself as a man living and acting as he would wish to live and act is really helped towards the realization of his ideal by the thrill of mingled hope and triumph that affects his whole frame when he pictures to himself the moment when he will have reached that climax of his hopes, which it is wholly honourable in him to desire to reach. Without some such heavenly visionfor these things are from God, or are at any rate permitted by Himmany a man who has served God and his country well would have frittered away his energies in useless or in ignoble pursuits, and, unmanned by depression, would never have achieved anything at all.1 [Note: A. W. Hutton.]

I go down from the hills half in gladness, and half with a pain I depart,

Where the Mother with gentlest breathing made music on lip and in heart;

For I know that my childhood is over: a call comes out of the vast,

And the love that I had in the old time like beauty in twilight is past.

I am fired by a Danaan whisper of battles afar in the world,

And my thought is no longer of peace, for the banners in dream are unfurled,

And I pass from the council of stars and of hills to a life that is new:

And I bid to you stars and you mountains a tremulous long adieu.

I will come once again as a master, who played here as child in my dawn,

I will enter the heart of the hills where the gods of the old world are gone.

And will war like the bright Hound of Ulla with princes of earth and of sky.

For my dream is to conquer the heavens and battle for kingship on high.1 [Note: A. E., The Divine Vision, 24.]

ii. The Source of our Visions

1. Great ideals are the glory of man. No other creatures here can have them; only men may receive an inspiration that shall raise them above themselves. This being so, whence comes the ideal? It is not of man himself, obviously, but of God. So Moses could have no inspiring ideal of what Israel might be, and should be one day, an ideal that should possess his imagination, and fill his soul with a holy gleam of hope, abiding with him day and night, and making him strong to endure and to do, unless the pattern had been shown to him in the mount. But there God had unveiled to him all the possibilities of that people of Israel, and thenceforth Moses set himself, by Gods help, to make the vision real. In like manner, Paul could not have portrayed for himself the glowing picture of a regenerate Roman world, all bowing in adoration to the Crucified, had not the glory, beyond the brightness of the sun, shone from the heavens, blinding, for a while, the natural vision, but photographing itself indelibly on the soul; so that thenceforth only one thing could he dotraverse city and country, land and sea, toil-tired but untiringly, and endure infamy and death, if only he might reduce vision to fact, and make his high imaginations actual realities. So all mans true ideals, of personal life and of service for mans sake, are of God.

2. Our ideals may come to us mediately. They shine before us in the lives of noble men, they burn with quenchless fire in the poems of the ages, they lift their fair beauty before our view in the manifold Scriptures of God, and they show themselves as at once ideal and real in the glory of the Only Begotten, full of grace and truth (Joh 1:14). But, mediately as these ideals may thus be presented to us, they must take immediate hold of our imagination, and kindle the fervours of our own souleven as though we ourselves were in the mount alone with God, or were struck by the sudden glory from the skies. Otherwise, their Divine purpose will be unfulfilled, and our life largely unblessed.

The heavenly vision to which St. Paul was obedient was the vision of the Divine Son of God, who in human form appeared to him on the road to Damascus. And the heavenly vision to which we are called upon to be obedient is ever the vision of Christ manifesting to us Divine excellences which He would have abiding in our hearts and shown forth in our lives. All through life this vision presents itself to us in varying ways, and in aspects varying according to our changing needs. All through life we as Christians are ready to acknowledge that our aim should be to become Christlike, to live a Christlike life. The word Christlike cannot with any efficacy present itself to our thoughts unless to our inner sight there presents itself at the same time the image of Christ, bearing just that aspect of divineness which we at the time have the greatest need of attaining to the possession of. That which we gaze upon with our inward eyes is a heavenly vision, to which we are called upon to render obedienceto which like the Apostle Paul we must not be disobedient.

II

Obedience

What was the secret of St. Pauls great and strenuous life, to which more than to any other our Western world owes the fact that it is Christian? Whence did this comparatively independent labourer in the Masters vineyard obtain the force that enabled him to accomplish such things? How was it that he laboured more abundantly than the rest? They had been privileged, in a way that he was not, to hold three years close companionship with their Lord. To St. Paul the Master appeared, more than once, it would seem, but as a kind of afterthought, as to one born out of due time; but then he was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. Obedience to the heavenly visionthat was the secret of it all. And so, if we wish to express in one simple phrase the secret of this great man, whose courage and genius as well as his faith and love raise him so high above the level even of the greatest of men, we cannot do better than recall the words spoken humbly but firmly in the presence of an unbelieving king: I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. That is the explanation of it all.

1. There must be both the vision and the obedience, and they must be in that order. St. Paul had no magic secret that kept labour sweet to him; he had only vision and obedience. But he had them in that ordervision first, and obedience following from it. It is not mere action that is the secret of a healthy life, but action performed in loyalty to something we have seen. All the effective activities of men around us are just processes for turning thought into actionones own thought, or the thought of others. In every art and craft and enthusiasm the supreme secret of mastery is to know what you are doing. Architecture is simply thought which has expressed itself in stone, or else it is sheer abomination. True healing comes not from routine prescription, but finds its sources deep among the springs of the physicians heart and imagination and experience. Social reform is either the most useless dilettantism, or it is the creation of a new earth upon the lines of a pattern already clearly seen. So it is with all good work. It may be of many various kinds and there may be very many different ways of doing it, but this is characteristic of them all, that a man is carrying out into deed what he has seen in his mind. Vision ever goes before action, and true action is loyalty to vision.

How full the Bible is of visions that lead to tasks! Abraham must see the vision of the great nation which was to spring from him, numerous as the sand upon the sea-shore, ere he can leave his native land and become a pilgrim and a sojourner on earth. Moses must see the burning bush on the slopes of Midian before he has the strength to attack Pharaohs hard heart and re-awaken the passion for freedom in his fellow-countrymens drooping souls; and he must be taken to see the pattern in the mount ere he can formulate the practical code of government for them afterwards. Isaiah must see the Lord high and lifted up in the temple before his lips are touched with fire, and the message of grace and judgment can be uttered by him to the world. All the galaxy of heroes whose story is told us in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews were men who were sustained all through their trials and sufferings by a vision, a promise, a dream, that ever fled before them, but which sufficed to keep up their faith and courage under unimaginable hardship and suffering. And we are told of Jesus Himself that He, too, was upheld and strengthened for His tasks by a dreamwho for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.1 [Note: E. Griffith-Jones.]

(1) The Vision comes first. There goes out from every life upon those around it, a constant and subtle influence which is determined almost wholly by the inner life of visionthe life of imagination and thought. Thoreau has wisely said: If ever I did a man good it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil I am constantly doing by being what I am. A mans atmosphere and spirit are always more powerful influences than his deeds and words. Thus it is not surprising that the matter on which Christianity lays most stress is vision. The thoughts and imaginations of the heart; a taste for fine and clean things, and an instinctive shrinking from their opposites; above all, a clear conception of Jesus Christ and a definitely accepted relation between the soul and Himthese are the Christian fundamentals. Christianity has vindicated the rights of the imagination on its own account, apart from its outward expression; and insisted that a man may lose his honour and respectability there, without going farther afield. Christ amazed His contemporaries by the value He set upon the life of vision: He shifted the centre of attention from outward respectability to inward seeing and light.

The most impracticable man is he who ignores the soul and its knowledges as the eventual basis of power. The prophets, the inventors, the great painters, sculptors, musicians, architects, philosophers, statesmen, philanthropistsall are interpreters of the power and reality of the idea. Columbus, Leverrier, Harvey, Newton, Hamilton thought it and then showed it. Vision is the vital thing in Plato, Dante, Bunyan, Goethe, Tennyson. This it is that pries far into distant worlds. High patriotism is thisprophecy. The men of greatest vision are the seers. The false men are those whose vision is unheavenly. Saul might have been such a one; was until he saw reality. They are many. One of them was Robespierre, of whom there is a picture; he squeezing over a wine-cup a human heart. All treason to mankind lies in a false view of God.1 [Note: M. W. Stryker.]

(2) Obedience follows. Many who have a fine vision and who dream great dreams do nothing else. When in the mood, they are filled with splendid conceptions and ideals, in which they revel with large emotion and passionate enthusiasm; but when they turn from the airy fabric of their vision, and touch hard fact, and see the task awaiting them as the legacy of the dream, their heart fails and they are helpless. These are the idealists of the world, who can plan great things for others or for themselves, but who cannot execute. Their lives are almost always barren of results and full of disappointments. Those who create great expectations, but who fail to realize them, are rightly banned with the name of visionaries; men who can see much, but who do nothing.

There is no such grand failure in all the history of that mankind which genius has created for the world, as Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. And the abysmal depth into which he falls, the wide roads of agony which his very powers place in front of others, the whole sad missing of lifes great end, come from his weakness at a single pointthe point where Paul made connexion, vital and faithful, between his every vision of truth and his duty which waited to be donethe point where he was obedient to the heavenly vision. Every man of fine powers of thought is tempted by his powers, at that very point. It is so easy for a bright thinker to think so interestingly and so interestedly that thought becomes life and destiny to him. Our age, which has the two dangers of over-consciousness in the midst of tasks which it has set itself to do, an age whose best man has a temper which either meditates exclusively or acts exclusively, has for its finer souls, for its Hamlet or its Paul, no more subtle temptation than the attractions of a purely ideal life.1 [Note: F. W. Gunsaulus.]

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

2. What is that which makes a man obedient or disobedient? It is the mans own will. For there are two mysteries in life, the one that men can, and the other that men do, resist Christs pleading voice. As to the former, we cannot fathom it. But do not let any difficulty deaden the clear voice of our own consciousness. If I cannot trust my sense that I can do this thing or not do it, as I choose, there is nothing that I can trust. Will is the power of determining which of two roads I shall go, and, strange to say, it is incapable of Statement in any more general terms than the reiteration of the fact; yet here stands the fact, that God, the infinite Will, has given to men, whom He made in His own image, this inexplicable and awful power of coinciding with or opposing His purposes and His voice.

Our wills are ours, we know not how;

Our wills are ours, to make them thine.

For the other mystery is, that men do consciously set themselves against the will of God, and refuse the gifts which they know all the while are for their good. It is no use to say that sin is ignorance. No; that is only a surface explanation. We know too well that many a time when we have been as sure of what God wanted us to do as if we had seen it written in flaming letters on the sky, we have gone and done the exact opposite. There are men and women who are convinced in their inmost souls that they ought to be Christians, and that Jesus Christ is pleading with them at the present hour, and yet in whose hearts there is no yielding to what, they are certain, is the will and voice of Jesus Christ.

You will say, perhaps, I have not been obedient because I could not; I was not in a position to be so. If the Vision bade you do what you are not in a position to do, it was not a heavenly Vision at all; it was a product of your own fancy. Do you suppose the Lord Jesus does not know your circumstances, does not allow for your difficulties, does not consider your duties? If you want to follow the heavenly Vision, you can. If you want to love your neighbour, you can; God helping you. If you want to do him good, you can; if you are willing to take the trouble. If you want to make sacrifices, you can; if you are willing to pay the price. If you want to lay down all your life, little by little, bit by bit, at the Masters feet, in the service of humanity, you can; if you find grace to help in time of need.1 [Note: B. Winterbotham.]

But, above all, the victory is most sure

For him, who, seeking faith by virtue, strives

To yield entire submission to the law

Of conscienceconscience reverenced and obeyed,

As Gods most intimate presence in the soul,

And His most perfect image in the world.2 [Note: Wordsworth, The Excursion.]

3. How does obedience to our visions affect us?

(1) It affects our thinking. From the writings of St. Paul we gather that two ideas had come prominently before his mind, and were borne in upon his soul, since his conversion, with astonishing sharpness and force. (a) The one was the idea of sin. Always the great Apostle had been a man of keen moral perception. He had studied, indeed, to much effect the moral Law. But until he realized the heavenly vision, and entered into the mystery of the Cross of Christ, there was little of that sensitive consciousness of sin which is one measure of spiritual attainment in a serious Christian soul. Sin in its intrinsic dreadfulness; sin in its subtle approaches; sin in its essential contradiction to the Divine nature; sin in its mysterious power, to slacken which in human souls required nothing less than the sacrifice of the Son of God; sin in its awful chemical force for corrupting character; sin in the horror of its possible triumph, in the glory of its possible defeat; sin in its power to beget its train of weird and hideous childrenpain and sorrow, moral misery and the wretchedness of death; sin in itself and in its consequences; sin in the mysterious secrecy of its beginning, in the awful vision of doom revealed as its close;these things, from the vision on the Damascus wayside, bit deep into the heart of Paul. (b) And along with these a glorious hope, a glorious revelationthe revelation of the love of God. We who have heard the phrase so often can hardly imagine the joyful vividness with which that revelation broke upon the mind of Paul. The love of God, in its depth, its unmeasured greatness, its tenderness, its minute considerate sympathy, its personal application, its unfailing loyalty, its unflagging patience, its abounding resources, its wide-sweeping comprehensiveness, and above all in this fact, that it was made known, possible to realize, possible to embrace tenderly human although so exaltedly Divine, in the life, the, character, the death, the sacrifice, the intercession, and the reign in glory, of Jesus Christ. To be loved, tenderly loved, suffered for and delivered,this brought home to Paul the awfulness of the enemy from whom deliverance had been necessary even at such a price, and the dearness, and goodness, and kindness, and mercy of Him who spared not his own Son, when that sacrifice was necessary, but freely gave him for us all.

If we have dreamed a dream which we have reason to think is from the Lord, let us spare no effort to realize it, though it may take a lifetime to do it. If we have a thought which is in advance of our times, and at first sight perhaps a little Utopian, let us keep at it, if so be something may come of it. If some great design suggests itself to our mind, do not let us drop it because it is considered somewhat visionary, but work away at it till we get it brought within the region of the practical. In his beautiful poem of Merlin and the Gleam Tennyson has embodied, in the form of an allegory, his faith that the ideal is indeed the vera lux which must lead the world; and our duty to the heavenly vision was never more tersely expressed than in the closing couplet:

After it, follow it,

Follow the Gleam.1 [Note: S. L. Wilson.]

(2) It affects our work. The work of any man, on whatever material he has to exercise himself, is in fact the expression of his character. The change showed itself in the Apostles work. It was not that there was greater diligence; Pauls diligence was unflagging, but so it had been before. His intensity and vigour made that certain; but it showed itself in an evidently keener sense of spiritual proportion. Perspective is often wanting in spiritual vision, and the sense of proportion is marred or destroyed. Benozzo Gozzoli, in the window adornments of the Ricasoli Palace, realized, as great masters had never done before, the power of perspective, and in doing so added keenness to his sense of proportion. Time, a narrow national aspiration, the slavish fulfilment of a preparatory law, a hard and rigorous monotheism, had widened out suddenly before Pauls astonished gaze into the wide horizons of eternity, and the tender and glorious landscapes of the kingdom of God. Great thoughts henceforth led him necessarily to the careful fulfilment of small duties. If he soars into the seventh heaven henceforth, it is to bring down the energy and love and considerate sympathy by which to help the runaway slave; to send kindly messages of reproof or affection to the pious ladies of Rome or Philippi; to open the treasures of his sympathetic tenderness to his young men convertshis own sons; to arrange for the offertories in Macedonia and Corinth; to manage the progress of his trade of tent-making so that he might honestly pay his way. Half the thoughts of men are out of proportion. Big measures and great questions are apt to seem to them the whole of life. Obedience to a heavenly vision means the habit of high thinking with scrupulous loyalty to small duties.

In every way may men by looking unto Jesus in the heavensand by discerning in Him the divineness necessary for the furtherance of their own individual salvationbecome revealers to the world of divineness. The artist may discern in Jesus the Divine beauty of which he is called upon to be a setter-forth to the world. The poet may, by looking upon the heavenly vision, be guided into discerning the tenderer aspects of Divine truth. The man of science too may be enabled to carry on his researches into the great world of Nature, and to recognize it more and more as the very outcome of Gods own life; even he may be enabled to do this by looking upon the heavenly vision of the Divine Aider of all reverent seekers after knowledge of His ways and works.1 [Note: H. N. Grimley.]

Quixotism, or Utopianism: that is another of the devils pet words. I believe the quiet admission which we are all of us so ready to make, that, because things have long been wrong, it is impossible they should ever be right, is one of the most fatal sources of misery and crime from which this world suffers. Whenever you hear a man dissuading you from attempting to do well, on the ground that perfection is Utopian, beware of that man. Cast the word out of your dictionary altogether. There is no need for it. Things are either possible or impossibleyou can easily determine which, in any given state of human science. If the thing is impossible, you need not trouble yourselves about it; if possible try for it. It is very Utopian to hope for the entire doing away with drunkenness and misery out of the Canongate; but the Utopianism is not our businessthe work is. It is Utopian to hope to give every child in this kingdom the knowledge of God from its youth; but the Utopianism is not our businessthe work is.2 [Note: Ruskin, Architecture and Painting, 89.]

(3) It affects our character. The change showed itself in St. Pauls work: it was in his character. There was, no doubt, the beautiful foundation long laid in his nature and his conscientious life; he could scarcely help being sincere, possessing delicacy of tact, being in the widest sense strongly and sweetly true. But his sympathies were enlarged; he was to an unparalleled degree identified with human nature. He could say as few could, Nihil humanum a me alienum puto. What was human, since he had known the Divine and human Christ, was near and dear to Paul. There is sometimes a danger in sympathetic characters of some flaw of weakness. Not a touch of weakness in him. Strong, unflinching, unswerving, decided. Probably never, except in his Divine Master, was there such a combination of tenderness and strength. Think of his woman-like tenderness towards Timothy! Think of his lion-like strength in the face of Galatian treason to Christ! Certainly in his nature there was a very wonderful combination of qualities; but here they are reinforced, chastened, extended, when once he has impressed upon his soul the personality of Christ, when once he is not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

Remember that it is not saints and heroes alone who are privileged to see visions; it is ordinary folk like ourselves who hear these voices from heaven and these calls to duty. Men become heroes and saints, in Gods eyes if not in mens, by obeying those calls. Father Damien was not a saint when he went to Molokai, nor Livingstone a hero when he went to Africa. The visions came to them when they were as undistinguished as ever. But then they obeyed the call: and still to-day men obey the call.1 [Note: J. M. Wilson.]

III

The Reward of Obedience

The reward of obeying one vision is the gif t of another. There were five visions given successively to the Apostle Paul. There are five visions graciously granted to every one who is obedient. And when the fifth vision comes, which is the vision of Ministry, it comes in four different ways for four different purposes.

i. St. Pauls Visions

1. First, St. Paul was obedient to the heavenly vision that arrested him, that convicted him, that changed the whole current of his being, and adjusted his whole life towards God. That is the vision of our text. Its experience is usually spoken of as the Conversion of St. Paul.

2. But St. Paul was also obedient to the heavenly vision that enlightened him, that equipped him, that empowered him for holiness, witness, and all aspects of service. Behold, he prayeth (Act 9:12), and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then the seventeenth verse: And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way that thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and he filled with the Holy Ghost. He was enlightened, equipped, and empowered for witness and for all service.

3. St. Paul was obedient also to the heavenly vision in which he saw his self-life crucified and slain, and his heart cleansed for the enthronement and reign of Christ. The passage is 2Co 12:1-10. Marvellous vision it is, with a wonderful combination of realities in it: paradise, the third heaven, balanced by the thorn in the flesh, a vision closing with a sufficiency of grace, wholly grace, only grace, self and self-life renounced and crucified, that the power of Christ alone might rest and work through His servant.

4. And St. Paul was obedient to the heavenly vision in which he saw the appalling condition of a lost world, and took up and carried to the last the burden, not of theological problems, but of perishing souls. This vision was obtained at Troas. He saw a man of Macedonia, who prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.

5. Last of all, St. Paul was obedient to that heavenly vision in which he saw the finished course securing the Masters approval, in which he saw the mark for the prize of the high calling in his own perfect conformity and likeness to his Master, and in which he saw the prize itself in the gift of the crown by his Master. Study that wonderful passage, 2Ti 4:8, and you will see these things, and study it in connection with the third chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians 1 [Note: George Wilson.]

ii. Our Visions

1. First there is that vision of the Lord which marks the opening of the soul to God. There are those in whom the life of God has begun so early, so sweetly, and so gradually that they can no more tell when they began to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour than they can tell when they first saw their mothers smile. The question is, Have we now a sight of Christ in our soul?

2. But if we were obedient to this vision we got another vision. When we tried to follow in the footsteps of Christ, we were conscious of the infinite distance between Him, the Holy One, and ourselves, full of all uncleanness; Him, the Loving One, and us, full of all selfishness; Him, the Humble One, and us, full of pride and vanity. And as we tried to follow Him, we also found that we dared not approach God, because we felt by the side of Christ our own pollution, our own wickedness, and not only our wickedness, but our guilt. And as we studied the teaching of Christ, we saw that Christ does not simply say, Do as I do, and it shall be well, but the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. Then we heard the voice of John the Baptist saying, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Then we had a vision of One hanging upon a Cross for us, and we felt that the majesty of Gods law was never more revered and honoured than on that Cross. And the infinite love of God through Christ crucified was poured upon us in boundless streams of mercy. What a vision that was! Have we been obedient to that vision?

3. If we have been obedient to that heavenly vision, then we have had another vision after a while. We find not only that Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, but that He claims to be our Lord and Master. By His redemption He has not only delivered us, but purchased us. We are bought with a price. We are not our own. And then, perhaps, comes a great struggle. We are willing enough to have our sins forgiven and give some of our heart and time and gifts to Christ. But He must have everything.

4. Then we have another vision. We are astonished to find out that although we have received Christ as a Sin-bearer and as a Master, though it seems to us that we have the best intentions and desires, yet the law of sin in our very members makes us cry out, O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Christ shows us that the secret lies in fellowship with Him, fellowship with Him in His resurrection and in His power. That is no easy thing. But He will make it easy. When we see that it is the gift of God, when every man has been crucified with Him, when we accept death as a gift as we accept life, all things are made new. Then it seems as though we began the Christian life over again. We say with the Apostle, I through the law am dead to the law, that I may live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

5. We have considered Christ in succession first as Leader, then as Lamb, then as Lord, then as Life. There is yet another visiona vision of duty and of blessedness. And in this vision we enjoy Likeness. Was it not said of Him that He went about doing good? Is this not the last characteristic and likeness between Father and Son, that My Father worketh hitherto and I work?1 [Note: Theodore Monod.]

iii. The Visions of the Servant

The fifth of the visions already considered is both for St. Paul and for us a vision of Service. That vision needs fuller consideration. It is in four parts.

1. Of the four visions which more or less seize the imagination and fire the heart of Christs ministers, first comes the vision which summons us to be the living voice of the Divine oracles, the ministers of reconciliation between God and men. This was Isaiahs vision. I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

2. The second vision is the vision that sends us. It points us to the place where we are to labour, and to the people whom we are to serve, and to the fellows with whom our work is to be done, and it may be to those who are to train us in doing it. St. Paul is our pattern here. After they were come to Mysia, they essayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; there stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

3. The third vision deepens, widens, expands, matures us, turning youth into manhood, and summoning us to the midsummer of life. It was St. Peters at Joppa. The vessel descending out of heaven with all manner of fourfooted beasts, and the accompanying voice, Rise, Peter, kill and eat, and the significant monition, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common, had set the Apostle thinking and wondering, when suddenly the messengers of Cornelius stood at his door, and the Spirit said to him, Behold, three men seek thee. That vision with all that came out of it, meant the immediate opening of the Gentile world to Christ. It was also a new era of idea, of duty, of conquest for the Apostle. The struggle it must have meant for a conscientious Hebrew Christian it is very hard for us adequately to measure. But growth with pain is the very principle of life; pain not only of body, but of soulnot only of soul, but of mind.

4. The fourth vision is the vision which sustains us. It was St. Johns. After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands. This vision sustains because it inspires. It inspires us with hope for the future, and that hope, being sure and steadfast, sustains us in the present.1 [Note: A. W. Thorold.]

Visions and Obedience

Literature

Alexander (S. A.), The Christianity of St. Paul, 61.

Campbell (R. J.), Sermons to Young Men, 115.

Cuckson (J.), Faith and Fellowship, 65.

Greenhough (J. G.), The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, 241.

Grimley (H. N.), The Temple of Humanity, 256.

Gunsaulus (F. W.), Paths to the City of God, 215.

Hutton (A. W.), Ecclesia Discens, 41.

Keen (J. O.), The Emphasis of Belief, 26.

Kelman (J.), Ephemera Eternitatis, 34, 39.

Knox-Little (W. J.), The Light of Life, 246.

Lockyer (T. F.), The Inspirations of the Christian Life, 137.

Maclaren (A.), The Unchanging Christ, 236.

Maggs (J. T. L.), The Spiritual Experience of St. Paul, 9.

Roberts (J. E.), The Lords Prayer, 46.

Thorold (A. W.), The Gospel of Work, 17.

Wilson (J. M.), Sermons in Clifton College Chapel, ii. 154.

Winterbotham (R.), Sermons in Holy Trinity Church, 329.

Christian World Pulpit, xiii. 360 (Macleod); xxii. 234 (Rosevear); xxxix. 37 (Lunn); xlii. 241 (Monod); xlvi. 81 (Bradford); lxiii 84 (Knox-Little); lxiv. 68 (Griffith-Jones).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

that: Joh 16:2, Joh 16:3, Rom 10:2, Gal 1:13, Gal 1:14, Phi 3:6, 1Ti 1:13

the name: Act 3:6, Act 9:16, Act 21:13, Act 22:8, Act 24:5

Reciprocal: Lev 13:29 – General Jdg 6:30 – Bring Jdg 15:2 – I verily Jdg 17:13 – General Pro 16:25 – General Son 5:7 – they smote Isa 5:18 – draw Isa 32:4 – heart Isa 66:5 – Your Dan 4:2 – that Mat 12:32 – whosoever Luk 9:55 – Ye know Joh 1:45 – Jesus Joh 16:9 – General Joh 19:19 – Jesus Act 2:22 – Jesus Act 8:3 – General Act 9:5 – I am Act 21:31 – as Act 22:4 – I persecuted Act 22:19 – know Act 25:3 – laying 1Co 15:9 – because Jam 3:14 – and lie

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

9

Act 26:9. The apostle then took up the history of his personal case to show that his present conduct and teaching was a complete change from what it had once been. (See the comments on this subject at chapter 22:4.)

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Third Division of the ApologiaPaul relates the strange Incident in his life which induced him, a Pharisee Teacher, for ever to throw in his lot with the despised NazarenesThe crucified Nazarene Himself appeared to him, surrounded with an unearthly GloryHe tells Agrippa what the Being, who crossed his path on that solemn day, commanded him to do, 9-18.

Act 26:9. I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Paul now changes his tone of indignant and passionate expostulation, and proceeds to speak of his life in the period immediately preceding the Vision of the Damascus road, which drove him at once to forsake his many friends, to abandon his brilliant career, to throw away his loved pursuits, and to associate himself with the men and women he had hitherto scorned and persecutedthe Vision which changed the proud Pharisee leader into the despised Nazarene outcast. The train of thought in Pauls mind seems to have been as follows: He was here addressing a brilliant assembly made up of Herodian princes, Jewish priests and rabbis, and Roman officials and soldiers; and these, with a few exceptions among the Pharisee members of the Sanhedrim who were present, were disbelievers not merely in the fact that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth had risen, but in the general doctrine of a resurrection from the dead. King Agrippa, who presided that day at Csarea, was no doubt at heart a Sadduceeone who sympathised with the Sadducean high priest, whom he probably himself had nominated to his high dignity. To this Agrippa, and the other notables sitting by his side, the Gentile apostle spoke these words. He, like them, had been an unbeliever in the crucified Nazarene, and had not, like the Roman Festus and his predecessors, and probably King Agrippa, contented himself with looking on the Nazarene sect with contemptuous indifference, but had persecuted these defenceless ones to the death. Now God in His mercy had changed his (Pauls) heart; why should He not now touch the hearts of those listening to him? I, Paul, in that state of mind in which I then was, deemed it my solemn duty to do all that was in my power to stamp out the memory of the name of the Crucified.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here the apostle frankly declares, That he was once as sharp and bitter an enemy to Christ, and to all that believed in him, as any one whatever; and thought himself bound in conscience to persecute all that owned him, and with threatenings and tortures compelled them to deny Christ; and being exceedingly fierce, he forced them to fly to heathen cities to escape his fury.

Where note, 1. That we ought to be upon very good and sure grounds, before we oppose and persecute any.

2. That some persecute others, and at the same time think they do well in so doing: I verily thought, says the apostle, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus. He spake as if his conscience would have troubled others, for that which was indeed their conscience.

Note, 3. That Paul, being a blasphemer himself, compelled the professors of the gospel to blaspheme. This he probably did two ways.

First, by his example; they imitated him in blaspheming, or speaking evil of the ways of Christ.

Or, secondly, by his cruelty: vexing them so in the professions of Christ, that some who were unsettled probably fell away, and blasphemed the name of Christ, which they had professed: He compelled them to blaspheme.

There is a compelling power and constraining force in example, especially in the example of persons in power and authority. Men sin with a kind of authority: Paul’s blasphemous example compelled others to blaspheme.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Paul’s Description of His Actions as a Persecutor

When Paul took actions to stop the teachings about Jesus and His followers, he was directed by his conscience. Just as Agrippa’s family had pursued an end to the life of Jesus, Paul had pursued an end to the teachings of Jesus. Many of those set apart for God’s service, or saints, were shut up in prison in Jerusalem because of Paul’s actions. When Luke reports that Paul said, “and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them,” it appears the apostle is saying he voted to condemn them as a member of the Sanhedrin. He further said that he punished them in every synagogue, even going to cities outside Jerusalem, in an effort to get them to speak against the name of Jesus ( Act 26:9-11 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

9-11. To still further illustrate his former standing among the Pharisees, he describes his original relation toward the cause of Christ. (9) “I thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus, the Nazarene, (10) which I also did in Jerusalem. Many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the high priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my vote against them. (11) And in all the synagogues I punished them often, compelling them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.” With such a record as this, there was no room to suspect him of any such bias as would render him an easy or a willing convert to Christ. On the contrary, it must have appeared to Agrippa, and the whole audience, most astonishing that such a change could take place. Their curiosity to know what produced the change must have been intense, and he proceeds to gratify it.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

As a Pharisaic Jew, Paul had opposed the conclusion that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. He had disbelieved in the resurrection of Jesus who did not seem to fit the scriptural image of that Savior. "Cast my vote" (Act 26:10) may be metaphorical (cf. Act 8:1; Act 22:20) or, less likely, literal. There is no evidence that Paul was ever a member of the Sanhedrin, but he could have voted to punish Christians in lower courts such as the ones that existed in local synagogues. Paul tried to force Christians to blaspheme by getting them to say that Jesus was not the Christ or by getting them to curse Him (cf. 1Co 12:3). He was so zealous for his errant belief that he even pursued Christians to foreign cities to persecute them.

"The great Christians have never been afraid to point to themselves as living and walking examples of the power of Christ. The gospel to them was not a form of words; it was not a form of intellectual belief; it was a power unto salvation. It is true that a man can never change himself; but it is also gloriously true that what he cannot do, Jesus Christ can do for him." [Note: Barclay, pp. 193-94.]

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