asked[1] him for letters to Damascus[2], that he might bring the disciples whom he found there prisoners[3] to Jerusalem.
As he journeyed on the road [4] to Damascus, suddenly a great light[5] from heaven shone around him. Struck as if by lightning, he fell to the ground. At the same moment, he heard a voice saying: “Saul, Saul, why[6] dost thou persecute Me?” Saul asked: ‘Who art Thou, Lord?”[7] The voice replied: “I am Jesus[8], whom thou dost persecute.” Trembling with fear, and much astonished, Saul said: “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” The Lord replied: “Arise, and go into the city [9], and there it shall be told thee what thou must do.”
Saul rose up from the ground and opened his eyes, but he had lost his sight[10]. His companions then took him by the
- ↑ Asked. He had not, therefore, been commissioned by the High Priest to act as he was doing, but volunteered his services, and in fact begged as a favour to be allowed to take the measures he proposed. He now received a commission from the Sanhedrin, and with it a company of armed men to serve as an escort and to help him in his deeds of violence.
- ↑ Damascus. This, the chief city of Syria, is seven days’ journey from Jerusalem (see Map). Many thousands of Jews lived there; and when the persecution against our Lord’s disciples broke out in Jerusalem, a number of them fled to Damascus, there being constant commercial intercourse between that populous city and Jerusalem. Saul, therefore, made sure that he would find there a great many Christians. The fact that he was ready to go so far out of his way to persecute them, shows the intensity of his hatred of the followers of Jesus Christ.
- ↑ Prisoners. He intended to arrest all Christians, regardless of age or sex, and take them bound to Jerusalem, there to be judged by the Sanhedrin. Our Lord Himself, however, set a limit to his vindictive career.
- ↑ On the road. According to tradition he was within an hour’s journey of Damascus.
- ↑ Great light. Which, according to the Acts of the Apostles (26, 13), was brighter than the sun, for it was the glory which surrounded the glorified Redeemer. The vision occurred in the brightness of mid-day (Acts 22, 6), and in the glimpse vouchsafed to him Saul beheld our Lord Himself, in His glorified Body (1 Cor. 9, 1 and 15, 8).
- ↑ Why. “What have I done to you that you persecute Me?”
- ↑ Lord. He said “Lord”, for he perceived very well that the wonderful vision could proceed from God alone.
- ↑ I am Jesus. This reply stirred Saul’s heart to its very depths. What! had he then been persecuting his Redeemer? He “trembled” at the sight of our Lord’s divine majesty, and he “was astonished”, because Jesus of Nazareth, whom he considered to be dead, now appeared to him, clothed with divine glory. He perceived that he had been living in a state of awful blindness. But now he believed, and addressed Jesus as “Lord”, i. e. God, and declared himself ready to obey Him humbly and do everything that He commanded him to do.
- ↑ The city. i. e. to Damascus.
- ↑ His sight. For his eyes were blinded by that glimpse of the glory of heaven. Within him, all was bright with the light of faith, but all without was dark
