Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 22:17

"And it came to pass, that, when I had returned to Jerusalem, and while I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance," — Acts 22:17 (ASV)

When I had come again to Jerusalem. That is, three years after his conversion. See Galatians 1:17-18.

While I prayed in the temple. Paul, like the other converts to Christianity from among the Jews, would naturally continue to offer his devotions in the temple. We find repeated instances of their continuing to comply with the customs of the Jewish people.

I was in a trance. Greek, Ecstasy. See Barnes on Acts 10:10.

Perhaps he refers here to what he elsewhere mentions (2 Corinthians 12:1–5), which he calls visions and revelations of the Lord. In that place, he mentions his being caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2), and into paradise, where he heard words which it was not possible for a man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:4).

It is not certain, however, that he refers in this place to that remarkable occurrence. The narrative would rather imply that the Lord Jesus appeared to him in the temple in a remarkable manner, in a vision, and gave him a direct command to go to the Gentiles. Paul had now stated the evidence of his conversion, which appears to have been satisfactory to them; at least, they made no objection to his statement. He had shown by his being in the temple his respect for their institutions. And he now proceeds to show that in his other conduct he had been directed by the same high authority by which he had been called into the ministry, and that the command had been given to him in their own temple and in their own city.