Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 9:15

"But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel:" — Acts 9:15 (ASV)

He is a chosen vessel to me.—Literally, a vessel of election. The term has nothing directly analogous to it in the Old Testament, but it is Hebrew in its form; the second noun is used as a genitive of the characteristic attribute, and is thus equivalent to an intensified adjective. So in Isaiah 22:7, we have in the LXX., “valleys of election” for the “choicest valleys” of the English version.

The term “vessel” is used in the Old Testament for arms (Genesis 27:3), garments (Deuteronomy 22:5), and household goods (Genesis 31:36–37). In the New Testament its range of meaning is even wider, as in Matthew 12:29; Luke 8:16; John 19:29; Romans 9:22; 2 Corinthians 4:7.

Here, our word “instrument” or “implement” perhaps comes closest to its meaning. The persecutor had been chosen by the Lord as the “tool” with which He would work out His gracious will for him and for the Gentiles. In this sense, it was used by classical writers of useful and trusty slaves, just as we speak of one man being the “tool” of another.

Possibly, however, the words may be interpreted as containing the germ of the parable of the potter’s vessel, on which St. Paul dwells in Romans 9:21-23, implying that the convert was not only chosen but also moulded for his future work.

The word “election,” which occurs here for the first time in the New Testament and is afterwards so prominent in the teaching of St. Paul (Romans 9:11; Romans 11:5; Romans 11:7–8; 1 Thessalonians 1:4), is yet another instance of the influence exercised on the Apostle by the thoughts and language of the instructor through whom alone he could have learned what is here recorded.

To bear my name before the Gentiles.—The mission of the Apostle was thus revealed to Ananias in the first instance. He is one who welcomes that expansion of the kingdom, which even the chief of the Apostles would have entered with doubt and hesitation (Acts 10:13; Acts 10:28), were it not for the voice from heaven. He is taught to see in the man whom he had only heard of as the persecutor, one who had been trained and chosen as fitter than all others for the work of that expansion.

And kings.—The words find their fulfilment in the speech before Agrippa (Acts 26:12), possibly in one before Nero (2 Timothy 1:16).