Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 9:2

"and asked of him letters to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." — Acts 9:2 (ASV)

The account of Saul’s conversion opens with the picture of him “still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples” (cf. 8:3). Even after the death of Stephen and the expulsion of the Hellenistic Christians from Jerusalem, Saul felt it was necessary to continue the persecution in places outside the Sanhedrin’s jurisdiction.

The past generation of commentators, particularly those of the English- speaking world, often read into such passages as Ro 7:14–25, Galatians 1:13–14, Php 3:4–6 and the portrayals of Ac 9, 22, and 26 a mental and spiritual struggle on the part of Saul that was, either consciously or unconsciously, fighting fervently against the logic of the early Christians’ preaching, the dynamic quality of their lives, and their fortitude under oppression. Therefore his “breathing out murderous threats” was taken as his attempt to slay externally the dragons of doubt he could not silence within his own heart. But the day of the psychological interpretation of Paul’s conversion experience appears to be over, and deservedly so. Indeed, Luke connects historically the martyrdom of Stephen, the persecution of the Hellenistic Jewish Christians, and the conversion of Saul. But the argument for a logical connection is not as certain.

It is, of course, impossible to speak with certainty about what was going on in Saul’s subconscious mind at the time, for psychoanalysis two millennia later is hardly a fruitful exercise. His own references as a Christian to this earlier time in his life do not require us to view him as struggling with uncertainty, doubt, and guilt before becoming a Christian. They rather suggest that humanly speaking, he was immune to the Christian proclamation and immensely satisfied with his own ancestral faith. While he looked forward to the full realization of the hope of Israel, Paul seems from his reminiscences of those earlier days to have been thoroughly satisfied with the revelation of God that was given through Moses and to have counted it his chief delight to worship God through those revealed forms. Nor need we suppose that the logic of the early Christian preachers greatly affected Paul. His later references to “the offense of the cross” show that for him the cross was the great stumbling block to any acknowledgment of Jesus of Nazareth as Israel’s Messiah—a stumbling block no amount of logic or verbal gymnastics could remove (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 5:11).

It is probable that Saul took up his brutal task of persecution with full knowledge of the earnestness of his opponents, the stamina of the martyrs, and the agony he would necessarily cause. Fanaticism was not so foreign to Palestine in his day as to leave him unaware of these things, and it is quite possible that he was prepared for the emotional strain involved in persecuting those he believed to be dangerous schismatics within Israel.

More important, however, in days when the rabbis viewed the keeping of the Mosaic law as the vitally important prerequisite for the coming of the Messianic Age, Paul could validate his actions against the Christians by reference to such godly precedents as (1) Moses’ slaying of the immoral Israelites at Baal Peor (cf. Numbers 25:1–5); (2) Phinehas’s slaying of the Israelite man and Midianite woman in the plains of Moab (cf. Numbers 25:6–15); and (3) the actions of the Maccabees and the Hasidim in rooting out apostasy among the people. With such precedents and parallels, coupled with the rising tide of messianic expectation within Israel, Saul could very well have felt justified in mounting a further persecution against the Christians. Probably he felt that the nation must be faithful in its obedience to the law and kept from schism or going astray if their messianic hopes were to be fulfilled. In his task, he doubtless expected to receive God’s commendation.

The Sadducean high priests of Jerusalem were, it seems, recognized by Rome as the titular rulers of their people in most internal matters; and evidently they retained the right of extradition in strictly religious situations. Therefore Saul, seeking the return of Jewish Christians, went to the high priest and asked him for written permission to take any Christian men and women as prisoners to Jerusalem (cf. 22:5; 26:12).

Damascus was a large and thriving commercial center at the foot of the Anti- Lebanon mountain range. Since 64 B. C. it had been part of the Roman province of Syria and was granted certain civic rights by Rome as one of the ten cities of eastern Syria and the Transjordan called the Decapolis (cf. Mark 5:20; 7:31). It had a large Jewish population. It was to this city that Saul went with the authority of the Jewish Sanhedrin, seeking to return to Jerusalem Christians who had fled the city—chiefly the Hellenistic Jewish Christians—in order to contain the spread of Christianity. While we have spoken repeatedly of the early believers in Jesus as Christians, the term “Christian” was first coined at Antioch of Syria . Before then and during the early existence of the church, those who accepted Jesus’ messiahship and claimed him as their Lord called themselves those of “the way” (see also 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22), while their opponents spoke of them as members of “the sect of the Nazarenes” (cf. 24:5, 14; 28:22). The origin of “the Way” (GK 3847) as a term for Christians is uncertain, though it surely had something to do with the early believers’ consciousness of walking in the true path of God’s salvation and moving forward to accomplish his purposes. In the vignette of 9:1–30, it is synonymous with such self-designations as “the disciples of the Lord” (vv.2, 10, 19), “saints” (v.13), “all who call on your [Jesus’] name” (v.14), and “brothers” (vv.17, 30).