Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 9:4

"and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" — Acts 9:4 (ASV)

As he approached Damascus, Saul saw a light from heaven and heard a voice from heaven. In 9:3 the light is described as simply “a light from heaven,” while both 22:6 and 26:13 emphasize its brightness. Likewise, in 9:4 Luke reports that Saul heard the voice and in v.7 that his companions also heard the voice, whereas both 22:9 and 26:14 state that only Saul heard the voice. Since the Greek noun used here (GK 5889) means both “sound” in the sense of any tone or voice and “articulated speech” in the sense of language, undoubtedly while the whole group traveling to Damascus heard the sound from heaven, only Saul understood the spoken words. As Saul fell to the ground, the voice from heaven intoned his name in solemn repetition: “Saul, Saul.” It was common in antiquity for a person in a formal setting to be addressed by the repetition of his name (cf. Genesis 22:11; 46:2; Exodus 3:4; et al.). Saul understood the voice to be a message from God himself, for to the rabbis to hear a voice from heaven connoted a rebuke or a word of instruction from God. Therefore when the voice went on to ask the question “Why do you persecute me?” Saul was without doubt thoroughly confused. He was not persecuting God! Rather, he was defending God and his laws! Some have translated Saul’s reply in v.5 as “Who are you, sir?” since the Greek title kyrios (GK 3261) was used in the ancient world not only as an ascription of worshipful acclaim but also as a form of polite address and since the context indicates that Saul did not know whom he was speaking to. But he did know that he had been struck down by a light from heaven and had been addressed by a voice from heaven, both of which signaled the divine presence. So his use of the term “Lord” was probably meant in a worshipful manner— even though he was thoroughly confused as to how he could be rebuked by God for doing his will and service. Unable even to articulate his confusion, though realizing the need for some response in the presence of the divine, he cries out in stumbling fashion, “Who are you, Lord?” In what must have been for Saul almost total disbelief, he hears the following reply: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Then in a manner that throws him entirely upon the guidance of Jesus, apart from anything he could do or work out for himself, the voice continues: “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Such a confrontation and such a rebuke must have been traumatic for Saul. Time would be needed to heal his emotions and work out the implications of his experience, and both Acts and Paul’s later Christian letters reveal something of the process of development throughout the rest of his life. But in this supreme revelational encounter, Saul received a new perspective on divine redemption, a new agenda for his life, and the embryonic elements of his new Christian theology. Once Saul had been encountered by Christ on the Damascus road, a number of realizations must have begun to press in upon his consciousness—each of which was to receive further explication in his thought and life as time went on. First, Saul began to understand that despite his zeal and his sense of doing God’s will, his previous life and activities in Judaism lay under God’s rebuke. A voice from heaven had corrected him, and there was nothing more to be said. Second, Saul could not escape the fact that the Jesus whose followers he had been persecuting was alive, exalted, and in some manner to be associated with God the Father, whom Israel worshiped. He, therefore, had to revise his whole estimate of the life, teaching, and death of the Nazarene because God had beyond any question vindicated him. Thus he came to agree with the Christians that Jesus’ death on the cross, rather than discrediting him as an impostor, fulfilled prophecy and was really God’s provision for the sin of humankind and that Jesus’ resurrection confirmed him as being the nation’s Messiah and the world’s Lord. Third, Saul came to appreciate that if Jesus is the nation’s Messiah and the fulfillment of Israel’s ancient hope, then traditional eschatology, rather than merely dwelling on the future, must be restructured to emphasize the realized and inaugurated factors associated with Jesus of Nazareth and focus on the personal and transcendent dimensions instead of just the historical. Fourth, in the question “Why do you persecute me?” Saul came to realize something of the organic and indissoluble unity that exists between Christ and his own. For although he believed he was only persecuting the followers of Jesus, the heavenly interpretation of his action was that he was persecuting the risen Christ himself. Fifth (though hardly final), Saul came to understand that he had a mission to carry out for Christ. Its details, to be sure, were first given in general terms by Ananias of Damascus (vv.15–16) and only later set forth more fully by various visions and providential circumstances (cf. comments on chs. 13–28). But though it was not till later that Saul understood that his mission involved the equality of both Jews and Gentiles before God and the legitimacy of a direct approach to the Gentile world, it was his constant habit to relate his Gentile commission firmly and directly to his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road.