Acts 9:4

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? AND HE FELL TO THE EARTH - and his companions fell with him (), AND HEARD A VOICE SAYING UNTO HIM - "in the Hebrew tongue" (), SAUL, SAUL - a reduplication (says DeWette) full of tenderness. Accordingly, though his name was soon changed into "Paul," we find in both his own narratives of the scene, after the lapse of many years, the original form retained, even in the Greek, just as here; neither he nor the historian (who doubtless often heard him describe the scene) daring to alter, in the smallest tittle, the overpowering words addressed to him. WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME? No language can express the affecting char...

4.And therefore Luke saith that he _fell to the ground. _For what other thing can befall man, but that he must lie prostrate and be, as it were, brought to nothing, when he is overwhelmed with the present feeling of God’s glory? And this was the first beginning of the bringing down of Paul, that he might become apt to hear the voice of Christ, which he had despised so long as he sat haughtily upon his horse. _Saul, Saul! _Luke compared the light which shined round about Paul to lightning, though I do not doubt but that lightnings did fly in the air. And this voice, which Christ did send out to beat down his pride, may full well be called a _lightning _or_thunderbolt, _because it did not only strike him, and make him astonished, but did quite kill him, so that he was now as nobody with himself, who did so much please himself before and did challenge to himself authority to put the gospel...

1-9 So ill informed was Saul, that he thought he ought to do all he could against the name of Christ, and that he did God service thereby; he seemed to breathe in this as in his element. Let us not despair of renewing grace for the conversion of the greatest sinners, nor let such despair of the pardoning mercy of God for the greatest sin. It is a signal token of Divine favour, if God, by the inward working of his grace, or the outward events of his providence, stops us from prosecuting or executing sinful purposes. Saul saw that Just One, ch. Acts 22:14; Acts 26:13. How near to us is the unseen world! It is but for God to draw aside the veil, and objects are presented to the view, compared with which, whatever is most admired on earth is mean and contemptible. Saul submitted without reserve, desirous to know what the Lor...

Verse Acts 9:4. _AND HE FELL TO THE EARTH_] Being struck down with the lightning: many persons suppose he was on horseback, and painters thus represent him; but this is utterly without foundation. Painters are, in almost every case, wretched commentators....

AND HE FELL TO THE EARTH - He was astonished and overcome by the sudden flash of light. There is a remarkable similarity between what occurred here, and what is recorded of Daniel in regard to the visions which he saw, Daniel 8:17. Also Daniel 10:8, “Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision; and there remained no strength in me, for my comeliness (vigor) was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength.” The effect was such as to overpower the body. AND HEARD A VOICE - The whole company heard a voice Acts 9:7, but did not distinguish it as addressed particularly to Saul. He heard it speaking to himself. Sayi

EXPOSITION ACTS 9:1 _But _for _and, _A.V.; _breathing _for _breathing out, _A.V.; _threatening _for _threatenings, _A.V. THREATENING AND SLAUGHTER. The phrase ἐμπνέων ἀπειλῆς κ.τ.λ., is rather a difficult one, and is variously explained. Schleusner takes the genitives in "threatening and slaughter" as genitives of the thing desired, "punting after threatening and slaughter" (comp. Amos 2:7). Meyer explains it "out of the threatenings and murder [in his heart] breathing hard at the disciples"—an expression indicating passion. Alford, taking nearly the sense of the A.V., makes "threatenings and slaughter" to be as it were the very material of his breath, whether breathed out or breathed in. Considering that ἐμπνέω means "to br

AND HE FELL TO THE EARTH,.... Not being able to bear the light, and still less the divine glory and majesty which he perceived was present; and therefore, in great confusion, amazement, and fear, he fell with his face to the ground, and lay there prostrate and so did also those that were with him, Acts 26:14 AND HEARD A VOICE, SAYING UNTO HIM, SAUL, SAUL, WHY PERSECUTEST THOU ME? this voice was the real voice of Christ in his human nature, and who visibly and in person appeared, and was seen by the apostle; Acts 26:16 the language he spoke in was the Hebrew tongue, and he calls him by his Hebrew name Saul, and which is doubled to denote vehemency and affection; Luke 22:31 he knew him as one of his shee

Acts 9:1. _And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem._ His very breath was hot with malice against the saints, he could not live without venting his spite upon the disciples of Christ. He showed this by the fact that he not only sought to arrest men, but he was equally cruel towards women, who, from their weakness, one would have thought might have been let alone but he expressly desired it to be written in the letters that, «whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.» Acts 9:3. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and sudden

ME? The Lord identifies Himself with His people....

ACTS 9:4-5 diw,keij The clause sklhro,n soi pro.j ke,ntra lakti,zein is included after diw,keij (ver. Acts 9:4) in E 431 vgmss syrp, h with * Petilianus Jerome Augustine; and after diw,keij (ver. Acts 9:5) in itgig, h, p vgms Lucifer Ambrose. Although Clark argued that it would have been “inartistic” of Luke not to include the clause in one or the other verses (Clark prefers ver. Acts 9:4),...