Acts 9:3

ἐκ for ἀπὸ with אABCL. Vulg. ‘de.’

3. ἐν δὲ τῷ πορεύεσθαι, and as he journeyed. There were two roads by which Saul could make his journey, one the caravan road which led from Egypt to Damascus, and kept near the coast line of the Holy Land till it struck eastward to cross the Jordan at the north of the Lake of Tiberias. To join this road Saul must have at first turned westward to the sea. The other way led through Neapolis and crossed the Jordan south of the Sea of Tiberias, and passing through Gadara went north-eastward to Damascus. We have no means whereby to decide by which road Saul and his companions took their way. The caravan road was a distance of 136 miles, and occupied six days for the journey.

ἐγένετο αὐτὸν ἐγγίζειν, it came to pass that he drew nigh. This accusative and infinitive after ἐγένετο is frequent in St Luke’s writings, but it also occurs in other parts of N.T.; cf. Mark 2:23, καὶ ἐγένετο παραπορεύεσθαι αὐτὸν διὰ τῶν σπορίμων. Cf. Winer-Moulton, p. 406.

The party must have reached the near neighbourhood of the city, for his companions (Acts 9:8) ‘led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus’ after the vision.

φῶς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, a light from heaven. In Acts 22:6 we are told that the time of the day was ‘about noon’ when the vision was seen, and in Acts 26:13 Paul says that ‘at mid-day’ the light was ‘above the brightness of the sun.’ The mid-day glare of an Eastern sun is of itself exceedingly bright, and the hour was chosen, we cannot doubt, in order that ‘the glory’ of this heaven-sent light should not be confounded with any natural phenomenon. It was in the midst of this glory that Christ was seen by Saul (1 Corinthians 15:8), so that he can enumerate himself among those who had beheld the Lord after His resurrection.