Acts 9:11

ἀναστὰς : the word as has been previously remarked is characteristic of Luke (cf. its use in O.T.), and does not in the least support the idea that the vision was a dream of the night, cf. Acts 8:26. ἐπὶ τὴν ῥύμην τ. κ. Εὐθεῖαν : ῥύμη, cf. Acts 12:10; Matthew 6:2. In Luke 14:21 it seems to be used in contrast to πλατεῖα, but in LXX at least in one passage it is used as its equivalent, Isaiah 15:3, cf. R.V., “broad places,” רְחֹב. It is found also in Sir 9:7 (perhaps twice) and in Tob 13:18, where in the previous ver., 17, we have πλατεῖαι, although it is very doubtful whether we can press a contrast here, and ὁύμη, Acts 9:18, might perhaps be taken as meaning a city-quarter, Latin vicus, see Speaker's Commentary, in loco. On the stages in the history of the word, and its occurrence in Attic Greek, e.g., in the comic writers Antiphanes (380 B.C.) and Philippides (323 B.C.), see Kennedy, Sources of N. T. Greek, pp. 15, 16; Rutherford, New Phrynichus, p. 488. Εὐθεῖαν : “the street called Straight” may be traced from the eastern to the western gate, and it still bears the name, Derb el-Mustakîm, Schneller, Apostelfahrten, pp. 254, 255, “Damascus,” Hastings' B.D. The “house of Judas,” also that of Ananias, are still pointed out, but considerable uncertainty attaches to the attempts at identification, see “Damascus,” u. s., also Felten, in loco. Ταρσέα : Tarsus was the capital of the Roman Province of Cilicia. Curtius has called it the Athens of Asia Minor, and Strabo emphasises its celebrity for the production of men famous in all branches of science and art. As a celebrated university town it may have ranked amongst its students not only St. Paul but his companion St. Luke, attracted it may be by the renown of its medical school; and if this be so, the acquaintance of the two men may date from their student days. To Tarsus, moreover, and to a country where Stoicism was cradled, St. Paul may have been indebted for his evident familiarity with the ideas and tenets of the Stoic philosophy. From Cyprus came Zeno and Persæus, from Soli, Chrysippus and Aratus, whilst Anazarba in Cilicia was the birthplace of the physician Dioscorides, contemporary of St. Luke as of St. Paul. It is indeed possible to enumerate at least six Stoic teachers whose home was Tarsus. See notes on St. Paul at Athens and at Ephesus, and see J. Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., on Acts 6:9; Curtius, Gesammelte Abhandlungen, ii., p. 538 ff.; Zahn, Einleitung i., pp. 37, 50; Lightfoot, Philippians, p. 303 ff.; Salmon, Introd., p. 317. ἰδοὺ γὰρ προσεύχεται : “orantes yidet Jesus” Bengel; present tense, continuous prayer, 1 Thessalonians 5:17.