Acts 9:1

"But Saul, yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest"But Saul" "His attitude and conduct is put in contrast to that of Philip by the conjunction but" (Boles p. 140). "Yet breathing" "He had not changed since Stephen's death; he was still in the same mental condition of hatred and hostility" (Stott p. 168). Stephen's death and the heated persecution conducted in Jerusalem had not satisfied his wrath. Saul's anger against Christians came from deep-seated convictions. He was not persecuting Christians to "prove" to people that he was. faithful Jew, and he was not merely trying to "look good" in the eyes of the Sanhedrin. "Threatening and slaughter" "Still uttering murderous threats" (TCNT). "Threatening and slaughter had come to be the very breath that Saul breathed, like. warhorse who sniffed the smell of battle" (Robertson p. 113). "Every time he took. breath it seemed that new threats against the followers of Christ were uttered" (Reese p. 349). Acts 26:11 "and being furiously enraged at them". "Went unto the High Priest" The word went seems to infer that Saul volunteered for this mission, or that the mission was his idea. Up until 36 A.D., Caiaphas was still the high priest. "The high priest, as president of the Sanhedrin, was head of the Jewish state so far as its internal affairs were concerned. His authority was upheld by the Roman power. The high priest's decrees, or the decrees of the Sanhedrin, and were binding not only in the Jewish communities of Palestine but also to. great extent in those outside Palestine" (Bruce p. 193).