Acts 22:14

Acts 22:14. The God of our fathers hath chosen thee. Another appeal to Jewish thought. Paul here reproduces what ‘the young man whose name was Saul,' heard from the lips of the first martyr Stephen twenty-five years before, when pleading before the Sanhedrim. The whole sentence of Stephen, which was probably reproduced in its entirety by Paul (Luke no doubt abbreviates it), ran thus: ‘The God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.'

And see that Just One. We are here distinctly told by Ananias what hardly appears from Luke's account of the vision, or from either of Paul's own recitals, how in the blinding glory Paul gated on the Divine form of Jesus Christ. Was it not to this appearance of ‘the Risen One' that he refers when he writes, ‘Am I not an apostle?... have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?'(1 Corinthians 9:1); and ‘Last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time' (1 Corinthians 15:8).

‘That Just One,' another reminiscence of Stephen's defence before the Sanhedrim. The martyr had spoken of ‘the coming of the Just One.' The name ‘The Just One' does not appear to have been one of the titles of the expected Messiah, but may have been suggested by Isaiah 11:4-5. It seems to have been accepted by the Church of Jerusalem; and in 1 John 2:1, and perhaps in James 5:6, we find examples of its application. The memorable use of this name by Pilate's wife (Matthew 27:19) may have helped to give prominence to it. He who had been condemned as a malefactor was emphatically, above all the sons of men, the ‘Righteous,' the ‘Just One.'