_PAUL DECLARETH AT LARGE HOW HE WAS CONVERTED TO THE FAITH, AND CALLED TO HIS APOSTLESHIP. AT THE VERY MENTIONING OF THE GENTILES, THE PEOPLE EXCLAIM AGAINST HIM. HE WOULD HAVE BEEN SCOURGED; BUT, CLAIMING THE PRIVILEGE OF A ROMAN, HE ESCAPETH._ _Anno Domini 61._... [ Continue Reading ]
BROUGHT UP—AT THE FEET OF GAMALIEL,— Strabo tells us that it was customaryamong the inhabitants of Tarsus, for the young people, when they had gone through a course of education at Rome, to travel abroad for further improvement. Concerning _Gamaliel,_ see on ch. Acts 5:34. The phrase of being brough... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I PERSECUTED THIS WAY UNTO THE DEATH,— We know that he was concerned in the death of Stephen: ch. Acts 8:1 and if he was not so in that of many more, it was not for want of zeal and rage, but merely of power. However, there is no reason to think that the sacred history contains a full account of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE HIGH-PRIEST DOTH BEAR ME WITNESS,— That is, "I can appeal to him for the proof of this." It will not follow from hence, that he who was now_high-priest,_ also bore _that office_ when St. Paul persecuted the Christians; he might then perhaps be only an inferior member of the sanhedrim. Instead of... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THEY HEARD NOT THE VOICE— See on ch. Acts 9:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SEE THAT JUST ONE,— Some commentators refer this to a future vision of Christ, and a future commission to be received from him; but it clearly appears from St. Paul's own narration, that he had already seen him and heard him speak. It seems therefore most natural to refer it to the past, rather... [ Continue Reading ]
BE BAPTIZED,— _Baptism,_ in respect to adults, except in the very peculiar instance of our Lord, was a token of confession and humiliation for sin; and of a desire to be cleansed from it, as the body is by water cleansed from its pollution; and being administered to such professed penitents by divin... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAW HIM— That is, the Lord Jesus. Some suppose, that this memorable event happened in the second journey that St. Paul made to Jerusalem. See ch. Acts 11:30. But the expression rather seems to intimate that it was on his first return to Jerusalem that he had this vision in the temple; and what h... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHOULD BE EXAMINED BY SCOURGING;— One of the ways of examining by torture among the Romans, as well as among the Jews, was by binding the person to a pillar, and severely scourging him; so that this infamous practice of extorting a confession has, to the disgrace of human nature, prevailed among... [ Continue Reading ]
IS IT LAWFUL, &C.?— See the note on ch. Acts 16:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT I WAS FREE BORN.— This is thought, by some, to have been in consequence of his being a native of Tarsus; but Dr. Lardner has produced many strong arguments against admitting that city to have been a colony, or what the Romans call _municipium,_ that is, a place where all the natives were free of... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH SHOULD HAVE EXAMINED HIM:— _Put him to the question_ or _torture._ See on Acts 22:24. The latter part of the verse might be better rendered, _the chief captain was afraid,_—because he had bound him, knowing that he was a Rom _INFERENCES.—_The learned education which St. Paul had received at th... [ Continue Reading ]