Why do you persecute Me? Saul meets the risen Christ

Acts is the second volume of a two-part work addressed to Theophilus (Luke 1:1-4; Acts 1:1). Church tradition from the second century names the author as Luke, the physician and companion of Paul (Colossians 4:14), and the 'we' sections of Acts (from 16:10) fit a travelling companion. Dates fall in two groups. Many conservative scholars place Acts in the early 60s AD, since it ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome and does not report his trial. Many critical scholars prefer about AD 80 to 90 and see Luke as a second-generation historian using sources and eyewitness memory. Either way, Acts is the main narrative frame for dating Paul's letters, and this course relies on it.

Saul first appears at the stoning of Stephen, where the witnesses lay their coats at his feet (Acts 7:58; 8:1). He was a Jew born in Tarsus, chief city of Cilicia, and a Roman citizen from birth (Acts 22:3, 25-28). He was trained in Jerusalem under Gamaliel and was a Pharisee. Paul describes his earlier life in Galatians 1:13-14 and Philippians 3:4-6: he persecuted the church violently and was, by the standard of the law, blameless. Acts 9 does not state why, but most interpreters link his zeal to the Christian claim that a crucified man was Messiah and Lord, which a zealous Pharisee would hear as blasphemy.

The Damascus road event came only a few years after the crucifixion. A common reckoning puts Saul's conversion between about AD 33 and 36, though these dates are inferred, not given. Damascus was a large city north-east of Galilee with several synagogues. A governor under King Aretas (probably Aretas IV, whose reign ended about AD 40) is mentioned in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 and is the main outside clue to the setting. In the structure of Acts, the chapter is a hinge: the story moves from Jerusalem and the Jewish world toward the Gentile mission that fills chapters 13 to 28.

Acts is historical narrative. Luke tells what God did through the risen Christ and the Spirit, and he uses speeches, summaries and episodes to make theological points. In narrative the author shows what matters by repetition and by who is given speech. Saul's conversion is told three times (here and in chapters 22 and 26), with differences of emphasis that suit each speaker and audience, which marks it as a turning point of the book. Narrative describes what happened; it does not by itself make every detail a rule. That Saul was blinded is a fact about him, not a pattern for every believer.

The chapter is built as a double commission. The Lord speaks to Saul and, in a parallel vision, to Ananias (verses 1-19). Verses 20-31 show the first results in Damascus and Jerusalem, and verses 32-43 turn to Peter, so the church's two leading figures stand side by side. Read it beside Paul's own statements, which are written from the inside for a different purpose. Galatians 1:11-17 says he received the gospel by a revelation of Jesus Christ and went to Arabia before returning to Damascus. 1 Corinthians 15:8 counts the Damascus appearance as the last of the resurrection appearances. Luke's silence on Arabia and Paul's silence on Ananias are differences of selection, not necessarily contradictions.

One principle guides the exegesis: ask what Saul, a Pharisee, would have understood when a voice from heaven answered him as 'Lord'. The identity of the speaker is the centre of the story.

Verses 1–2

Saul is still breathing out threats and murder against the disciples. He asks the high priest for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, authorising him to arrest anyone belonging to 'the Way'. This is an early name for the Christian movement, probably from the idea of a path of life taught by Jesus (also Acts 19:9, 23; 24:14). The letters assume that the high priest's authority was recognised among Jewish communities outside Judea.

Verses 3–9

A light from heaven flashes around Saul, he falls, and a voice says, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?' The double address, as in God's calls of Abraham and Moses, is a personal and solemn summons. Saul asks, 'Who are You, Lord?' The Greek kyrios could mean no more than 'sir', but with a voice from heaven it carries more weight, and the answer settles it: 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.' The key sentence of the chapter is the identification. To attack the church is to attack Jesus. The men with Saul hear the voice but see no one, and Saul rises unable to see. He is led by the hand into Damascus and for three days neither eats nor drinks. The man who came to arrest has to be led.

Verses 10–16

In a vision the Lord tells a disciple named Ananias to go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and find Saul of Tarsus, who is praying. Ananias objects, as Moses and Jeremiah did, citing Saul's harm to the 'saints' (hagioi, holy ones) in Jerusalem. The Lord overrules him: Saul is his chosen instrument to carry his name before Gentiles and kings and the people of Israel. Two things stand out. The calling is given before Saul has done anything, so his turning rests on the Lord's choice. And the audience is threefold, with Gentiles named first, so the chapter points ahead to the mission of chapters 13 to 28. The Lord adds that he will show Saul how much he must suffer for his name. The persecutor will become one of the persecuted.

Verses 17–19

Ananias lays hands on Saul and calls him 'Brother Saul', a startling welcome. He says the Lord Jesus has sent him so that Saul may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Something like scales falls from Saul's eyes, and he rises and is baptized. Luke does not claim a fixed order of healing, baptism and Spirit, since elsewhere in Acts the order varies (compare chapters 8 and 10).

Verses 20–25

Saul at once proclaims in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. The hearers are amazed, because the persecutor now argues that Jesus is the Christ. After many days a plot forms, and the disciples let him down through an opening in the wall in a basket. Paul recalls the same escape in 2 Corinthians 11:32-33, adding the governor under Aretas.

Verses 26–31

In Jerusalem the disciples fear Saul until Barnabas, whose name means 'son of encouragement' (Acts 4:36), brings him to the apostles. When Greek-speaking Jews try to kill him, he is sent off to Tarsus. Verse 31 is one of Luke's summary notes: the church had peace and grew. Galatians 1:18-24 says Paul went up to Jerusalem three years after his conversion to visit Cephas, stayed fifteen days, and saw no other apostle except James. Luke's 'apostles' is usually read as Peter and James; some scholars see a real difference of emphasis.

Verses 32–43

Luke turns to Peter. At Lydda Peter heals Aeneas, paralysed for eight years, saying that Jesus Christ heals him. At Joppa the disciple Tabitha (Greek Dorcas), known for good works, falls ill and dies. Peter sends the mourners out, prays, and says, 'Tabitha, get up.' The scene echoes Jesus' raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:40-42). Peter then stays with Simon a tanner, an occupation many Jews considered unclean, which quietly prepares for Cornelius in Acts 10.

The first doctrine in the chapter is Christ's sovereignty in salvation. The persecutor is stopped by the risen Lord, called before he asks, and sent to those he came to arrest. Paul later describes himself the same way: in 1 Timothy 1:13-16 he is the foremost of sinners who received mercy, and in Galatians 1:15-16 God was pleased to reveal his Son in him. The Bible repeatedly shows God taking the initiative, and this is its clearest New Testament case of a life reversed by the Lord himself.

• The second is the unity of Christ and his people. 'Why do you persecute Me?' anticipates Jesus' teaching in Matthew 25:40, 45 that what is done to his people is done to him, and Paul's teaching that believers are the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). Union with Christ becomes central in Paul's letters, and this scene is a root of it.
• The third is the link between calling and suffering. Saul's commission carries the promise of suffering from the start, and Paul's letters confirm that he understood his ministry so (2 Corinthians 11:23-28; Philippians 3:10).

In the canon, Acts 9 stands between the Jerusalem witness of chapters 1 to 8 and the missionary journeys. Saul's task to bear Christ's name to Gentiles continues the promise that the servant would be a light for the nations (Isaiah 49:6), which Paul and Barnabas apply to themselves in Acts 13:47. This is also why the chapter opens a course on Paul's letters: every letter that follows was written by a man who understood himself as a witness to the risen Christ because Christ had met him.

Acts 9 is direct encounter, not foreshadowing. The risen Jesus speaks from heaven, gives his earthly name, and claims the persecuted church as his own. The first thing Saul learns about Jesus is that he is alive and that he is Lord. Paul later counts this experience as an appearance of the risen Christ, listed with those to Peter, the Twelve and James (1 Corinthians 15:5-8; 9:1), and it grounds his claim to be an apostle, one who has seen the Lord.

The chapter shows Jesus in three ways. He is Lord: the same voice that stops Saul instructs Ananias and works through Peter. He is Son of God, the title Saul preaches first (9:20), joining his messiahship to his divine identity. And he is healer and giver of life: Peter says it is Jesus Christ who heals Aeneas (9:34), and the raising of Tabitha shows the power over death seen in Jesus' own ministry. In both cases many come to believe in the Lord (9:35, 42).

The chapter also fulfils the Old Testament's promise that the nations would be blessed through Abraham's offspring (Genesis 12:3; Galatians 3:8). A man who once guarded the boundary between Jew and Gentile is sent across it. The bright light has a distant echo of the glory seen by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:28); this is an echo, not a citation.