This is the twenty-sixth
entry in the Bible Junkies Online Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. This entry
deals with the beginning of Saul’s conversion experience.
For previous entries, please now go to the Complete Acts of the Apostle Commentary, where you can find links to each of the
entries updated after each new blog post.
3. Contents:
E) Preparation for
the Gentile Mission: the Conversions of Paul and Cornelius (9:1-12:25): Saul’s
Conversion (9:1-9):
1 Meanwhile
Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,
went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at
Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he
might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he was going along and
approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4
He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do
you persecute me?" 5 He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The
reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and
enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do." 7 The men
who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but
saw no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were
open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into
Damascus. 9 For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor
drank. (NRSV)
With the beginning of chapter 9, though it might not be apparent initially,
the focus of Acts is changing to Saul and the Gentile Mission. We will be told
later that Saul is also called Paul (Acts 13:9), but at this point we only know
that the one who was earlier
persecuting the Christians is on his way to continue this persecution in Damascus
when he has an experience of the risen Lord. Saul’s conversion is the classic
example of conversion in the Christian tradition, joined some centuries later
by that of St. Augustine, in which a religious experience brings a person into a
direct and overwhelming encounter with the divine.[1]
Saul at the beginning of this scene is on his way to Damascus to root
out any disciples of the Lord, or followers of “the Way” (hê hodos) Acts 9:2). As Gary Gilbert notes, this title
for the Christian community probably is derived from their understanding that
they are following “the divine appointed path” as seen in Deuteronomy 5:33,
10:12, 30:16, Isaiah 42:24, Zechariah 3:7 and in some Dead Sea Scrolls (CD
20.18 and 1QS 9.17-18) (Gilbert, JANT, 216-17). Saul obviously does not
accept the disciples of the Lord as “the Way,” though we are not ever told
precisely why. Does he believe that Jesus is not the Messiah? That the
disciples of Jesus are blasphemers? That they do not follow the Torah, or Law
of Moses fully and properly? These are questions we ought to return to as we
continue on with our study of Acts, though it is possible that no definitive
answer is possible on the basis of Acts (or even when we bring in Paul’s own
letters).
According to this account Saul’s authority is not personal, though, but
dependent upon the high priest, for he “went to the high priest and asked him
for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged
to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2).
There is an underlying question, however, and that is what sort of judicial authority
the high priest would have to bring people from Damascus to Jerusalem. As Luke
Timothy Johnson, says, “It is not at all certain, historically, that the chief
priest had such powers of extradition” (Johnson, Acts, 162). On the
other hand, we do know of “letters of commendation” which Paul speaks of in his
own letters (2 Corinthians 3:1, Romans 16) and which are noted in 3 John also.
Saul certainly could have obtained letters, but the political situation in
Damascus and the relationship of the high priest to the political authorities
in Damascus and the synagogues there is not clear.[2]
Would Jews in Damascus have to honor the authority of the high priest in Jerusalem
if their political authorities did not? Or would Saul have acted extra-judicially?
Dillon states that “such authority of the high priest cannot be documented by
the witnesses usually cited” (Dillon, NJBC, 744).
What is also unclear, since Luke chooses to give us no background
information, is how the disciples of the Lord spread to Damascus and how many
are there. This is a sign of how selective Luke is in sharing information that
does not fit with his own historical and literary agenda. He has used the
Ethiopian eunuch account and Philip’s foray into Samaria to give us the first
sense of the Gospel moving beyond Jerusalem and Judea (Dillon, NJBC,
743), but clearly “the Way” is already in Damascus. Who brought it there? When
did they? Luke evinces no curiosity regarding these questions.
These historical, political and judicial questions quickly become moot,
though, in the light of Saul’s conversion experience.
3 Now as he was
going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed
around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,
"Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 5 He asked, "Who
are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are
persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what
you are to do."
Unexpectedly, the persecutor “suddenly” experiences “a light from
heaven” (Acts 9:3). Johnson points out that “suddenly” (exaiphnes) also
appears in Luke 2:13 with the appearance of the heavenly choir and in Luke 9:39
when a boy is overcome by a spirit (Johnson, Acts, 162). There is an
immediacy to this word and usage which indicates on its own the spiritual
realm. But Saul does not just see a flashing light, he hears a voice saying, "Saul,
Saul, why do you persecute me?" (Acts 9:4). Gilbert says that common
elements of divine appearances in Judaism include flashing light (4 Maccabees
4:10), falling to the ground (Daniel 10:9; Ezekiel 1:28), double naming
(Genesis 22:11, 46:2, Exodus 3:4, 1 Samuel 3:4, 10) and divine commission (Genesis
12:1, 22:2), which Saul receives in Acts 9:6 (Gilbert, JANT, 216-17).
The voice that Saul hears asks him, “Why do you persecute me?” (Acts
9:4). Theologically, this is a redolent question, for it indicates that
persecution of the disciples of the Lord is persecution of the Lord himself. If
we accept that Saul did indeed have this religious experience of the risen Lord
much as Luke describes it, we might see here the origin of Paul’s later
understanding of the church as body of Christ, since persecution of one is
persecution of the other.
Saul, though, does not know the voice and asks, “Who are you, Lord?” (Acts
9:5). There is a double meaning to Lord (kyrios), as it might simply be
a term of honor, such as “Sir,” or it could of course indicate God. Saul might
intend as a simple honorific initially, but when Jesus identifies himself (“I
am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”) and then commissions Saul (“But get up and
enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do"), along with all
of the other elements of divine manifestation present in this account, we are to
understand kyrios as indicating Jesus’ divinity.[3]
Dillon’s claim that Saul’s question indicates that the “dazzling light” was “nonrevelatory”
does not make sense of the evidence here (Dillon, NJBC, 744). The light
was not ordinary in Luke’s description but extraordinary, however one
interprets it.
There are auditory and visual components to this experience, but “the
men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice
but saw no one” (Acts 9:7). Although the
religious encounter is expressed by means of physical senses, not all of the
elements of the sensory experience are available to those with Saul. They hear
it, but see no one. The fullness of it is a spiritual experience to which only
Saul has access. This encounter, however, will be described again in Acts
22:1-21 and 26:9-18 and it will be important to pay attention to how it is outlined
in these two occurrences also, for Luke himself will not be consistent in his
description of the experience or who sees and hears what.
In Acts 9:4, Saul “fell to the ground” - not from a horse, even if Caravaggio’s
glorious painting has burned the image in our minds – and the scene is coming to an end when “Saul
got up from the ground” (Acts 9:8). But “though his eyes were open, he could
see nothing,” an example of the link between spiritual and physical sight. Saul
is in a liminal state, still not clear about his encounter with Jesus and until
he gains spiritual sight, he will not have physical sight. His companions “led
him by the hand and brought him into Damascus” (Acts 9:8), no longer able to
persecute, his personal mission brought to an end; he arrives in Damascus not
with ferocity, but led like a child. He has been brought low in spirit and body
(Dillon, NJBC, 744).
“For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (Acts
9:9). Paul is undergoing a kind of
spiritual death and the lack of food and drink indicates the liminality of his
experience, between the spiritual and the physical (Johnson, Acts, 164).
When will he awake to new life?
Next entry, Saul must
come to terms with his spiritual encounter.
John W. Martens
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This entry is cross-posted at America Magazine The Good Word
[1]
Whether this experience is a “conversion” or a “call” has led to much
discussion in recent scholarship, much of it centered on whether Saul becomes a
“Christian” or remains a Jew who recognizes Jesus as the Lord and Messiah. It
is too complex for our purposes here to discuss this completely, though it is
obvious, I think, that Saul’s mode of behavior and living out of Judaism shift at some point,
which Paul himself in his letters attributes to an encounter with Jesus
(Galatians 1:12, 15-17). As a result, I feel comfortable using both terms. For
those wishing to check out some of the major works in this area, please see the
late Alan Segal’s Paul the Convert: the Apostolate and Apostasy of Saul the
Pharisee and Pamela Eisenbaum’s Paul
was not a Christian: the Real Message of a Misunderstood Apostle.
[2]
Page, Acts, 136 cites a source, not
by name, stating, “By decrees of Julius Caesar and Augustus the high priest and
Sanhedrin at Jerusalem had jurisdiction over Jews resident in foreign cities.” The ancient source for this is not named, however,
and I am aware of no such source.
[3]
Johnson, Acts, believes that Saul “recognizes
that he is involved in a theophany” from the beginning (163).
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