Act 22:4-16 | PNT | STEP | I persecuted this way . He did this from his zeal towards God, whom he thought he thus served. Unto the death . This seems to imply that Stephen was not the only martyr in whose death he was an accomplice.

Acts 22:4-16

I persecuted this way. He did this from his zeal towards God, whom he thought he thus served.

Unto the death. This seems to imply that Stephen was not the only martyr in whose death he was an accomplice. The high priest doth bear me witness. The high priest in A.D. 37, the time Saul of Tarsus was sent to Damascus, was not now high priest, having been deposed by the Romans, but was probably a member of the Sanhedrin at this time. It is also probable that the present high priest personally knew about all facts. There were many present who knew that he had been a commissioned persecutor. Nigh to Damascus about noon. See notes on Ac 9:3-10, where the account of Paul's conversion is given. There the time of day is not mentioned. The light appeared when the sun was at its brightest, and was brighter than the sun (Ac 26:13). Saul, Saul. The Voice spoke in the Hebrew tongue (Ac 26:14).

Why persecutest thou me? By persecuting those for whom Christ died. They heard not the voice. Some have insisted that there is a contradiction between this statement and that of Ac 9:7, but the word "hear" is often used in the sense of "understand". Once the writer heard Abraham Lincoln address a great audience. Some, at a distance, cried out, "We cannot hear". They meant "understand", for they could hear the sound of his voice. I could not see for the glory of that light. In Ac 9:8 we are told that he was blinded, but not the cause. One Ananias, a devout man. We are told he was a disciple in the account of Ac 9:10. Though a disciple, he kept the law strictly. The God of our fathers. Of the Jews.

See that Just One. The Lord Jesus Christ. It was necessary that Paul should see the Lord in order to become a witness. He refers more than once to the fact that he had seen the risen Christ (1Co 9:1 15:8). Arise, and be baptized. Dean Howson ("Acts", p. 501) says that the verb "baptize" in the Greek is in the middle voice, and that a more accurate rendering would be, "Have thyself baptized".

Wash away thy sins. This language shows that Ananias thought that the penitent sinner was to be baptized for the remission of sins (Ac 2:38), and that Paul held the same view. Compare Tit 3:5. Hackett says: ``This clause states the result of baptism in language derived from the nature of the ordinance. It answers to "eis aphesin hamartion" (Ac 2:38), i.e., submit to the rite in order to be forgiven. . . . There can be no question of the mode of baptism in this case, for if it be held that "be baptized" is uncertain in its meaning, "wash away" is a definition that removes the doubt.'' As the final act of conversion, baptism symbolically, is said to wash away sins.