The Word Made Fresh
1“Brothers and fathers, listen to my defense.”
2When they heard him speaking to them in Aramaic they were quiet. Then Paul said, 3“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but taught in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. I was trained in the law of our ancestors to be zealous for God, just as you are today. 4I persecuted those who follow this Way even to the point of death, and I bound both men and women in prison. 5The high priest and the council of elders can vouch for me. They gave me letters for our fellow Jews in Damascus, and I went there to bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.
5“But when I was approaching Damascus, at mid-day a bright light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7I fell face down on the ground, and heard a voice speaking to me. It said, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8I asked ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, the one you have been persecuting.’ 9The friends who were with me saw the light but didn’t hear the voice speaking to me. 10I asked, ‘What do you want me to do, Lord?’ He said, ‘Get up and go on to Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are supposed to do.’ 11The brightness of the light had blinded me and I couldn’t see, so the friends with me had to take me by the hand to Damascus.
12“A man known as Ananias, devoted to the law, and thought well of by all the Jews there, 13came and stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ and in that very hour my sight returned, and I could see him. 14Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear his own voice, 15because you are to proclaim what you have seen and heard to the whole world. 16What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized and call on him to wash away your sins.’
17“When I returned to Jerusalem I went to pray in the temple. I fell into a trance 18and saw Jesus. He said to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem. They are not going to accept what you tell them about me.’ 19I said, ‘Lord, they already know that I have imprisoned and punished those in every synagogue who believed in you. 20And when your witness Stephen was being stoned, I was the one standing by in approval, and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’ 21Then he said to me, ‘Go! I am sending you far away to the Gentiles.’”
22They had listened to him quietly, but when he said this they began to shout, “Get rid of him! He doesn’t deserve to live!”
23While they yelled and carried on, tossing dust into the air, and throwing off their cloaks, 24the tribune told his men to bring Paul back to the barracks, and ordered them to flog him to find out why there was such a demonstration against him. 23But when they had bound him, Paul said to the centurion standing nearby, “Is it legal to whip a Roman citizen who has not been condemned?”
24When Paul said this, the centurion went to the tribune and said, “What were you thinking? This man is a Roman citizen!”
25The tribune came to Paul and asked, “Are you a citizen of Rome?” And Paul answered that he was indeed. 28The tribune said, “I paid a lot of money to become a citizen.” Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.”
29The soldiers around him stepped back and the tribune was afraid as well, realizing that he had bound a Roman citizen.30But he wanted to find out what the Jews were accusing Paul of doing. The next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the Jewish council to meet. He brought Paul to stand before them.
Commentary
1-5: Paul begins his address by claiming kinship to the mob. The greeting “brothers and fathers” (which occurs nowhere else in the Bible) gets their attention. He gives his background and pedigree as a devout Jew, reminding them how he had persecuted and prosecuted the followers of Jesus so zealously that he even went to Damascus to bring some of them back to justice. The mob remains silent.
6-11: The story of Paul’s conversion is told three times in Acts: at 9:3-8, here, and at 26:12-18. The gist of the story is the same throughout, but there are some interesting differences. The first telling is Luke’s narrative; the second and third are purported to be Paul’s own words. The present instance — Paul’s first personal recounting of the experience – tracks Luke’s narrative in chapter 9 closely. The version of the story in chapter 26 has obviously been enhanced by years of reflection. In any case, he tells the story to the mob how he met Jesus, to whom he refers as “Lord,”on the road to Damascus. The mob is silent.
12-16: Paul tells of his encounter with Ananias, the regaining of his sight, and his baptism. The mob is silent.
17-20: He recounts his second message from Jesus telling him to leave Jerusalem, and how he argued that the people there knew him — knew how he had persecuted Christians and presided over the stoning of Stephen. The mob is silent.
21: Then he tells them that Jesus sent him to the Gentiles. The mob explodes in rage. Strange, isn’t it, that they remained silent when he called Jesus “Lord,” and when he claimed that someone they thought of as a dead man spoke to him, but one mention of the word “Gentile” sets them off?
22-29: The tribune orders the soldiers to take Paul back to the barracks and torture him until they find out what’s going on. Paul is silent while they tie him up and then calmly informs the centurion that he is a Roman citizen. The centurion reports to the tribune. The tribune questions Paul and finds out he was born a citizen of Rome in Tarsus in the province of Cilicia between Syria and Pamphylia. The tribune has overstepped his authority and is afraid.
30: Curiously, though, the tribune apparently leaves Paul under arrest overnight. The next day he summons the Sanhedrin, unties Paul, and brings him to the party.
Takeaway
Most of us haven’t had a dramatic “road to Damascus” type experience, but can you remember an experience of knowing that God was with you, answering a prayer, preparing a way, opening a door? Has your faith in God given you guidance in some important decision you made?