Acts 9
The church's most determined persecutor rides toward Damascus to arrest more Christians and is struck blind by a light he cannot look at and a voice that asks why he is persecuting it.
Summary
Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples, goes to the high priest for letters authorizing him to arrest anyone belonging to the Way in Damascus and bring them to Jerusalem. Near Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashes around him and he falls to the ground. A voice says: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Rise and go into the city; you will be told what you must do. The men travelling with him hear the voice but see no one. Saul rises, opens his eyes, and cannot see. They lead him by the hand into Damascus, where he remains blind for three days, neither eating nor drinking. In a vision he sees a man named Ananias coming and restoring his sight.
The Lord tells Ananias in a vision to go to Saul in the street called Straight. Ananias objects: Lord, I have heard about this man — how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem, and he has authority to arrest all who call on your name. The Lord replies: go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, and I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. Ananias goes, lays his hands on Saul, and says: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Immediately something like scales falls from Saul's eyes, he regains his sight, rises, and is baptized. He takes food, is strengthened, and within days begins proclaiming in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. Those who hear are astonished: is this not the man who used to make havoc among those who called on this name? Saul increases in strength and confounds the Damascus Jews, proving from their own scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah.
- Acts 1Chapter 1 is a prologue and a hinge.
- Acts 2Pentecost is the structural and theological engine of the whole book.
- Acts 3Chapter 3 is the first miracle narrative in Acts, and its structure follows a pattern the book will repeat: the sign, the crowd, the sermon, and the opposition (which comes in chapter 4).
- Acts 4Chapter 4 is the first formal opposition scene in Acts, and it establishes a pattern: arrest, interrogation, the apostles' refusal, release, prayer, and the Spirit's confirmation.
- Acts 5Chapter 5 is one of the most dramatically concentrated in the book.
- Acts 6Chapter 6 is transitional but efficient.
- Acts 7Chapter 7 is the theological and dramatic climax of the Jerusalem section.
- Acts 8Chapter 8 is the first chapter of the middle section — Judea and Samaria — and it works by juxtaposition.
- Acts 9Chapter 9 contains the first telling of Paul's conversion (the other two are in chapters 22 and 26), and it is worth reading all three consecutively to see how Luke shapes each one for its audience.
- Acts 10Chapter 10 is the structural pivot of the first half of Acts and one of the most carefully constructed chapters in the New Testament.
- Acts 11Chapter 11 has two movements.
- Acts 12Chapter 12 is the last major Peter chapter in Acts, and it works as a deliberate counterpoint to the Herod material.
- Acts 13Chapter 13 is the beginning of the long Pauline section, and it opens with a scene worth pausing over: the Spirit speaks during a worship service in Antioch — while they are worshipping and fasting — and sets Barnabas and Saul apart for a specific but unnamed work.
- Acts 14Chapter 14 completes the first missionary journey and its most memorable episode is the Lystra scene (verses 8-20).
- Acts 15Chapter 15 is the structural centre of Acts and one of the most important chapters in the New Testament.
- Acts 16Chapter 16 is one of the richest in Acts.
- Acts 17Chapter 17 covers three cities and demonstrates the range of Paul's rhetorical repertoire.
- Acts 18Chapter 18 is relatively measured in tone after the drama of chapter 17.
- Acts 19Chapter 19 is the longest account of Paul's settled ministry in any city and falls into two parts.
- Acts 20Chapter 20 is the most elegiac in Acts.
- Acts 21Chapter 21 is the beginning of the long arrest sequence that occupies the rest of the book.
- Acts 22Chapter 22 is the second telling of Paul's conversion (the first is in chapter 9, the third in chapter 26).
- Acts 23Chapter 23 is structurally a thriller: the Sanhedrin hearing (verses 1-10), the night vision in the barracks (verse 11), the assassination plot (verses 12-22), and the extraordinary military escort to Caesarea (verses 23-35).
- Acts 24Chapter 24 is the first of three formal hearings in Acts — before Felix (24), before Festus (25), and before Agrippa (26) — and it establishes the pattern the others follow: Jewish accusation, Paul's defence, Roman incomprehension of the internal religious question, and a procedurally inconclusive result.
- Acts 25Chapter 25 is a pivot chapter.
- Acts 26Chapter 26 is the third and final telling of Paul's conversion (compare chapters 9 and 22) and the most rhetorically elaborate.
- Acts 27Chapter 27 is one of the most detailed sea narratives in ancient literature and is written in the first person plural (the we-passage resumes at verse 1), which gives it its immediacy.
- Acts 28Chapter 28 is the ending the book has been building toward, and it rewards slow reading.