Thus equipped with the high commission and letters of the supreme court
of the Jewish nation, Saul, breathing out threatenings and slaughter
against the disciples of the Lord, went on his way to Damascus,
where the sanction of his superiors would have the force of despotic
law, against the destined victims of his cruelty. The distance from
Jerusalem to this great Syrian city, can not be less than 250 or 300
miles, and the journey must therefore have occupied as many as ten
or twelve days, according to the usual rate of traveling in those
countries. On this long journey therefore, Saul had much season for
reflection. There were indeed several persons in his company, but
probably they were only persons of an inferior order, and merely the
attendants necessary for his safety and speed in traveling. Among these
therefore, he would not be likely to find any person with whom he could
maintain any sympathy which could enable them to hold much conversation
together, and he must therefore have been left through most of the time
to the solitary enjoyment of his own thoughts. In the midst of the
peculiar fatigues of an eastern journey, he must have had many seasons
of bodily exhaustion and consequent mental depression, when the fire
of his unholy and exterminating zeal would grow languid, and the
painful doubts which always come in at such dark seasons, to chill the
hopes of every great mind,――no matter what may be the character of the
enterprise,――must have had the occasional effect of exciting repentant
feelings in him. Why had he left the high and sacred pursuits of a
literary and religious life, in the refined capital of Judaism, to
endure the fatigues of a long journey over rugged mountains and sandy
deserts, through rivers and under a burning sun, to a distant city, in
a strange land, among those who were perfect strangers to him? It was
for the sole object of carrying misery and anguish among those whose
only crime was the belief of a doctrine which he hated, because it
warred against that solemn system of forms and traditions to which he
so zealously clung, with all the energy that early and inbred prejudice
could inspire. But in these seasons of weariness and depression, would
now occasionally arise some chilling doubt about the certain rectitude
of the stern course which he had been pursuing, in a heat that seldom
allowed him time for reflection on its possible character and tendency.
Might not that faith against which he was warring with such devotedness,
be true?――that faith which, amid blood and dying agonies, the martyr
Stephen had witnessed with his very last breath? At these times of
doubt and despondency would perhaps arise the remembrance of that
horrible scene, when he had set by, a calm spectator, drinking in with
delight the agonies of the martyr, and learning from the ferocity of
the murderers, new lessons of cruelty. to be put in practice against
others who should thus adhere to the faith of Christ. No doubt too, an
occasional shudder of gloom and remorse for such acts would creep over
him in the chill of evening, or in the heats of noon-day, and darken
all his schemes of active vengeance against the brethren. But still
he journeyed northward, and each hour brought him nearer the scene of
long-planned cruelty. On the last day of his wearisome journey, he at
length drew near the city, just at noon; and from the terms in which
his situation is described, it is not unreasonable to conclude that
he was just coming in sight of Damascus, when the event happened which
revolutionized his purposes, hopes, character, soul, and his whole
existence through eternity,――an event connected with the salvation of
millions that no man can yet number.
Illustration: DAMASCUS.
Descending from the north-eastern slope of Hermon, over whose mighty
range his last day’s journey had conducted him, Saul came along the
course of the Abana, to the last hill which overlooks the distant city.
Here Damascus bursts upon the traveler’s view, in the midst of a mighty
plain, embosomed in gardens, and orchards, and groves, which, with
the long-known and still bright streams of Abana and Pharphar, and the
golden flood of the Chrysorrhoas, give the spot the name of “one of the
four paradises.” So lovely and charming is the sight which this fair
city has in all ages presented to the traveler’s view, that the Turks
relate that their prophet, coming near Damascus, took his station on
the mountain Salehiyeh, on the west of the hill-girt plain in which
the city stands; and as he thence viewed the glorious and beautiful
spot, encompassed with gardens for thirty miles, and thickly set
with domes and steeples, over which the eye glances as far as it can
reach,――considering the ravishing beauty of the place, he would not
tempt his frailty by entering into it, but instantly turned away with
this reflection: that there was but one paradise designed for man,
and for his part, he was resolved not to take his, in this world. And
though there is not the slightest foundation for such a story, because
the prophet never came near to Damascus, nor had an opportunity of
entering into it, yet the conspiring testimony of modern travelers
justifies the fable, in the impression it conveys of the surpassing
loveliness of the view from this very spot,――called the Arch of Victory,
from an unfinished mass of stonework which here crowns the mountain’s
top. This spot has been marked by a worthless tradition, as the scene
of Saul’s conversion; and the locality is made barely probable, by the
much better authority of the circumstance, that it accords with the
sacred narrative, in being on the road from Jerusalem, and “nigh unto
the city.”
“Damascus is a very ancient city, which the oldest records
and traditions show by their accordant testimony to have been
founded by Uz, the son of Aram, and grandson of Shem. It was
the capital or mother city of that Syria which is distinguished
by the name of Aram Dammesek or Damascene Syria, lying between
Libanus and Anti-Libanus. The city stands at the base of Mount
Hermon, from which descend the famous streams of Abana and
Pharphar; the latter washing the walls of the city, while the
former cuts it through the middle. It was a very populous,
delightful, and wealthy place; but as in the course of its
existence it had suffered a variety of fortune, so it had often
changed masters. To pass over its earlier history, we will
only observe, that before the Christian era, on the defeat
of Tigranes, the Armenian monarch, it was yielded to the
Romans, being taken by the armies of Pompey. In the time of
Paul, as we are told in ♦2 Corinthians xi. 32, it was held
under the (temporary) sway of Aretas, a king of the Arabians,
father-in-law of Herod the tetrarch. It had then a large Jewish
population, as we may gather from the fact, that in the reign of
Nero, 10, 000 of that nation were slaughtered, unarmed, and in
the public baths by the Damascenes, as Josephus records in his
history of the Jewish War, II. Book, chapter 25. Among the Jews
of Damascus, also, were a considerable number of Christians, and
it was raging for the destruction of these, that Saul, furnished
with the letters and commission of the Jewish high priest, now
flew like a hawk upon the doves.” (Witsius, § 2, ¶ 1.)
♦ “2” omitted in the original text.
The sacred narrative gives no particulars of the other circumstances
connected with this remarkable event, in either of the three statements
presented in different parts of the book of Acts. All that is
commemorated, is that at mid-day, as Saul with his company drew near to
Damascus, he saw a light exceeding the sun in brightness, which flashed
upon them from heaven, and struck them all to the earth. And while they
were all fallen to the ground, Saul alone heard a voice speaking to
him in the Hebrew tongue, and saying, “Saul! Saul! Why persecutest thou
me? It is hard for thee to kick against thorns.” To this, Saul asked in
reply, “Who art thou, Lord?” The answer was, “I am Jesus the Nazarene,
whom thou persecutest.” Saul, trembling and astonished, replied, “Lord,
what wilt thou that I should do?” And the voice said, “Rise and stand
upon thy feet, and go into the city; there thou shalt be told what to
do, since for this purpose I have appeared to thee, to make use of thee
as a minister and a witness, both of what thou hast seen and of what
I will cause thee to see,――choosing thee out of the people, and of the
heathen nations to whom I now SEND thee,――to open their eyes,――to turn
them from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan unto God,
that they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among them
that are sanctified, by faith in me.”
These words are given thus fully only in Saul’s own account
of his conversion, in his address to king Agrippa. (Acts xxvi.
14‒18.) The original Greek of verse 17, is most remarkably and
expressively significant, containing, beyond all doubt, the
formal commission of Saul as the “APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES.” The
first word in that verse is translated in the common English
version, “delivering;” whereas, the original, Εξαιρουμενος,
means also “taking out,” “choosing;” and is clearly shown by
Bretschneider, sub voc. in numerous references to the usages of
the LXX., and by Kuinoel, in loc., to bear this latter meaning
here. Rosenmueller and others however, have been led, by the
circumstance that Hesychius gives the meaning of “rescue,” to
prefer that. Rosenmueller’s remark, that the context demands
this meaning, is however certainly unauthorized; for, on this
same ground, Kuinoel bases the firmest support of the meaning
of “choice.” The meaning of “rescue” was indeed the only one
formerly received, but the lights of modern exegesis have
added new distinctness and aptness to the passage, by the
meaning adopted above. Beza, Piscator, Pagninus, Arias Montanus,
Castalio, &c., as well as the oriental versions, are all quoted
by Poole in defense of the common rendering, nor does he seem to
know of the sense now received. But Saul was truly chosen, both
“out of the people” of Israel, (because he was a Jew by birth
and religion,) “and out of the heathen,” (because he was born
and brought up among the Grecians, and therefore was taken
out from among them, as a minister of grace to them,) and the
whole passage is thus shown to be most beautifully just to the
circumstances which so eminently fitted him for his Gentile
apostleship. The Greek verb used in the conclusion of the
passage, is the consecrating word, αποστελλω, (_apostello_,)
and makes up the formula of his _apostolic_ commission, which is
there given in language worthy of the vast and eternal scope of
the sense,――words fit to be spoken from heaven, in thunder, amid
the flash of lightnings, that called the bloody-minded, bitter,
maddened persecutor, to the peaceful, devoted, unshrinking
testimony of the cause, against the friends of which he before
breathed only threatenings and slaughter.
Illustration: Εξαιρουμενος σε εκ τοῦ λαοῦ και τῶν ἐθνῶν, εις
οὑς νῦν σε ΑΠΟΣΤΕΛΛΩ.
All this took place while the whole company of travelers were lying
prostrate on the ground, stunned and almost senseless. Of all those
present, however, Saul only heard these solemn words of warning,
command, and prophecy, thus sent from heaven in thunder; for he himself
afterwards, in narrating these awful events before the Jewish multitude,
expressly declares “the men that were with me, saw the light, indeed,
and were afraid; but they _heard NOT the voice_ of him who spoke to
me.” And though in the previous statement given by Luke, in the regular
course of the narrative, it is said that “the men who journeyed with
Saul were speechless,――hearing a _voice_, but seeing no man;” yet
the two statements are clearly reconciled by the consideration of the
different meanings of the word translated “_voice_” in both passages,
but which the accompanying expressions sufficiently limit in the latter
case only to the articulate sounds of a human voice, while in the
former it is left in such terms as to mean merely a “sound,” as of
thunder, or any thing else which can be supposed to agree best with the
other circumstances. To them, therefore, it seemed only surprising, not
miraculous; for they are not mentioned as being impressed, otherwise
than by fear and amazement, while Saul, who alone heard the words,
was moved thereby to a complete conversion. The whole circumstances,
therefore, allow and require, in accordance with other similar passages,
that the material phenomena which were made the instruments of this
miraculous conversion, were, as they are described, _first_ a flash of
lightning, which struck the company to the earth, giving all a severe
shock, but affecting Saul most of all, and, _second_, a peal of thunder,
heard by all as such, except Saul, who distinguished in those awful,
repeated sounds, the words of a heavenly voice, with which he held
distinct converse, while his wondering companions thought him only
muttering incoherently to himself, between the peals of thunder;――just
as in the passage related by John, when Jesus called to God, “Father!
glorify thy name;” and then there came a voice from heaven, saying, “I
both have glorified it and will glorify it;” yet the people who then
stood by, said, “It _thundered_,”――having no idea of the expressive
utterance which was so distinctly heard by Jesus and his disciples.
There is no account, indeed, in either case, of any thunder storm
accompanying the events; but there is nothing in the incidents to
forbid it; and the nature of the effects upon the company who heard and
saw, can be reconciled only with the supposition of a burst of actual
thunder and lightning, which God made the organ of his awful voice,
speaking to Saul in words that called him from a course of sin and
cruelty, to be a minister of grace, mercy and peace, to all whose
destroying persecutor he had before been. The sequel of the effects,
too, are such as would naturally follow these material agencies. The
men who were least stunned, rose to their feet soon after the first
shock; and when the awful scene was over, they bestirred themselves to
lift up Saul, who was now found, not only speechless, but blind,――the
eyes being so dazzled by such excess of light, that the nerve loses all
its power, generally, forever. Saul being now raised from the ground,
was led, helpless and thunder-struck, by his distressed attendants,
into the city, which he had hoped to make the scene of his cruel
persecutions, but which he now entered, more surely bound, than could
have been the most wretched of his destined captives.
Kuinoel and Bloomfield will furnish the inquiring reader with
the amusing details of the hypotheses, by which some of the
moderns have attempted to explain away the whole of Saul’s
conversion, into a mere remarkable succession of natural
occurrences, without any miracle at all.