Saul’s conversion took place in a fashion be- fitting its historical importance. The passionate young Pharisee had witnessed with approval the stoning of ad eae whose radical and incisive preaching recalled the tones of Jesus and re- awakened the deadly fear and hatred of the Pharisees toward His doctrine. The struggle be- tween the followers of Jesus and the existing Judaism, as Saul truly saw, was one of life and death. The mild policy of his master Gamaliel had allowed this monstrous imposture, this proclamation of a crucified Messiah and pretended Son of God, to make dangerous head- way. The heresy must be trampled out at any cost. In this conviction Saul was ‘breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.” He acted ‘ignorantly, in unbelief,’ out of a sincere and uncompromising zeal for God, and doing violence therein to his kindlier feelings. The Jewish ecclesiastical leaders found in Saul, thus disposed, their fit agent in the attempt they made after the murder of Stephen, and at a moment when political circumstances gave them a free hand, to suppress the sect of the Nazarenes. Saul was eavallinn to Damascus, commissioned by the high priest, to bring as prisoners to Jerus. any that he should there tind ‘of that way’; he
Rom. Emp.° iii., St. Paul the Trav. v. 2, and more | was nearing the city about noonday, bent on
recently in Hist. Com. on Gal., 1899, p. 42218). | This hypothesis, again, agrees with some but not!
harrying its defenceless Christian flock, when he was arrested by a burst of light ‘surpassing the
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PAUL THE APOSTLE
702
brightness of the sun,’ that encircled his troop. Out of the blaze there appeared a glorious human Form, who at his challenge declared Himself to be ‘ Jesus, whom thou persecutest!’ The sequel of the story we need not repeat. It is told three times in the Acts: once by the historian on his own account (9'!*), and twice as reported from Paul’s speeches—to the people at Jerus. (22*"), and before king Herod Agrippa 0. and Festus at Cesarea (26.5). The variation of the three nar- ratives is interesting as showing how much dif- ference in descriptive detail was deemed consistent with identity of fact by a careful writer like St. Luke. The only real mae eye lies in St. Paul’s omission in Ac 26 of the part of Ananias, on which he naturally dwelt in addressing the Jews (22). In the later address, speaking more summarily, he ascribes to Jesus directly, and as though com- municated at the outset, the revelations consequent upon ‘the peevery vision.” Vv." of ch. 9 ap- pear to embody Ananias’ account, which Luke would be sure to obtain (comp. Lk 15) if within his reach. The train of events is most vividly reproduced in Paul's unfinished speech at Jerus. (ch. 22), the objectivity of the appearance of Jesus and the baal dene Berns go that it exercised upon Saul’s mind being asserted with strong emphasis (esp. vv." 1, Here alone the two questions addressed by Saul to Jesus are re-
rted. In his speech at Caesarea the apostle ΞῈΞ out the startling and complete reversal effected in his conduct; to this account we owe also the statement that Jesus spoke in ‘the Hebrew language,’ and the significant sentence, ‘It is hard for thee to kick against the goad(s)’ (words which do not belong to the true text of Ac 9).
The Epp. furnish many instructive references to Paul’s conversion. In 1 Co 9 his apostolic office (resembling that of the Twelve, v.°) is grounded on the fact that he ‘has seen Jesus our Lord.’ Indeed, Paul claims to be a witness of Christ’s resurrection in the same sense as were those who saw Him during the forty days, and the dast of such witnesses, his birth into faith and apostleship, notwithstanding its abnormality and his unworthi- ness, being therefore as valid in itself as it was justified by its results (155). In the latter pas- sage we see the humiliatin aspect of St. Paul’s conversion ; in 2 Co 4*® aa 51°19, its splendour. God’s creative fiat bade ‘the illumination of the knowledge of His glory’ shine through Saul’s blinded eyes into his dark and bitter heart, ‘in the face of Christ’ disclosed amid ‘ the glory of that light’ (Ac 22"), There arose ‘a new creation’ oe that which attended the word, ‘ Let there be light.’ Paul was at the same instant ‘reconciled to God’ and received a ‘ministry of reconciliation’ for the world (2 Co 5'*%), “Gal 1"-7 shows him intent on proving his independent apostleship: his knowledge of Jesus Christ and his commission to preach Him to the Gentiles were derived, he asserts, at first hand from the Lord Himself, and at a time when his relations with the Church at Jerusalem had been only those of the persecutor. To no human mediation or indoctrination did he owe his ‘ gospel’ (comp. 1}) ; ‘Jesus Christ’ personally ‘revealed’ it to him (v.22). The sight of the risen Jesus, allowed to Saul by the mercy of God, ‘revealed in’ him ‘ the Son of God,’ his own and the world’s Lord and Redeemer (vv.' 15, This vision gave Saul the purport of his message to the Gentiles, impressin, upon this message a special Divine stamp an authority that raised him above the need and the wish to ‘confer’ in respect to it ‘with flesh and blood.’ Hence upon his conversion he did not follow the natural course of repairing to Jerusalem