The chief variations concern (i.) the effect of the appearance upon St. Paul's companions : in the first account they are described as 'hearing the voice but beholding no man' (9^, aKoi/ovm fjikv rfji (ftwi'ij?, fxT}&eva. Si deojpovvTe?) ; in the second it is said, ' They beheld indeed the light, but heard not the voice of hira that spake to me' (22^, ■nji' fie ^lovrtv ovk iJKouo'ai' tov AaAoucTos fj-oi); (ii.) the place of Ananias : in the first account Saul is bidden to arise and go into the city, where it shall be told him what he must do. So also in the second account. "The instruction is then left to be given by Ananias. But in the third account the instruction is given by the Lord Himself and no mention is made of Ananias. These variations, however, are relatively unimportant. As regards (i.), in the very variation a significance has been discerned. "They may have heard a vague sound ((ttuivfii, genitive), and yet not the articulate, intelligible voice ((fiMirriv, accusative), which fell upon St. Paul's ear with a definite meaning' (H. A. A. Kenneciy, St. Paul's Conceptions of the Last Thinfis, London, 1904, p. 86 ; cf. Grimm-Thayer, s.v.). As regards (ii.), St. Paul's omission in Ac 26 of the part of Ananias may be sufficiently explained by the difference of circumstances. He naturally dwelt on it in his defence before a Jewish mob (Ac 22), because the mention of Ananias and his part would be reassuring bo his hearers, while in speaking before Festus and Agrippa at C^esarea such a reference would be uncalled for. In Ac 9 we have the historian's own circumstantial narrative of the course of events where we would expect Ananias to be mentioned.
In regard to St. Paul's own experience of the appearance the ditierent accounts agree in the following details, (i. ) A light from heaven suddenly
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shone round about him as he journeyed to Panias(|u9 (9', -n-eptiiaTpatptv cjiCii ; 2'2°, irtpiairTpdi/'oi 0ils ; '2()'^ nepiXdfixpav . . . 0(is). Of this liglit Saul's fellow- travellers also were cognizant, (ii.) From the shock of this dazzling light Saul falls prostrate on the ground, (iii.) He liears a voice (the others heard only a sound), which he discovers to be that of the Giorilied Jesus speaking to him in words which he can understand. Whether, l)esides seeing a splendour of light and hearing a voice, St. I'aul saw also the Kiscii Lord in bodily form tlie accounts in Acts do not explicitly assert— though this seems implied in what is said iSy contrast of the experience of his companions, who are de.^cribed as hearing the voice but ' beholding no man ' {fi-qSiva OfupoOi/rcs, Ac 9'), and in lianiabas' sub-sequent announcement to the Church at Jerusalem that 'Saul had seen the Lord in the way ' (Ac 9-' ; cf. his announcement to St. Paul liimself, ' the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee,' v." ; cf. 22").
That St. Paul believed he had seen the Lord in His risen body is involved in the references to the event in his letter to Corinth which we have already considered (1 Co 9' 15'). In the former ijassage, in defending his apostleship he claims to have 'seen Jesus Christ our Lord.' The piima,ry apostolic function was to witness to the resurrection of Christ, and in order to discharge this function it was requisite that the Apostle should with his own eyes have seen the Risen Lord. In the latter passage, in which he cl.asses his own experience with the earlier appearances of the Risen Christ, his purpose is to prove not the continued spiritual existence of the Christian, but his bodily resurrec- tion ; and only a reference to the bodily resurrec- tion of our Lord and a bodily appearance would have been relevant. But according to the account in Acts the aspect of the appearance which chiefly impressed him was the Divine glory of it, ' the glory of that light' (Ac 22"). And this is reflected in many passages in his letters — 2 Th 1*'" 2', 1 Co 15"-^^ Ro 8'8- "', 1 Ti 6'"-, 2 Ti l"'-, and especially Ph S-"'- ('the body of his glory'). The vision he saw was of Christ gloritied ; but this Glorified Christ was identical with the Crucified Jesus of Nazareth (Ac 22*, ' I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest ' ; 26", ' I am Jesus whom thou persecutest '). And, however the phenomena per- ceived by his senses were to be described, what is important to note is the immediate ettect that the appearance had upon him, for St. Paul himself in his accounts of it is concerned with the significance of the fact rather than with any precise descriptive details. He became, through it, absolutely con- vinced that the Jesus who was crucified and whose followers he was persecuting was indeed the Risen and Exalted Lord (Ku/iioj); and this conviction revolutionized his whole thought and life, energiz- ing in him unto a new life of absolute devotion and surrender whereby he became henceforth the property (SoOXos) of a crucified but living and glori- fied Christ (Ro l^. Gal l'", Ph 1'). His own ex- planation of the transformation is contained in these words, 'He appeared to me also' — words in which he claimed for himself the same kind of revelation as that made to Peter, James, and the other apostles after the Resurrection.