Saul on the Road to Damascus
1 Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,
2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;
4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.
6 But get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”
7 The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.
8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus.
9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
ἔτι ἐμπνέων ἀπειλῆς καὶ φόνου (eti empneōn apeilēs kai phonou) — v.1: “Still breathing threats and murder” — the word ἐμπνέων (empneōn) literally means “breathing in” or “breathing out.” Threats and murder are not just Saul’s activities; they are the air he breathes. The violence has become his atmosphere, his respiration. This is the same man from 8:3 who was ravaging the church house by house. Nothing has changed internally; the persecution continues with undiminished intensity. Luke wants his readers to understand the depth of Saul’s hostility so that the magnitude of the transformation will be fully appreciated.
τῆς ὁδοῦ (tēs hodou) — v.2: “The Way” — this is the earliest name for the Christian movement in Acts (cf. 19:9, 23; 22:4; 24:14, 22). It precedes the term “Christians” (which first appears in 11:26). The name implies a path, a direction, a way of life — not merely a set of beliefs but a whole orientation of existence. The Aramaic equivalent may have been related to the Hebrew דֶּרֶךְ (derekh), used throughout the Old Testament for the way of God, the way of righteousness. Jesus himself said “I am the way” (John 14:6). The movement is named after its founder’s self-description.
v.2: Saul seeks letters to the synagogues of Damascus. Damascus had a large Jewish population (Josephus estimates 10,000–18,000) with multiple synagogues. The high priest’s authority to issue extradition letters may have been based on the special relationship between the Jerusalem temple authorities and diaspora synagogues. Saul’s mission is to find believers in the Damascus synagogues, arrest them, and bring them bound to Jerusalem for trial. The journey from Jerusalem to Damascus was approximately 135 miles and would have taken about a week on foot.
φῶς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ (phōs ek tou ouranou) — v.3: “A light from heaven” — in Paul’s own retelling in 26:13, he specifies the light was “brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.” The light is not ordinary; it is supernatural, blinding, and overwhelming. The word περιήστραψεν (periestrapsen, “flashed around”) describes a sudden enveloping flash — light from every direction simultaneously, with no escape. In the Old Testament, overwhelming light is the signature of divine theophany: the glory of God is experienced as radiance too intense for human endurance.
v.4: “Saul, Saul” — the double address is a biblical pattern for urgent, personal divine communication: “Abraham, Abraham” (Genesis 22:11), “Moses, Moses” (Exodus 3:4), “Samuel, Samuel” (1 Samuel 3:10). God calls Saul by name, twice, with the intimacy and urgency of the deepest biblical encounters. The question “Why are you persecuting me?” is theologically explosive. Jesus does not say “why are you persecuting my followers” or “why are you persecuting my church.” He says “me.” The identification between Jesus and his people is total: to persecute the church is to persecute Christ. This principle — the mystical union between Christ and his body — will become foundational to Paul’s theology (1 Corinthians 12:12–27, Ephesians 5:29–30).
ἐγώ εἰμι Ἰησοῦς (egō eimi Iēsous) — v.5: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” — the revelation is devastating in its simplicity. Saul has been operating on the premise that Jesus is dead, that his movement is a heretical fraud, and that persecuting his followers is service to God. In four words (ἐγώ εἰμι Ἰησοῦς), every premise is demolished. Jesus is alive. The movement is real. And Saul, who thought he was fighting for God, is fighting against God — he is the θεομάχος (theomachos, “God-fighter”) Gamaliel warned about in 5:39. Saul’s teacher’s warning has come true in his own student.
v.6: “It will be told you what you must do” — the word “must” (δεῖ, dei) is the familiar word of divine necessity that runs through Luke-Acts. Saul’s future is not optional; it is ordained. But Jesus does not explain the full mission on the road. He sends Saul to the city to wait. The one who arrived in Damascus with authority and initiative must now enter it blind, led by the hand, and wait for instructions. The reversal of power is complete.
vv.7–9: The details are vivid and specific. Saul’s companions hear the sound but see no one (in 22:9, Paul says they saw the light but did not hear the voice — the accounts describe different aspects of a disorienting event, consistent with traumatic experience recalled from different angles). Saul’s eyes are open but he sees nothing: the man who came to Damascus with perfect spiritual confidence is now physically blind. He is led by the hand like a child. For three days he neither eats nor drinks. The three days of blindness and fasting are a death-and-resurrection pattern: three days in darkness, like Jonah in the fish, like Jesus in the tomb. Saul the persecutor dies on the Damascus road. Paul the apostle will emerge from the darkness.
Ananias and Saul
10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Behold, here I am, Lord.”
11 And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying,
12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.”
13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints in Jerusalem;
14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel;
16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
17 So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
18 And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized;
19 and he took food and was strengthened.
v.10: Ananias is described simply as “a disciple” (μαθητής τις, mathētēs tis) — not an apostle, not a leader, not someone with any special title. He is an ordinary believer. In 22:12, Paul describes him as “a devout man according to the Law, well spoken of by all the Jews living there.” God chooses this unremarkable, faithful man for one of the most consequential acts in the history of Christianity: receiving Paul into the church. The pattern is consistent — Philip was a table-server, Ananias is an ordinary disciple. God uses whoever is willing.
v.11: The specificity of the directions is remarkable: “the street called Straight ... the house of Judas ... a man from Tarsus named Saul.” The street called Straight (Derb el-Mustaqim in Arabic) still exists in Damascus — it is the main east-west thoroughfare of the old city, running for approximately a mile. The detail “he is praying” is a further sign: the man who came to destroy the church is now praying. Something has already changed.
vv.13–14: Ananias’s objection is one of the most humanly understandable moments in Acts. He knows who Saul is. Saul’s reputation has preceded him: he harmed the “saints” (ἁγίοις, hagiois — the first use of this term for believers in Acts) in Jerusalem, and he has come to Damascus with authority to arrest anyone who “calls on your name.” Ananias is being asked to walk into the house of the most dangerous man alive to the Damascus church and lay hands on him. The faith required is extraordinary. Ananias does not refuse; he explains his fear. And God overrides it.
σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς (skeuos eklogēs) — v.15: “A chosen instrument” — literally “a vessel of election” (σκεῦος, skeuos, “vessel,” “instrument,” “container”). Saul is a vessel chosen (ἐκλογή, eklogē, “election,” “selection”) by God for a specific purpose. The image is of a tool selected by a craftsman or a container selected for a particular use. The purpose is then stated in a three-part commission: to bear Jesus’s name before (1) Gentiles, (2) kings, and (3) the sons of Israel. The order is significant: Gentiles are named first. Paul’s primary mission will be to the non-Jewish world, a mission that takes center stage from chapter 13 onward. The commission to appear before “kings” will be fulfilled in his appearances before Agrippa (chapter 26) and, implicitly, before Caesar. The commission to the “sons of Israel” explains Paul’s consistent pattern of going to the synagogue first in every new city.
v.16: “I will show him how much he must suffer for my name’s sake.” This is the dark side of the commission. The man who caused suffering for Jesus’s name will now receive suffering for Jesus’s name. The word “must” (δεῖ) again: suffering is not incidental to Paul’s mission but integral to it. Paul’s catalog of sufferings in 2 Corinthians 11:23–28 will prove this true many times over.
ἀδελφέ Σαούλ (adelphe Saoul) — v.17: “Brother Saul” — the first word Ananias speaks to the man who came to arrest him is “brother.” This single word is one of the most courageous and gracious acts in the New Testament. Ananias has every reason to fear Saul, and instead he calls him family. He addresses him with the Semitic form of his name (Saoul, reflecting the Hebrew/Aramaic שָׁאוּל), not the Greek Saulos. It is intimate, personal, and welcoming. The persecutor is received as a brother.
ὡς λεπίδες (hōs lepides) — v.18: “Something like scales” fell from Saul’s eyes. The word λεπίς (lepis) means a flake, a scale, a thin piece that peels off. Luke the physician describes the phenomenon in medical terms. The physical healing mirrors the spiritual transformation: scales fall, sight is restored, and immediately Saul is baptized. The sequence is theologically compressed: sight, baptism, food. Saul can see; he is washed; he is nourished. The three-day death is over. He has risen.
Saul Begins to Preach
19 Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus,
20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”
21 All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?”
22 But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this Jesus is the Christ.
23 When many days had elapsed, the Jews plotted together to do away with him,
24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were also watching the gates day and night so that they might put him to death;
25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a large basket.
v.20: “Immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues.” The word εὐθέως (eutheōs, “immediately”) is characteristic of Mark’s Gospel, but Luke uses it here to emphasize the speed of Saul’s transformation. There is no prolonged period of reflection, no seminary training, no gradual development. The persecutor becomes a preacher overnight. The content of his preaching is equally striking: “He is the Son of God” (οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ). This is the only time in Acts that the title “Son of God” is used in preaching. Saul goes straight to the highest christological claim.
v.22: “Proving that this Jesus is the Christ” — the verb συμβιβάζων (symbibazon) means “bringing together,” “demonstrating by drawing evidence together.” Saul is doing in the synagogues what he probably heard Stephen do in the Synagogue of the Freedmen: marshaling scriptural evidence to prove that Jesus is the Messiah. The difference is that now, instead of arguing against this conclusion, he is arguing for it — with the same intellectual force, the same training under Gamaliel, and the same mastery of Scripture, but now pointed in the opposite direction.
v.23: “When many days had elapsed” — Luke compresses the timeline. Paul himself tells us in Galatians 1:17–18 that between his conversion and his first visit to Jerusalem, he went to Arabia and then returned to Damascus, with three years passing in total. Luke’s “many days” covers this entire period. The Arabia sojourn is unmentioned in Acts but is significant: Paul spent time in solitude, presumably processing the Damascus road encounter and developing his theology, before returning to active ministry.
σπυρίδι (spyridi) — v.25: “A large basket” — the word σπυρίς (spyris) is a large woven basket, the same word used for the baskets of leftovers after the feeding of the 4,000 (Mark 8:8). Paul himself recalls this humiliating escape in 2 Corinthians 11:32–33, adding the detail that it was the governor under King Aretas who was guarding the city. The man who arrived in Damascus with letters of authority from the high priest leaves it dangling in a basket through a hole in the wall. The reversal is total: the powerful persecutor has become the hunted fugitive. And this is only the beginning. The pattern of opposition, flight, and continued preaching will characterize Paul’s entire career.
Saul in Jerusalem
26 When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple.
27 But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that he had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.
28 And he was with them, moving about freely in Jerusalem, speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord.
29 And he was talking and arguing with the Hellenistic Jews; but they were attempting to put him to death.
30 But when the brothers learned of it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him away to Tarsus.
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.
v.26: The Jerusalem church’s fear of Saul is entirely reasonable. The last time they saw him, he was dragging believers from their homes to prison. He has been gone for roughly three years. Reports of his conversion have apparently not been verified or are not believed. The word “all” (πάντες, pantes) is comprehensive: every single person in the Jerusalem church is afraid of him. No one trusts him. He is completely alone — rejected by the Jews who consider him a traitor, and mistrusted by the Christians who remember him as a persecutor.
v.27: Barnabas — the “Son of Encouragement” introduced in 4:36 — steps in. This is the moment that justifies his name. Barnabas does what no one else is willing to do: he takes hold of Saul (ἐπιλαβόμενος, epilabomenos, “having seized him,” “having taken him in hand” — a physical word suggesting Barnabas literally grabbed him and brought him along), vouches for his conversion, and presents him to the apostles. Without Barnabas, Paul might never have been accepted by the Jerusalem church. The generous man who sold his land in chapter 4 now performs an even greater act of generosity: he risks his reputation on a former persecutor. This is the hinge moment. If Barnabas had stayed silent, the history of Christianity might have been unrecognizably different.
v.29: Saul argues with the Hellenistic Jews — the same community that opposed Stephen. The verb συνεζήτει (synezētei, “debated,” “disputed”) is the same word used for the debates with Stephen in 6:9. Saul has taken Stephen’s place. He is doing what Stephen did, in the same community, with the same opponents. And the result is the same: they try to kill him. The Hellenistic synagogue that could not defeat Stephen in argument, and had him stoned, now tries to kill the man who once stood on their side.
v.30: The brothers send Saul to Caesarea and then to his hometown of Tarsus — essentially removing him from the volatile situation. Saul will spend roughly a decade in the Tarsus region (the “silent years”), during which we know almost nothing about his activities, until Barnabas comes to find him in 11:25. The man commissioned to carry Jesus’s name before Gentiles, kings, and Israel is sent home to wait. God’s timetable is not Saul’s.
v.31: Luke provides a summary statement of peace. With the persecutor converted and the initial violence subsided, the church enters a period of consolidation. The four-part description is beautiful: peace (εἰρήνην), edification (οἰκοδομουμένη, being built up), the fear of the Lord, and the comfort (παρακλήσει, paraklēsei, “encouragement,” “consolation”) of the Holy Spirit. Notice that the church now extends through “all Judea and Galilee and Samaria” — matching the second stage of the 1:8 program. The geographical expansion is complete. The “end of the earth” phase is next.
Peter Heals Aeneas at Lydda
32 Now as Peter was traveling through all those regions, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.
33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bedridden for eight years, for he was paralyzed.
34 Peter said to him, “Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you; get up and make your bed.” And immediately he got up.
35 And all who lived at Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
v.32: Luke shifts back to Peter, who has been offstage since chapter 8. Peter is traveling through the expanding network of churches — a pastoral tour of the communities that have sprung up in Judea since the scattering. Lydda (modern Lod, near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport) was a town in the coastal plain of Sharon, about 25 miles northwest of Jerusalem. It was on the main road from Jerusalem to the coast.
ἰᾶταί σε Ἰησοῦς χριστός (iatai se Iēsous christos) — v.34: “Jesus Christ heals you” — the verb is present tense: “Jesus Christ heals you” (right now, in this moment). Peter does not say “I heal you” or even “in the name of Jesus I heal you”; he says Jesus himself is the healer. The language is compressed and powerful: the healing, the healer, and the command (“get up and make your bed”) are all stated in a single sentence. “Make your bed” (στρῶσον σεαυτῷ, strōson seautō) is a practical instruction: you won’t be lying here anymore, so make the bed yourself. It echoes Jesus’s command to the paralytic in Luke 5:24.
v.35: “All who lived at Lydda and Sharon” — the entire Plain of Sharon turns to the Lord. Luke describes a regional revival triggered by a single healing. The pattern mirrors the Jerusalem events: a visible miracle leads to widespread faith.
Peter Raises Tabitha at Joppa
36 Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did.
37 And it happened at that time that she fell sick and died; and when they had washed her body, they laid it in an upper room.
38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, having heard that Peter was there, sent two men to him, imploring him, “Do not delay in coming to us.”
39 So Peter arose and went with them. When he arrived, they brought him into the upper room; and all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them.
40 But Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed, and turning to the body, he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up; and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.
42 It became known all over Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
43 And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a tanner named Simon.
Ταβιθά ... Δορκάς (Tabitha ... Dorkas) — v.36: Tabitha (Aramaic) and Dorcas (Greek) both mean “gazelle.” The double name reflects the bilingual community: she is known by both names. Luke describes her as “abounding with deeds of kindness and charity” (πλήρης ἔργων ἀγαθῶν καὶ ἐλεημοσυνῶν). She is defined not by her speech or her gifts but by her actions — she makes garments for the widows, the most vulnerable members of the community. She is the embodiment of the church’s practical care.
v.39: The widows showing Peter the garments Dorcas made is one of the most emotionally vivid scenes in Acts. These are not abstract mourners; they are women holding up the clothing she sewed for them, weeping. Each tunic is a tangible testimony: she made this for me, she gave me this. The scene captures the impact of a single life of quiet, practical generosity. Dorcas has no recorded sermons, no dramatic miracles, no theological contributions. She sewed clothing for widows. And when she died, a roomful of women wept and showed the evidence of her love.
Ταβιθά, ἀνάστηθι (Tabitha, anastēthi) — v.40: “Tabitha, arise” — the scene deliberately parallels Jesus’s raising of Jairus’s daughter in Luke 8:49–56. Jesus said “Child, arise” (ἡ παῖς, ἔγειρε, hē pais, egeire); Peter says “Tabitha, arise.” Jesus put the mourners out of the room; Peter puts them out. Jesus took the girl’s hand; Peter gives Tabitha his hand. The parallels are too precise to be coincidental — Luke is showing that the power of Jesus is continuing through his apostle. But there is a critical difference: Peter kneels and prays first. He does not heal by his own authority; he asks Jesus to heal. The power is derivative, mediated, dependent on prayer. Peter is not a second Jesus; he is an instrument of the one Jesus.
v.43: Peter stays in Joppa with “a tanner named Simon.” This detail seems minor but carries social significance. Tanners worked with dead animals, and their trade made them ritually unclean in Jewish law. A tanner’s house would have been at the edge of town, near the sea, to manage the smells and the water supply. Peter is already crossing purity boundaries by staying with a tanner. This is a small but significant step toward the shattering of the purity barrier that will come in the very next chapter, when Peter receives the vision of the unclean animals and is sent to Cornelius. God is gradually preparing Peter for the revolution that is about to occur.
General Notes on the Chapter
Acts 9 is the conversion chapter — not just Saul’s conversion but a series of conversions and transformations that reshape the entire movement. Saul is converted from persecutor to preacher. The Damascus church is converted from terror to acceptance when Ananias obeys. The Jerusalem church is converted from suspicion to fellowship when Barnabas intervenes. Aeneas is converted from paralysis to health. Dorcas is converted from death to life. The entire chapter pulses with the theme of transformation: nothing stays as it was; everything is made new.
The Damascus road encounter is told three times in Acts (here, in 22:6–16, and in 26:12–18), making it one of the most heavily emphasized events in the entire book. The triple telling is a Lukan signal of supreme importance (like Peter’s denial told three times in the Gospels, or the three-fold vision in chapter 10). Each retelling adds details and shifts emphasis depending on the audience. The core is constant: Saul was on his way to arrest believers, a light from heaven stopped him, Jesus identified himself, and Saul’s life was permanently redirected.
The Ananias scene (vv.10–19) is essential because it demonstrates that conversion, even the most dramatic, is completed through community. Jesus appeared to Saul on the road, but he did not heal his blindness, give him the Spirit, or baptize him. He sent Saul to a human being for all of those things. The most powerful encounter with the risen Christ still requires the church — requires someone to say “Brother Saul” and lay hands on the former persecutor. The Christian life, from its very first moment, is communal. Even Paul, the apostle who received his gospel “not from any man” (Galatians 1:12), received his sight, his Spirit, and his baptism from an ordinary disciple in Damascus.
The chapter’s final detail — Peter staying with a tanner (v.43) — is Luke’s subtle narrative preparation. A tanner works with dead animals and is perpetually ritually unclean. Peter, a devout Jew, is lodging with an unclean man. The barrier between clean and unclean is already thinning. In chapter 10, it will collapse entirely when God declares all foods clean and sends Peter to the Gentile Cornelius. The revolution always begins with small steps: staying with a tanner today, eating with a Gentile tomorrow. God does not shatter Peter’s categories all at once; he erodes them gradually, until Peter is ready for the vision that will change everything.