Acts 9

Acts 9 is the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records Saul's conversion and the works of Saint Peter. The book containing this chapter is anonymous but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke. The original text was written in Koine Greek and is divided into 43 verses. Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are: In Greek Papyrus 53 (3rd century; extant verses 33 to chapter 10:1) Codex Vaticanus (325–350) Codex Sinaiticus (330–360) Codex Bezae (~400) Codex Alexandrinus (400–440) Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (~450) Codex Laudianus (~550) In Latin León palimpsest (7th century; complete) ; The purposeful journey to Damascus by Saul (verse 1) was abruptly halted (verse 3) when a heavenly light blinded him (verse 8) while a heavenly voice made his followers speechless (verse 7), so now Saul had to be 'told what to do' (verse 6) and 'led by the hand' (verse 8). What was the most terrifying for Saul is that the heavenly voice was the voice of 'Jesus, whom you are persecuting' (verse 5), confirming that 'Stephen's vision (Acts 7:56) was not total delusion'. And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads." Just like the story of Cornelius, there were two visions involved in Saul's story, 'each confirming the other'. While Saul was blinded from his vision and in chastened state ('he is praying', verse 11), Ananias, who was a resident of Damascus (verse 13) and a disciple of Christ (verse 10), received instructions with precise directions to Saul's address (verse 11; the 'street called Straight' is still shown in the Old City of Damascus). It also contains 'a divine commission' (in distinctly Pauline language) highlighting the contrast between Saul's dark past and God's 'elective grace' (verse 15: cf. 1 Corinthians 15:9–10; Romans 9:23) for Saul's future career, as prophetically outlined in verses 15–16.