Acts 26:14 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Acts 26:14
And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
to fall down · verb — second aorist active participle, genitive plural masculine
to
εἰςeis
G1519
to or into (indicating the point reached or entered) · preposition
earth
γῆνgēn
G1093
soil · noun — accusative singular feminine
heard
ἤκουσαēkousa
G191
to hear (in various senses) · verb — aorist active indicative, 1st person singular
voice
φωνὴνphōnēn
G5456
a tone (articulate · noun — accusative singular feminine
speaking
λαλέωlaléō
G2980
to talk
unto
πρόςpros
G4314
a preposition of direction · preposition
me
ἡμῶνhēmōn
G3165
me · personal pronoun — 1st person genitive plural
and
καίkaí
G2532
and
saying
λέγουσανlegousan
G3004
properly · verb — present active participle, accusative singular feminine
Hebrew
ἙβραΐδιHebraidi
G1446
the Hebraistic (Hebrew) or Jewish (Chaldee) language · adjective — dative singular feminine, a title
tongue
διαλέκτῳ·dialektō
G1258
a (mode of) discourse · noun — dative singular feminine
Saul
ΣαοὺλSaoul
G4549
Saul (i.e. Shaul) · noun — vocative singular masculine, a proper name
Saul
Σαούλ,Saoul
G4549
Saul (i.e. Shaul) · noun — vocative singular masculine, a proper name
why
τίti
G5101
an interrogative pronoun · interrogative pronoun — accusative singular neuter
persecutest
διώκεις;diōkeis
G1377
compare the base of G1169 (δειλός) and G1249 (διάκονος)) · verb — present active indicative, 2nd person singular
thou me
μεme
G3165
me · personal pronoun — 1st person accusative singular
hard
σκληρόνsklēron
G4642
dry · adjective — nominative singular neuter
for thee
σοίsoí
G4671
to thee
to kick
λακτίζειν.laktizein
G2979
to recalcitrate · verb — present active infinitive
against
πρὸςpros
G4314
a preposition of direction · preposition
the pricks
κέντραkentra
G2759
a point ("centre") · noun — accusative plural neuter
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Acts 21:40 And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great sil…
Acts 9:7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
Acts 22:2 (And when they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence: and he saith,)
Acts 22:7-9 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Zechariah 2:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the…
Zechariah 12:2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and aga…
Acts 9:4-5 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
1 Corinthians 10:22 Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than he?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 26:12-23
All who believe a God, and have a reverence for his sovereignty, must acknowledge that those who speak and act by his direction, and by warrant from him, are not to be opposed; for that is fighting against God. Now Paul here, by a plain and faithful narrative of matters of fact, makes it out to this august assembly that he had an immediate call from heaven to preach the gospel of Christ to the Gentile world, which was the thing that exasperated the Jews against him. He here shows,
I. That he was made a Christian by a divine power, notwithstanding all his prejudices against that way. He was brought into it on a sudden by the hand of heaven; not compelled to confess Christ by outward force, as…
Whereupon as I went to Damascus - See the whole account of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus explained at large, in the notes on Act 9:2 (note), etc.
John Gill on Acts 26:14
And when we were all fallen to the earth,.... Saul, and the men that were with him, for fear of the divine Majesty, who by this extraordinary light was thought to be present: the other narratives only relate Saul's falling to the earth; how this is to be reconciled to their standing speechless, in Acts 9:7; see Gill on Acts 9:7.
I heard a voice speaking unto me, &c. See Gill on Acts 10:4. See Gill on Acts 10:5.
John Calvin on Acts 26:9-18
Acts 26:9-18
9. And I verily thought that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10. Which thing I also did at Jerusalem; and I shut up many of the saints in prison, having received power from the high priests; and when they were put to death, I gave sentence. 11. And punishing them oftentimes throughout all synagogues, I enforced them to blaspheme; and being yet more mad upon them, I did persecute them even into strange cities. 12. And as I went to Damascus for this intent, with authority and commission from the high priests, 13. At midday, king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, passing the brightness of the sun, shine round about me and those which journeyed…
The Church Fathers
For I have heard some saying, If I do not find the Gospel in the archives, I will not believe it. To such persons I say that my archives are Jesus Christ, to disobey whom is manifest destruction. My authentic archives are His cross, and death, and resurrection, and the faith which bears on these things, by which I desire, through your prayers, to be justified. He who disbelieves the Gospel disbelieves everything along with it. For the archives ought not to be preferred to the Spirit. "It is hard to kick against the pricks;" it is hard to disbelieve Christ; it is hard to reject the preaching of the apostles.
For you know undoubtedly that those that are by us named bishops, and presbyters, and deacons, were made by prayer, and by the laying on of hands; and that by the difference of their names is showed the difference of their employments. For not every one that will is ordained, as the case was in that spurious and counterfeit priesthood of the calves under Jeroboam; [1 Kings 13:33] but he only who is called of God. For if there were no rule or distinction of orders, it would suffice to perform all the offices under one name. But being taught by the Lord the series of things, we distributed the functions of the high-priesthood to the bishops, those of the priesthood to the presbyters, and the ministration under them both to the deacons; that the divine worship might be performed in purity. For it is not lawful for a deacon to offer the sacrifice, or to baptize, or to give either the greater or the lesser blessing. Nor may a presbyter perform ordination; for it is not agreeable to holiness to have this order perverted. For "God is not the God of confusion," [1 Corinthians 14:33] that the subordinate persons should tyrannically assume to themselves the functions belonging to their superiors, forming a new scheme of laws to their own mischief, not knowing that "it is hard for them to kick against the pricks;" [Acts 26:14] for such as these do not fight against us, or against the bishops, but against the universal Bishop and the High Priest of the Father, Jesus Christ our Lord. High priests, priests, and Levites were ordained by Moses, the most beloved of God.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agrippa II. — Son of the foregoing, was born at Rome, A.D. 27. He was the brother of Bernice and Drusilla. The Emperor Claudius (A.D. 48) invested him with the office of superintendent of the Temple of Jerusalem,…
Call — (1.) To cry for help, hence to pray (Gen. 4:26). Thus men are said to “call upon the name of the Lord” (Acts 2:21; 7:59; 9:14; Rom. 10:12; 1 Cor. 1:2). (2.) God calls with respect to men when he…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
