thou · personal pronoun — 2nd person nominative singular
persecutest
διώκειςdiōkeis
G1377
compare the base of G1169 (δειλός) and G1249 (διάκονος)) · verb — present active indicative, 2nd person 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
1 Timothy 1:13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
1 Samuel 3:4-10 That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.
Job 9:4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
Job 40:9-10 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
Isaiah 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashionet…
Acts 26:9 I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
Deuteronomy 32:15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made…
Psalms 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trus…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 9:1-9
We found mention made of Saul twice or thrice in the story of Stephen, for the sacred penman longed to come to his story; and now we are come to it, not quite taking leave of Peter but from henceforward being mostly taken up with Paul the apostle of the Gentiles, as Peter was of the circumcision. His name in Hebrew was Saul - desired, though as remarkably little in stature as his namesake king Saul was tall and stately; one of the ancients calls him, Homo tricubitalis - but four feet and a half in height; his Roman name which he went by among the citizens of Rome was Paul - little. He was born in Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, a free city of the Romans, and himself a freeman of that city. His fa…
Who art thou, Lord?--"Jesus knew Saul ere Saul knew Jesus" [BENGEL]. The term "Lord" here is an indefinite term of respect for some unknown but august speaker. That Saul saw as well as heard this glorious Speaker, is expressly said by Ananias (Act 9:17; Act 22:14), by Barnabas (Act 9:27), and by himself (Act 26:16); and in claiming apostleship, he explicitly states that he had "seen the Lord" (Co1 9:1; Co1 15:8), which can refer only to this scene.
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest--The "I" and "thou" here are touchingly emphatic in the original; while the term "JESUS" is purposely chosen, to convey to him the thrilling information that the hated name which he sought to hunt down--"the Naza…
Who art thou, Lord? - Τις ει, Κυριε; Who art thou, Sir? He had no knowledge who it was that addressed him, and would only use the term Κυριε, as any Roman or Greek would, merely as a term of civil respect.
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest - "Thy enmity is against me and my religion; and the injuries which thou dost to my followers I consider as done to myself." The following words, making twenty in the original, and thirty in our version, are found in no Greek MS. The words are, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks: and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? and the Lord said unto him. It is not very easy to account for such a large addition, which is…
The Church Fathers
And he said, Who art Thou Lord? thus in the first place confessing himself His servant. And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest: think not thy warring is with men.
I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. He did not say: I am God, I am the Son of God, but he says: Accept the weakness of my humility and lay down the scales of your pride.
For consider what glory it is to set aside the lusts of this life, and to oppose a mind withdrawn from all commerce with nature and the world, to all the opposition of the adversary, and to have no dread of the cruelty of the torturer; that a man should be animated by the suffering whereby he might be believed to be destroyed, and should take to himself, as an enhancement of his strength, that which the punisher thinks will aggravate his torments. For although the hook, springing forth from the stiffening ribs, is put back again into the wound, and with the repeated strokes of the whip the returning lash is drawn away with the rent portions of the flesh; still he stands immoveable, the stronger for his sufferings, revolving only this in his mind, that in that brutality of the executioners Christ Himself is suffering more in proportion to what he suffers. For since, if he should deny the Lord, he would incur guilt on His behalf for whom he ought to have overcome, it is essential that He should be seen to bear all things to whom the victory is due, even in the suffering.
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
Apostle — A person sent by another; a messenger; envoy. This word is once used as a descriptive designation of Jesus Christ, the Sent of the Father (Heb. 3:1; John 20:21). It is, however, generally used as…
Damascus — Activity, the most ancient of Oriental cities; the capital of Syria (Isa. 7:8; 17:3); situated about 133 miles to the north of Jerusalem. Its modern name is Esh-Sham; i.e., “the East.” The situation…
Goad — (Heb. malmad, only in Judg. 3: 31), an instrument used by ploughmen for guiding their oxen. Shamgar slew six hundred Philistines with an ox-goad. “The goad is a formidable weapon. It is sometimes ten…
Paul — =Saul (q.v.) was born about the same time as our Lord. His circumcision-name was Saul, and probably the name Paul was also given to him in infancy “for use in the Gentile world,” as “Saul” would be…
Resurrection of Christ — One of the cardinal facts and doctrines of the gospel. If Christ be not risen, our faith is vain (1 Cor. 15:14). The whole of the New Testament revelation rests on this as an historical fact. On the…
Call · .PAUL — .PAUL
Converts · .Saul of Tarsus — .Saul of Tarsus
Light · Illustrative of: Glory of Christ — Illustrative of: Glory of Christ
Paul · His vision and conversion — His vision and conversion
Persecution · Of saints, is a persecution of Christ — Of saints, is a persecution of Christ
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).
And he said, who art thou, Lord?.... For he knew not whether it was God, or an angel, or who it was that spake to him; he knew not Christ by his form or voice, as Stephen did, when he saw him standing at the right hand of God; he was in a state of ignorance, and knew neither the person, nor voice of Christ, and yet his heart was so far softened and wrought upon, that he was desirous of knowing who he was;
and the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. The Alexandrian copy, and the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, "read Jesus of Nazareth"; and one of Beza's copies, and another of Stephens', as in Acts 22:8 whose name thou art doing many things against, and whose people thou art destroyin…
Acts 9:1-5
1. And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the highest priest, 2. Required epistles of him to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he should find any of this sect, whether they were men or women, he might carry them bound to Jerusalem. 3. And as he was in the way, it happened that he drew near to Damascus: and suddenly there shined a light about him from heaven: 4. And falling flat to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5. And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against pricks.
1. And Saul. Luke sette…
The synagogues (Greek sunagōgē, “gathering place”) were local Jewish meeting places. After the Exile, Jews began to meet in local synagogues as places of instruction and centers of worship. Synagogue services consisted of the reading of the Law and the Prophets, exposition of the Scriptures, prayer, praise, and thanksgiving (see 13:15; 15:21; Neh 9:5; Matt 6:5; Luke 4:16-21). Jesus attended, taught, preached, and performed miracles in synagogues (Matt 12:9-10; Mark 1:21, 39; Luke 4:16; 13:10-13; John 6:59; 18:20), as did the apostles (see Acts 9:20; 13:5, 14; 14:1; 17:1, 10, 17; 18:4, 19, 26). • Damascus, the capital of Syria, was an important center with a long and distinguished past and th…
