Acts 22:18Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See, this too did not remain without testimony, which lies in the event itself. The Lord said, "They will not receive your testimony," and in fact they did not receive it. Here he explains two things. First, they are without excuse, because they persecuted him unjustly and irrationally. Second, Christ is God, because He foretells the unexpected, not looking at the past, but foreseeing the future. How then did the Lord say that Paul would carry "My name before nations and kings and the sons of Israel" (Acts 9:15)? He said "to proclaim," not that he would necessarily persuade. In other places the Jews were persuaded, but not here. Where they especially ought to have been persuaded, knowing his former zeal, there they were not persuaded. From this it is clear that he withdrew not from fear because of dangers, but because they did not receive his testimony.

At the entrance to the fortress, on the stairs, the Apostle Paul asked the tribune for permission to speak to the people. He then addressed them and, in defense of himself, recounted the history of his wondrous conversion to Christ; see the interpretations on chapter 9.

In this place the Apostle Paul relates that he was praying in the temple of Jerusalem, entered into a grace-filled ecstasy, and saw Christ Himself. Christ commanded him to leave Jerusalem and go with preaching to the Gentiles. Thus even the Old Testament temple, already doomed to destruction and already deprived of its former significance, still served the Apostles as a place of prayer. The light of New Testament truth had already shone forth, yet it remained even a place of divine visions and revelations. See above, chapter 3, verse 1.

After escaping danger, Saul then set out for Jerusalem. There he no longer had a place among the Jewish elders, and had to seek refuge among his new Christian brethren. While still a persecutor, he had probably heard of the Apostle Peter. Peter stood out among the other apostles by his courage in preaching and was renowned for miracles. Saul resolved to "see" him, so as to find in him a courageous friend and guide. The Apostle Peter received him with his characteristic cordiality. Saul stayed with him for about fifteen days, and during that time he also came to know James, the Lord's brother. Some of the other apostles were not in Jerusalem at that time.

"Make haste and depart": this fully agrees with Paul's own statement that, after returning from Arabia, when he was in Jerusalem, he remained there only a short time; Gal 1:18.

Paul's account of the Lord's appearance to him in the Jerusalem temple is found nowhere else. Yet the Lord's appearance to him is spoken of in other places, with mention of the extraordinary state he was in then, like the ecstasy in which he was here (cf. Acts 9:12). "The revelation to Paul was in a trance," says Saint John Chrysostom, "because they, the Jews, would not receive his testimony. Here he explains two things. First, they are without excuse, for they persecuted him unjustly and irrationally. Second, Christ is God, for He foretold the unexpected, not looking at the past, but foreseeing the future." According to Bishop Michael, "This happened when Paul returned to Jerusalem after spending a long time in Arabia, where he had gone from Damascus after his conversion.