Acts 22:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

That I am not boasting, he says, is witnessed by those who were present with me, who led me by the hand, and who saw this light. Do not be surprised that the writer speaks here in one way and elsewhere in another. In another place he says, "The men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one" (Acts 9:7). There is no contradiction here. There were two voices, Paul's and the Lord's. There he speaks of Paul's voice, while here he adds, "but they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me." Thus the words "seeing no one" do not mean that they did not see, but that they did not hear the Lord's voice. He did not say that they did not see the light, but that they "stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one," that is, no one speaking.

They saw the light. This happened for a purpose, since he alone was to hear that voice. Since rather ordinary people trust sight more, those with Saul only saw the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice. The light produced this effect not for their sake, but for Saul's. Therefore it deprived him of sight, but not them. Yet while the light was poured out upon him, they too were allowed to look upon it, if they wished. It seems to me that they did not believe by a special divine economy, so that they might be witnesses of the event whom the Jews could not refuse to believe.

In order to explain the well-known difference between the narratives, let us take up the discussion. In the account of his conversion, Paul says that his companions saw the light but did not receive that voice by hearing. In another place it is said that, when he fell down blinded, the men heard the voice (see Acts 9:7). Thus the description changes in the narrator. Yet both accounts are plausible and agree without strain. In the first case, "heard" means that they perceived a sound. In the second, "did not hear" means that they did not hear distinctly. This is the easy path of proof. With full reason one may agree that the voice, since it was indistinct, did not speak to them. Nor should one believe that speech expressed what the witness could not understand.

Above, concerning this vision, it is said that his companions stood speechless, for they heard the voice but saw no one; see Acts 9:7. Hence it follows that they heard the sound of an unintelligible voice, but did not understand the meaning of the words.

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.

This wondrous transformation took place on the road, not far from Damascus, near the village of Kaukaba, as tradition indicates. Before the distinguished traveler, who rode with a considerable retinue, stretched the "desert of Damascus." To the north it was bounded by the chain of the Lebanon mountains, barely visible in the distant blue of the horizon. Straight ahead stood the towers of Damascus itself, whose roofs shone brightly beneath the burning rays of the midday sun. The road was terribly hard and exhausting at those hours of the day. Saul impatiently hastened to reach the city famous for its gardens, to rest from the journey under their sweet shade, and then at once to take up his task. And suddenly, everything ended.

"Those who were with me saw the light": this is a new detail, also absent from the historian's account (Acts 9:7). Paul mentions it to strengthen assurance of the reality and objectivity of this appearance of heavenly light about midday. Many saw it. Therefore it was not deception, fantasy, or Paul's subjective hallucination. "They did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me": in his account the historian says that Paul's companions heard a voice but saw no one. This is only an apparent disagreement. The historian's account does not exclude the fact that Paul's companions saw the light. He says only that they saw no one, that is, they did not see the One speaking with Paul. This agrees with Paul's own account, according to which they saw only the light.

Here the special feature of the account is that the companions of the Apostle Paul saw the light, but did not hear the voice of Him who spoke with the Apostle. This means "that they did not understand the sense of what was spoken, since it was spoken only for Paul. That is, they heard the sound, but what exactly was said they did not hear, meaning they did not understand. Something similar occurred when once, at the prayer of the Lord Jesus, a voice thundered from heaven: 'I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.' The people standing there and hearing the voice said, 'It has thundered' (Jn 12:28-29; cf. Acts 9:7)." "And this did not happen without reason. He alone, Paul, had to be counted worthy of this voice. If they too had heard it, the miracle would not have been so great.