Paul’s Testimony told by Luke
As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shone down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are You, lord?” Saul asked. And the voice replied, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting! Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink.
Acts 9:3-9
Paul addressing the crowd on the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.
But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me. And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.’ But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.
Acts 22:3-11
Paul addressing Agrippa in Caesarea
“So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’ So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.”
Acts 26:9-20
- Isn’t there a contradiction between 9:7 and 22:9?
- Did the men with Saul hear the voice or not?
- At the heart of the matter is Acts 22:9 which in some English versions is translated “did not hear the voice” and in other versions translated as “did not understand the voice”.
Did not hear the voice:
- (ASV) And they that were with me beheld indeed the light, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
- (CEV) The men who were traveling with me saw the light, but did not hear the voice.
- (EMTV) “And those who were with me observed the light and became terrified, but they did not hear the voice of the One speaking to me.
- (GNB) The men with me saw the light, but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
- (JUB) And those that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of him that spoke to me.
- (KJV) And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
- (LEB) (Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me.)
- (LITV) But those being with me indeed saw the light, and were alarmed, but did not hear His voice speaking to me.
- (MKJV) And they who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid. But they did not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me.
- (Murdock) And the men who were with me, saw the light, but heard not the voice that talked with me.
- (RV) And they that were with me beheld indeed the light, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.
- (Webster) And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spoke to me.
- (YLT) and they who are with me the light did see, and became afraid, and the voice they heard not of him who is speaking to me–
Did not understand the voice:
- (ERV) The men who were with me did not understand the voice, but they saw the light.
- (ESV) Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
- (GW) “The men who were with me saw the light but didn’t understand what the person who was speaking to me said.
- (ISV) The men who were with me saw the light but didn’t understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.
- (NASB) “And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.
- (NLT) The people with me saw the light but didn’t understand the voice speaking to me.
- (TLV) “Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.
- (WEBA) “Those who were with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they didn’t understand the voice of him who spoke to me.
Other Variations:
- (AMP) Now the men who were with me saw the light, but they did not hear [the sound of the uttered words of] the voice of the One Who was speaking to me [so that they could understand it].
- (BBE) And those who were with me saw the light, but the voice of him who was talking to me came not to their ears.
- (MSG) My companions saw the light, but they didn’t hear the conversation.
There are many critics who see this as being an example of contradictions in the Bible. On the face of it we seem to have two verses in stark contradiction.
- The men with Saul stood speechless, for they heard the sound of someone’s voice but saw no one! (Acts 9:7)
- But those being with me indeed saw the light, and were alarmed, but did not hear His voice speaking to me. (Acts 22:9) (LITV)
A number of you wrote and suggested this is a simple case of looking back to what the Greek original records for us. One smart person suggested looking at the Literal Version of the Bible (LITV) to see what was written in the Greek. Unfortunately in this case that doesn’t help because the Greek versions use the standard word for “hear” [akouw]. When we consult the meaning of the word we find [ἀκούω] akouō is the standard verb meaning to “hear”, but it has various senses: – to have sound come (to the ears), hear, to be (encounter) noised, to understand. The word does indeed mean plain and simply “to hear”. It reminds me of the Shakespearean line “to be or not to be, that is the question.” In this case we turn Shakespeare’s words into “to hear or not to hear, that is the question”.
The reason why the eight translations opt for “not understanding” is clear. The sense of understand is part of the lexical options of [akouw] which then enables us to make sense of the statement and eliminate the seeming contradiction. It is normal for each of us in everyday life to say we didn’t hear when in fact we did. I do it daily I am sure. I have come to the stage in life when it is hard for me to hear if there is other sound in the room. If the TV is on, music is playing or other people are involved in conversation then I don’t hear. What does that mean? Oh, I hear words being spoken but I don’t hear them clearly enough to determine the meaning of what was said. When it comes to human speech the bottom line is clearly a matter of understanding and not just hearing. The times I say to Tania “I didn’t hear you” are not strictly true. I heard her speaking. On occasions I didn’t pick up even one discernable word. Other times there may have been a number of words I heard but not sufficient to give me understanding or what she was saying. Other times I did hear her, but I missed either the key verb in the sentence or the context at the beginning. It is perfectly normal and a good use of English to say, I didn’t hear you, when in fact I did hear her but I failed to gain full understanding of what she said and so communication was lost.
That must surely be what is going on in these recorded testimonies of Saul / Paul relating to his experience on the road to Damascus. Saul’s travelling companions did indeed hear the sound of someone’s voice but not sufficiently to understand what was being said. Hence the eight translations opt for the meaning of “gaining understanding” to use for translating this sentence because that is what is at issue here. The companions knew someone was speaking to Saul, yet they could not see who was speaking him nor discern anything of what was being talked about.
As with any apparent contradiction in Scripture people will go to any lengths to explain the contradiction away. The following are some of the attempts:
- The Academic Approach: The Greek construction of akouw followed by the genitive form of the word following suggests the content to be heard was unintelligible, whereas akouw with the accusative form of the following word suggests the content was intelligible. It sounds plausible, even definitive and irrefutable but it doesn’t stand up under testing. Nice try.
- The Miracle Approach: That somehow God was involved in this process in a supernatural way in which He blocked the ears of the ones with Saul so that they couldn’t hear or that the sound did not reach their ears. That approach is seen in Bible in Basic English Version (BBE) – And those who were with me saw the light, but the voice of him who was talking to me came not to their ears. Again nice try but stretching it.
- The Out of Left Field Approach: the early Church Father, Chrysostom explained the discrepancy by claiming the issue was not hearing the LORD’s words but rather than they didn’t hear Paul’s words. He maintained that if God spoke from heaven they must surely have heard so it must have been Paul’s voice they couldn’t hear. Yeah right. Again nice try, yet an unnatural solution which is full of holes.
- The Wacky Solutions: I am sure there are those out there.
Let’s opt for the simplest explanation. They hear the voice but didn’t understand what was said.
Now for the next problem which several of you picked up in your questions:
- One asked what happened to the reference to “the goads”? Why doesn’t it appear in verse 5? What does it mean anyway?
- Paul addressing Agrippa and 26:14 with the reference to ‘goads’ had me looking at different translations and a little confused at what was being said especially given the English translations of the word ‘goad’.
- What does the word goad mean? Is it a goad or a prick?
I will handle this one in the following Gems otherwise it will make this Gems too long.
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
Winston Churchill
I often quote myself, it adds spice to my conversation.
George Bernard Shaw
God cannot lead you on the basis of facts that you do not know.
David Bryant
So you had better make sure that you are tuned into His Voice and that you understand.
Ian Vail
Lord help me to remember that nothing is going to happen to me today that you and I together can’t handle.
Anon