As
also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and traveled to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished. As I made my journey, and came close to Damascus, about noon, suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky. I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’
Acts 22:5-8
Acts 22 [1.] “Brothers and fathers, listen to the defense which I now make to you.”
Acts 22 [2.] When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they were even more quiet. He said, “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict tradition of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as you all are today. I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. As also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify, from whom also I received letters to the brothers, and traveled to Damascus to bring them also who were there to Jerusalem in bonds to be punished. As I made my journey, and came close to Damascus, about noon, suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky. I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’
Acts 22 [9.] “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. I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus. There you will be told about all things which are appointed for you to do.’ When I couldn’t see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus. One Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well reported of by all the Jews who lived in Damascus, came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ In that very hour I looked up at him. He said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and heard. Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
Meaning:
Paul has told the crowd that he was a Jew trained by Gamaliel and that he once “persecuted this Way to the death” (Acts 22:4). Now he calls witnesses to his past and describes the moment that changed everything: the appearance of Jesus on the road to Damascus. This is the second of three accounts of Paul’s conversion in Acts, alongside Luke’s own narrative (Acts 9:3-9) and Paul’s later defence before King Agrippa (Acts 26:12-18).
- “As also the high priest and all the council of the elders testify”
Paul appealed to records his hearers could check. The high priest and the council had authorised his mission; Luke records that Saul “went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus” (Acts 9:1-2). The letters were addressed “to the brothers,” that is, to the Jewish communities in Damascus, asking them to cooperate. Paul’s point was simple: no one in Jerusalem had been more committed to stopping the followers of Jesus than he was. Whatever changed him must have been powerful.
- “about noon, suddenly a great light shone around me from the sky”
Paul adds a detail not found in Acts 9: it happened “about noon,” when the sun is at its brightest. Yet the light outshone even the midday sun; before Agrippa he called it “a light from the sky, brighter than the sun” (Acts 26:13). Throughout Scripture light accompanies the glory of God. This was no ordinary vision but the risen Lord revealing himself. Paul later counted this as a true resurrection appearance: “last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also” (1 Corinthians 15:8).
- “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
The double name expresses urgency and personal address, as when God called “Abraham, Abraham!” (Genesis 22:11) or “Moses! Moses!” (Exodus 3:4). The question is startling: Saul thought he was persecuting heretics, but the voice said he was persecuting “me.” Jesus identifies himself so closely with his followers that what is done to them is done to him. He had taught, “because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Matthew 25:40).
- “Who are you, Lord? … I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute”
Saul’s question shows his confusion. He recognised a heavenly being and called him “Lord,” but did not yet know who he was. The answer overturned his whole life. Only this account includes the words “of Nazareth,” a detail that would strike home to a Jerusalem crowd. The crucified man from Nazareth, whom Saul thought was dead and cursed, was alive and speaking from heaven. To a Jewish audience this was the heart of the matter: the one they had rejected had been vindicated by God, just as Peter had preached, “This Jesus God raised up” (Acts 2:32).
The Significance of Acts 22:5-8
- The risen Jesus is alive and present
Paul’s testimony rests on the conviction that Jesus is not a figure of the past but the living Lord who speaks and acts. Everything in Paul’s later life, his preaching, his suffering and his letters, flows from that noonday meeting. Faith in Christ is not merely agreement with ideas but an encounter with a person.
- Jesus stands with his people
“Why are you persecuting me?” assures believers who suffer for their faith that Jesus counts their suffering as his own. No hardship endured for his name goes unseen. At the same time, the words warn anyone who mistreats God’s people that they are opposing the Lord himself.
Cross-References:
Acts 9:1-2: “Went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus.” The commission Paul refers to.
Acts 26:13: “I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun.” Paul’s later account before Agrippa.
1 Corinthians 15:8: “Last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.” Paul counts this a resurrection appearance.
Matthew 25:40: “Because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Jesus identifies with his people.
Conclusion: Paul reminded the crowd that the high priest and council could confirm his mission to arrest believers in Damascus. Then he told how, at noon, a light from heaven struck him down and Jesus of Nazareth spoke to him, asking why Saul was persecuting him. The persecutor discovered that the one he opposed was the risen Lord, who so identifies with his followers that their suffering is his own.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible