{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-3288","native_reference":{"book_number":510,"chapter_from":9,"chapter_to":9,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":1,"verse_to":1},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Bede</b>: Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. Evidently present by afflicting with murders, and deterring the absent with threats.<br/><i>— Commentary on Acts</i></p><p><b>Cassiodorus</b>: Often the merciful Lord does not allow us to perpetrate evil deeds so that pricked by remorse we should prostrate ourselves for our sins, just as Saul was checked when he was sent by the priests to Damascus to ravage the church of Christ with the most savage persecution. He was not permitted to attain great success, for that could have been the cause of his receiving eternal punishment.<br/><i>— EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 53.9</i></p><p><b>Cassiodorus</b>: \"And Saul, as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,\" etc. Paul, still meaning harm to the Lord's faithful, asked the high priest for letters, so that, if he found any preachers of Christ, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. This proved without a doubt rather to be his own release from bonds, for just as he was on his journey the Lord said to him: \"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?\" Trembling at these words, he fell on his face and, having become blind, he entered Damascus led by others' hands. There was in that city the disciple Ananias, who was told to go to Paul and give him back his sight by the imposition of his hand. Ananias, however, remembering the past, replied to the Lord that Paul was a persecutor of the Church, so much so that, having recently received from the chiefs the authority to do so, he bound the Lord's faithful in chains; but the divine mercy replied to Ananias that he whom he knew to have previously been filled with criminal iniquity had been made into a vessel of election.<br/><i>— Complexiones on the Acts of the Apostles</i></p><p><b>Ephrem the Syrian</b>: But again for another reason the meek voice accompanied the overpowering light; namely, that as it were from meekness unto exaltation our Lord might produce help for the persecutor; in like manner as also all His helps were produced, from lowliness unto greatness. For our Lord's meekness continued from the womb to the tomb. And observe that greatness comes close upon His lowliness, and exaltation on His meekness. For whereas His greatness was observed in divers things, His Divinity was revealed by glorious signs; that it might be known that the One Who stood amongst them, was not one but two. For His nature is not humble nature alone, nor is it an exalted nature alone; but there are two natures that are mingled, the one with the other; the exalted and the humble.<br/><i>— Homily - On Our Lord, 33</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. He fitly mentions Paul's zeal, and shows that in the very midst of his zeal he is drawn. Yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter, and not yet sated with the murder of Stephen, he was not yet glutted with the persecution of the Church, and the dispersion.<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 19</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Lo, this was fulfilled which was spoken by Christ, that they which kill you shall think they offer worship to God. He then in this wise did it, not as the Jews: God forbid! For that he did it through zeal, is manifest from his going abroad even to strange cities: whereas they would not have cared even for those in Jerusalem; they were for one thing only, to enjoy honor.<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 19</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: But why went he to Damascus? It was a great city, a royal city: he was afraid lest that should be preoccupied. And observe his strong desire and ardor and, how strictly according to the Law he went to work: he goes not to the governor, but to the priest. That if he found any of this way: for so the believers were called, probably because of their taking the direct way that leads to heaven.<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 19</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: And why did he not receive authority to have them punished there, but brings them to Jerusalem! He did these things here with more authority. And mark on what a peril he casts himself. He was not afraid lest he should take any harm, but yet he took others also with him, that if, it says, he found any of this way, whether they were men or women-Oh, the ruthlessness!-he might bring them bound. By this journey of his, he wished to show them all how he would act: so far were they from being earnest in this matter.<br/><i>— Homily on Acts 19</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Then it was, too, that Paul, when he believed, was baptized; and this is the meaning of the precept which the Lord had given him when smitten with the plague of loss of sight, saying, \"Arise, and enter Damascus; there shall be demonstrated to thee what thou oughtest to do,\" to wit-be baptized, which was the only thing lacking to him. That point excepted, he bad sufficiently learnt and believed \"the Nazarene\" to be \"the Lord, the Son of God.\"<br/><i>— On Baptism</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"5b0763d7bfd2548daf23b0496b6dc261624f47465de96c4e0d5ea0c91e6ef4e3","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":3288,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"72ad91ac9cc758e4889630f1239496bd66b81e27cc5bb08231563d753bf0582b","translator":null,"work":null}