Acts 26:12

12 "One day on my way to Damascus, armed as always with papers from the high priests authorizing my action,

Acts 26:12 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 26:12

Whereupon as I went to Damascus
Being intent, upon the above said things, to punish the saints, compel them to blaspheme, imprison them, and even put them to death on account of these things; upon this errand and business he went to Damascus, the chief city of Syria, where he knew there were many that believed in Christ, who had removed from Jerusalem thither, on account of the persecution, or were settled there before:

with authority and commission from the chief priests;
the Jewish sanhedrim, to bring those of them at Damascus bound to Jerusalem, in order to be punished, as in ( Acts 9:2 ) ( 22:5 ) and which the Ethiopic version adds here.

Acts 26:12 In-Context

10 Backed with the full authority of the high priests, I threw these believers - I had no idea they were God's people! - into the Jerusalem jail right and left, and whenever it came to a vote, I voted for their execution.

11 I stormed through their meeting places, bullying them into cursing Jesus, a one-man terror obsessed with obliterating these people. And then I started on the towns outside Jerusalem.

12 "One day on my way to Damascus, armed as always with papers from the high priests authorizing my action,

13 right in the middle of the day a blaze of light, light outshining the sun, poured out of the sky on me and my companions. Oh, King, it was so bright!

14 We fell flat on our faces. Then I heard a voice in Hebrew: 'Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me? Why do you insist on going against the grain?'