Acts 9 Study Notes

9:21-22 Understandably, the initial response to Saul was skeptical amazement, but as he grew stronger he was able to confound unbelieving Jews, proving that Jesus is the Messiah. Apparently, he was able to explain the messianic connections between the OT and Jesus so clearly that the Jews in Damascus could not refute him.

9:23-25 After many days pictures Saul dutifully preaching Jesus as Messiah for long enough to become the uppermost enemy of unbelieving Jews in Damascus. He had come to help their struggle against the growing Christian movement, but now he had become the chief cause of its growth. Thus they conspired to kill him. Unable to leave via the city gates, Saul escaped in a most undignified but effective manner: he was placed in a large basket and shoved through an opening in the wall.

9:26 Among believers in Jerusalem, Saul’s reputation as a persecutor of the church was unchanged. Either news had not come from Damascus, or else the disciples in Jerusalem took a “wait and see” attitude. Perhaps they even suspected his conversion was just a ruse to infiltrate the fledgling Christian movement and destroy it from within. See note at 22:17-21.

9:27 Barnabas was convinced of the genuineness of Saul’s conversion.

9:28-30 Saul . . . conversed and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, some of whom may have been involved with him in Stephen’s stoning (7:57-60). A Hellenistic Jew himself, Paul had been born in Tarsus and spoke Greek as his primary language. Seeing one of their own, a former persecutor of the church no less, argue on behalf of Christianity was more than they could bear. They tried to kill Saul, with the result that he was whisked away to his hometown.

9:31 This verse marks a significant point in the development of the early church (see note at 1:8). The church, having been forced by persecution to scatter outward from Jerusalem, was at peace in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria. This set the church up for a second stage of growth, which would see the gospel boldly taken outside Israel.

9:32 The saints at Lydda may have been there since Pentecost and the time of persecution that had scattered believers throughout Judea (8:1). It is also possible that they traced their origins to Philip’s ministry (8:40).

9:33-35 Again we see that the apostles never hesitated to give all credit for healing miracles to Jesus Christ (3:6). Indirect evidence for this is found in the fact that the people in Lydda and Sharon turned in faith to the Lord rather than his apostolic messengers when they witnessed the healing of Aeneas.

9:36 Tabitha (Gk Dorcas, lit gazelle) is called a disciple. She was not one of the twelve apostles, but she was clearly an active follower of Jesus.

9:37-38 So powerfully had God worked wonders through Peter and the other apostles that even when Dorcas died and had been ceremonially washed and placed . . . in a room upstairs for viewing, Christians in Joppa did not give up hope but instead sent for Peter.

9:39-42 Peter’s words to the dead woman were almost identical to the words Jesus spoke to Jairus’s daughter, Talitha koum (Mk 5:41).

9:43 Tanners were often considered impure because of their contact with dead animals. This indicates that either Jewish law on this practice had relaxed by this era, or else that Peter was already enjoying freedom from the Jewish law because of his liberty in Christ (10:6,32).