And I saw him saying unto me
That is, the Lord Jesus Christ, that just One, whom he had seen
in his way to Damascus, and whose voice he had heard, and whose
name he had called upon at his baptism:
make haste, and get thee quickly out of
Jerusalem:
not because his life was in danger, but because Christ had work
for him to do elsewhere, which required haste; and that he might
not continue here useless and unprofitable, as he would have
been, had he staid;
for they will not receive thy testimony concerning
me;
Christ the omniscient God, and the searcher of the hearts, knew
the hardness and unbelief of the Jews; and that they would
continue therein, notwithstanding the ministry of the apostle;
and that they would give no credit to any testimony of his, that
he saw him, as he went to Damascus, and heard words from his
mouth. The Ethiopic version renders it without the negative, "for
they will receive thee, my witness concerning me"; as if Christ
sent the apostle away in all haste from Jerusalem, lest he
preaching there, the Jews should believe and be healed; compare
with this ( Matthew
13:14 Matthew
13:15 ) . Very likely this interpreter might be induced to
leave out the negative, as thinking that the apostle's reasoning
in the following words required such a sense and reading.
