the Week of Proper 21 / Ordinary 26
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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible
Acts 9:5
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Saul's voice shook as he said, "Who are you, Lord?"The voice said, "It's me, Jesus. The one you are out to get.
And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,
And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,
And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are attacking:
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he [said], *I* am Jesus, whom *thou* persecutest.
And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" Then the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. Acts 9:5 and begin Acts 9:6 with But arise and go. ">[fn] It is hard for you to kick against the goads."
"Who are You, Lord?" he said. "I am Jesus, the One you are persecuting," He replied.
He said, "Who are you, Lord?" The Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee, to kick against the goads.
"Who art thou, Lord?" he asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," was the reply.
And he said, Who art thou Lord? And the Lord said, I am Iesus whom thou persecutest: It is hard for thee to kicke against the prickes.
And he said, Sir, who are You? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you persecute; it is hard for you to kick against the goads.
He sayde: LORDE, who art thou? The LORDE sayde: I am Iesus, who thou persecutest. It shalbe harde for ye to kycke agaynst the prycke.
and he said, who art thou, Lord? and the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: [it is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
He said, "Who are you, Master?" "I am Jesus, the One you're hunting down. I want you to get up and enter the city. In the city you'll be told what to do next."
And Saul said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He answered, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:
And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting;
And he sayde what arte thou lorde? And the lorde sayd I am Iesus whom thou persecutest it shalbe harde for ye to kycke agaynst ye pricke.
And he said, Who are you, Lord? And he [said], I am Jesus whom you persecute:
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. [It is] hard for thee to kick against the goads.
And he said, `Who art thou, Lord?' and the Lord said, `I am Jesus whom thou dost persecute; hard for thee at the pricks to kick;'
Saul said, "Who are you, Lord?" The voice answered, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
So he said, "Who are you, Lord?" He replied, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting!
"Who are you?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus," the Lord answered. "I am the one you are so cruel to.
"Sir, who are you?" he asked. "I am Yeshua, and you are persecuting me.
And he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
And he sayd, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord sayd, I am Iesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kicke against pricks.
Saul answered and said, Who are you my LORD? and our LORD said, I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you persecute:
He said, "Who are you, Lord?" The Lord said, "I am Yeshua, whom you are persecuting.
He asked, "Who are you, Lord?"Sir">[fn] He said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.Acts 5:39;">[xr]
He answered and said, Who art thou, my Lord ? And our Lord said, I am Jeshu Natsroya, whom thou persecutest;
He replied, and said: Who art thou, my Lord? And our Lord said: I am Jesus the Nazarean, whom thou persecutest.
"Who are you, lord?" Saul asked. And the voice replied, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!
Saul answered, "Who are You, Lord?" He said, "I am Jesus, the One Whom you are working against. You hurt yourself by trying to hurt Me."
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:
He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
And he said - Who art thou, Lord? And, he, said - I, am Jesus, whom, thou, art persecuting!
Who said: Who art thou, Lord? And he: I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad.
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
So he said, "Who are you, Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting!
And he sayde: Who art thou Lorde? And the Lorde said: I am Iesus who thou persecutest, It is harde for thee to kicke agaynst the prickes.
Saul said, "Who are you, Lord?" The voice answered, "I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.
And he said, "Who are You, Lord?" And He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,
"Who are you, Lord?" he asked. "I am Jesus, whom you persecute," the voice said.
And he seide, Who art thou, Lord? And he seide, Y am Jhesu of Nazareth, whom thou pursuest. It is hard to thee, to kike ayens the pricke.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Who: 1 Samuel 3:4-10, 1 Timothy 1:13
I am: Acts 26:9
it is: Acts 5:39, Deuteronomy 32:15, Job 9:4, Job 40:9, Job 40:10, Psalms 2:12, Isaiah 45:9, 1 Corinthians 10:22
Reciprocal: Genesis 31:29 - Take Genesis 45:3 - I am Joseph Genesis 45:4 - I am Joseph Exodus 23:22 - an enemy Numbers 24:9 - Blessed 1 Samuel 17:36 - seeing 2 Samuel 3:8 - do show 1 Kings 13:4 - his hand 2 Chronicles 13:12 - fight ye Ezra 6:12 - destroy Job 15:25 - he stretcheth Job 33:13 - strive Jeremiah 2:3 - all that Daniel 4:35 - none Matthew 18:6 - offend Matthew 21:10 - Who Matthew 25:40 - ye have done it unto me Matthew 25:45 - Inasmuch John 5:16 - persecute Acts 2:37 - what Acts 7:5 - yet Acts 9:17 - the Lord Acts 10:4 - What Acts 16:29 - and came Acts 26:14 - Saul 1 Corinthians 8:12 - ye sin against 1 Corinthians 9:1 - have 1 Corinthians 15:55 - sting Revelation 11:5 - fire Revelation 17:14 - shall make
Cross-References
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
"Behold, I now establish My covenant with you and your descendants after you,
and with every living creature that was with you-the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth-every living thing that came out of the ark.
After the flood, Noah lived 350 years.
So Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
You shall not murder.
Whoever strikes and kills a man must surely be put to death.
You must not go about spreading slander among your people. You must not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the LORD.
For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And he said, who art thou, Lord?.... For he knew not whether it was God, or an angel, or who it was that spake to him; he knew not Christ by his form or voice, as Stephen did, when he saw him standing at the right hand of God; he was in a state of ignorance, and knew neither the person, nor voice of Christ, and yet his heart was so far softened and wrought upon, that he was desirous of knowing who he was;
and the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. The Alexandrian copy, and the Syriac and Ethiopic versions, "read Jesus of Nazareth"; and one of Beza's copies, and another of Stephens', as in Acts 22:8 whose name thou art doing many things against, and whose people thou art destroying:
it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks; or "to resist me", as the Arabic version renders it; and which is the sense of the phrase; it is a proverbial expression, taken from beasts that are goaded, who kick against the goads or pricks, and hurt themselves the more thereby; and Christ uses it, suggesting hereby, that should Saul go on to persecute him and his people, to oppose his Gospel, and the strong evidence of it, in doctrine and miracles, and notwithstanding the present remonstrances made in such an extraordinary manner; he would find himself in the issue greatly hurt by it, and could not rationally expect to succeed against so powerful a person. This clause in the Syriac version is placed at the end of the fourth verse.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? - The word “Lord” here, as is frequently the case in the New Testament, means no more than “sir,” John 4:19. It is evident that Saul did not as yet know that this was the Lord Jesus. He heard a voice as of a man; he heard himself addressed, but by whom the words were spoken was to him unknown. In his amazement and confusion, he naturally asked who it was that was thus addressing him.
And the Lord said - In this place the word “Lord” is used in a higher sense, to denote “the Saviour.” It is his usual appellation. See the notes on Acts 1:24.
I am Jesus - It is clear, from this, that there was a personal appearance of the Saviour; that he was present to Saul; but in what particular form - whether seen as a man, or only appearing by the manifestation of his glory, is not affirmed. Though it was a personal appearance, however, of the Lord Jesus, designed to take the work of converting such a persecutor into his own hands, yet he designed to convert him in a natural way. He arrested his attention; he filled him with alarm at his guilt; and then he presented the truth respecting himself. In Acts 22:8, the expression is thus recorded: “I am Jesus of Nazareth,” etc. There is no contradiction, as Luke here records only a part of what was said; Paul afterward stated the whole. This declaration was suited especially to humble and mortify Saul. There can be no doubt that he had often blasphemed his name, and profanely derided the notion that the Messiah could come out of Nazareth. Jesus here uses, however, that very designation. “I am Jesus the Nazarene, the object of your contempt and scorn.” Yet Saul saw him now invested with special glory.
It is hard ... - This is evidently a proverbial expression. Kuinoel has quoted numerous places in which a similar mode of expression occurs in Greek writers. Thus, Euripides, Bacch., 791, “I, who am a frail mortal, should rather sacrifice to him who is a god, than, by giving place to anger, kick against the goads.” So Pindar, Pyth., 2:173, “It is profitable to bear willingly the assumed yoke. To kick against the goad is pernicious conduct.” So Terence, Phome., 1, 2, 27, “It is foolishness for thee to kick against a goad.” Ovid has the same idea, Tristam, ii. 15. The word translated “pricks” here κέντρον kentron means properly “any sharp point which will pierce or perforate,” as the sting of a bee, etc. But it commonly means an ox-goad, a sharp piece of iron stuck into the end of a stick, with which the ox is urged on. These goads among the Hebrews were made very large. Thus, Shamgar killed 600 men with one of them, Judges 3:31. Compare 1 Samuel 13:21. The expression “to kick against the prick” is derived from the action of a stubborn and unyielding ox kicking against the goad. And as the ox would injure no one by it but himself; as he would gain nothing, it comes to denote “an obstinate and refractory disposition and course of conduct, resisting the authority of him who has a right to command, and opposing the leadings of Providence, to the injury of him who makes the resistance.” It denotes “rebellion against lawful authority, and thus getting into greater difficulty by attempting to oppose the commands to duty.” This is the condition of every sinner. If people wish to be happy, they should cheerfully submit to the authority of God. They should not rebel against his dealings. They should not complain against their Creator. They should not resist the claims of their consciences. By all this they only injure themselves. No man can resist God or his own conscience and be happy. People evince this temper in the following ways:
(1) By violating plain laws of God.
(2) By attempting to resist his claims.
(3) By refusing to do what their conscience requires.
(4) By attempting to free themselves from serious impressions and alarms.
(5) By pursuing a course of vice and wickedness against what they know to be right.
(6) By refusing to submit to the dealings of Providence. And,
(7) In any way by opposing God, and refusing to submit to his authority, and to do what is right.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Acts 9:5. Who art thou, Lord? — τις ει, κυριε; Who art thou, SIR? He had no knowledge who it was that addressed him, and would only use the term κυριε, as any Roman or Greek would, merely as a term of civil respect.
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest — "Thy enmity is against me and my religion; and the injuries which thou dost to my followers I consider as done to myself."
The following words, making twenty in the original, and thirty in our version, are found in no Greek MS. The words are, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks: and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? and the Lord said unto him. It is not very easy to account for such a large addition, which is not only not found in any Greek MS. yet discovered, but is wanting in the Itala, Erpen's Arabic, the Syriac, Coptic, Sahidic, and most of the Slavonian. It is found in the Vulgate, one of the Arabic, the AEthiopic, and Armenian; and was probably borrowed from Acts 26:14, and some marginal notes. It is wanting also in the Complutensian edition, and in that of Bengel. Griesbach also leaves it out of the text.
It is hard for thee, c.] σκληρον σοι προς κεντρα λακτιζειν. This is a proverbial expression, which exists, not only in substance, but even in so many words, both in the Greek and Latin writers. κεντρον, kentron, signifies an ox goad, a piece of pointed iron stuck in the end of a stick, with which the ox is urged on when drawing the plough. The origin of the proverb seems to have been this: sometimes it happens that a restive or stubborn ox kicks back against the goad, and thus wounds himself more deeply: hence it has become a proverb to signify the fruitlessness and absurdity of rebelling against lawful authority, and the getting into greater difficulties by endeavouring to avoid trifling sufferings. So the proverb, Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim. Out of the cauldron into the fire. "Out of bad into worse." The saying exists, almost in the apostolic form, in the following writers. EURIPIDES, in Bacch. ver. 793:-
Θυοιμ' αν αυτῳ μαλλον, η θυμουμενος
Προς κεντρα λακτιζοιμι, θνητος ων, Θεῳ.
"I, who am a frail mortal, should rather sacrifice
to him who is a GOD, than, by giving place to
anger, kick against the goads."
And AESCHYLUS, in Agamemnon, ver. 1633:-
Προς κεντρα μη λακτιζε.
Kick not against the goads.
And again in Prometh. Vinct. ver. 323:-
Προς κεντρα κωλον εκτενεις, ὁρων ὁτι
Τραχυς μοναρχος ουδ' ὑπευθυνος κρατει.
"Thou stretchest out thy foot against goads, seeing
the fierce monarch governs according to his own will."
Resistance is of no use: the more thou dost rebel, the more keenly thou shalt suffer. See the Scholiast here.
PINDAR has a similar expression, Pyth. ii. ver. 171-5 :-
Φερειν δ' ελαφρως
Επαυχενιον λαβοντα
Ζυγον γ' αρηγει. Ποτι κεντρον δε τοι
Λακτιζεμεν, τελεθει
Ολισθηρος οιμος.
"It is profitable to bear willingly the assumed yoke.
To kick against the goad is pernicious conduct."
Where see the Scholiast, who shows that "it is ridiculous for a man to fight with fortune: for if the unruly ox, from whom the metaphor is taken, kick against the goad, he shall suffer still more grievously." TERENCE uses the same figure. Phorm. Act i. scen. 2, ver. 27:-
Venere in mentem mihi istaec: nam inscitia est,
Adversum stimulum calces._______
"These things have come to my recollection, for it
is foolishness for thee to kick against a goad."
OVID has the same idea in other words, Trist. lib. ii. ver. 15:-
At nunc (tanta meo comes est insania morbo)
Saxa malum refero rursus ad icta pedem.
Scilicet et victus repetit gladiator arenam
Et redit in tumidas naufraga puppis aquas.
But madly now I wound myself alone,
Dashing my injured foot against the stone:
So to the wide arena, wild with pain,
The vanquish'd gladiator hastes again;
So the poor shatter'd bark the tempest braves,
Launching once more into the swelling waves.
Intelligent men, in all countries and in all ages of the world, have seen and acknowledged the folly and wickedness of fighting against God; of murmuring at the dispensations of his providence; of being impatient under affliction; and of opposing the purposes of his justice and mercy. The words contain a universal lesson, and teach us patience under affliction, and subjection to the sovereign will of God; and they especially show the desperate wickedness of endeavouring, by persecution, to hinder the dissemination of the truth of God in the earth. He that kicks against this goad does it at the risk of his final salvation. The fable of the viper and the file is another illustration of this proverb: it gnawed and licked the file, till it destroyed its teeth and wasted away its tongue. The maxim in the proverb should be early inculcated on the minds of children and scholars; when chastised for their faults, resistance and stubbornness produce increased coercion and chastisement. And let parents and masters learn that the oft-repeated use of the goad and ferula seldom tend to reclaim, but beget obduracy and desperation. The advice of Columella to the ploughman, having some relation to the proverb in the text, and a strong bearing on this latter part of the subject, is worthy of the most serious regard: "Voce potius quam verberibus terreat: ultimaque sint opus recusantibus remedia plagae. Nunquam stimulo lacessat juvencum, quod retrectantem calcitrosumque eum reddit: nonnunquam tamen admoneat flagello." COLUMELLA, De Re Rustica, lib. ii. cap. 2, in fine. "Let the husbandman intimidate his oxen more by his voice than by blows, to which he should never have recourse but in extreme cases. A young steer should never be goaded, for this will induce him to kick and run back; but on proper occasions the whip, as an incentive to activity, may be profitably used." In reference to the same subject, which all concerned should feel to be of the greatest importance I shall close with the advice of one greater than the Roman agriculturist: Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged, Colossians 3:21; but bring them up (εν παιδειᾳ και νουθεσιᾳ Κυριου) in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, Ephesians 6:4, using the authority that God has given you with a steady hand, actuated by a tender and feeling heart.
