Accounts of St Paul's Conversion

Hezekiel

Hello,

Acts has several accounts on the story of St Paul's conversion.There seem to be some differences between the accounts, as to whether his mates heard the voice of Jesus.

In the first account, his friends hear the voice but see no one:

"As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven.  Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” [i]And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice  but seeing no one.[Acts 9:3-8]"  [/i]

In the second account, his friends see the light but  hear no voice:

“Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me.  And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’  So I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’
“[i]And those who were with me indeed saw the light  and were afraid, but they did not hear the voice of Him  who spoke to me. So I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.’  And since I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of those who were with me, I came into Damascus [Acts 22:6-11 "][/i]


Any errors?

gregorytheSinner

HH explained this in one of this books, I'm trying to get you the passage, but if you want to look it up yourself I believe it was the book regarding criticism of Orthodoxy [i cant however remember the title] i'll post it up asap

mabsoota

i understand it like this: they saw only light, not God Himself.
the men were shocked because they did not see anyONE, they expect sound to come from people, not from lights! in the NIV translation, it says in chapter 22 they did not 'understand' the voice, so they perhaps heard a noise but it was not clear to them what/ who it was.
i just found a cool website where you can look up passages in NKJV
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/
without registering, for free, however it seems to be the version you used.

i hope some better-qualified people will comment, but i take it to mean, saint paul's companions heard a loud scary noise and saw bright light, and saint paul heard clearly the voice of God and realised He was in the light.

peter75

Here is the answer of HH Pope Shenouda concerning this matter, it's taken from the book "So many years with the problems of people" (http://www.suscopts.org/stmaryhouston/framePage.html?/stmaryhouston/lit/pope/pope.html) :

Question:
There are two accounts in the Book of the Acts of the
Apostles about the appearance of the Lord to Saul. It
seems that there are some contradictions between both
accounts, in what they saw or heard, please explain.

Answer:
The account of the appearance of the Lord to Saul recorded
in the ninth chapter, verse 7 states "And the men who
journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but
seeing no one. " The same incident also described in the
twenty second chapter, verse 9 states "Now those who were
with me indeed saw the light and were afraid, but they did
not hear the voice of Him who spoke to me. "
The key to this problem, is that the men who
accompanied St. Paul were not on the same spiritual
level to see what he saw and to hear what he heard.
This vision was not for them, the apparition of the Lord was
not for them and the conversation of the Lord was not with
them, but that all was only for Saul of Tarsus.
Nevertheless, there is no contradiction between the two
accounts as far as what the men heard or saw as we closely
examine both stories, we realise that the men who
accompanied Saul, heard his voice talking to the Lord,
but they did not hear the voice of the Lord when He
talked to Saul.
So if we read the two statements carefully, we realise what
proves that, without any contradiction:
1. Hearing a voice but seeing no one.
2. They saw the light but they did not hear the voice of Him
who spoke to Paul.
The voice that is mentioned in the first statement, is the
voice of Saul. They heard him talking without seeing with
whom he talked. The voice that they couldn't hear is that of
the one talking to Saul. Then there is no contradiction as
far as the voice is concerned.
It could have been contradicting, if it had been said in the
first statement "They heard the voice of he who spoke to
me" or "heard what I heard", but the word (voice) only
meant here the voice of Saul for the spiritual level of those
men is to hear the voice of a man but not the voice of the
Lord.
The same applies to the vision also: They saw the light, but
they did not see the person who was talking to Saul. This
is clear from the way the two statements were put:
50
1. seeing no one (Acts 9:7).
2. Saw the light and were afraid (Acts 22:9).
The light is one thing but the face and shape of the person
that was talking is another.

Hope it helps

GBU

mabsoota

merci, peter  :)