- ter authority of the circumstance, that it accords with the sacred
narrative, in being on the road from Jerusalem, and "nigh unto the city."
"Damascus is a very ancient city, which the oldest records and traditions show by
their accordant testimony to have been founded by Uz, the son of Aram, and grandson
of Shem. It was the capital or mother city of that Syria which is distinguished
by the name of Aram Dammesek or Damascene Syria, lying between Libanus and
Anti-Libanus. The city stands at the base of Mount Hermon, from which descend
the famous streams of Abana and Pharphar; the latter washing the walls of the city,
while the former cuts it through the middle. It was a very populous, delightful, and
wealthy place; but as in the course of its existence it had suffered a variety of fortune,
so it had often changed masters. To pass over its earlier history, we will only
observe, that before the Christian era, on the defeat of Tigranes, the Armenian monarch,
it was yielded to the Romans, being taken by the armies of Pompey. In the
time of Paul, as we are told in Corinthians xi. 32, it was held under the (temporary)
sway of Aretas, a king of the Arabians, father-in-law of Herod the tetrarch. It had
then a large Jewish population, as we may gather from the fact, that in the reign of
Nero, 10,000 of that nation were slaughtered, unarmed, and in the public baths by
the Damascenes, as Josephus records in his history of the Jewish War, II. Book,
chap. 25. Among the Jews of Damascus, also, were a considerable number of
Christians, and it was raging for the destruction of these, that Saul, furnished with
the letters and commission of the Jewish high priest, now flew like a hawk upon the
doves." (Witsius, § 2, ¶ 1.)
The sacred narrative gives no particulars of the other circumstances
connected with this remarkable event, in either of the three
statements presented in different parts of the book of Acts. All
that is commemorated, is that at mid-day, as Saul with his company
drew near to Damascus, he saw a light exceeding the sun
in brightness, which flashed upon them from heaven, and struck
them all to the earth. And while they were all fallen to the
ground, Saul alone heard a voice speaking to him in the Hebrew
tongue, and saying, "Saul! Saul! Why persecutest thou me? It
is hard for thee to kick against thorns." To this, Saul asked in
reply, "Who art thou, Lord?" The answer was, "I am Jesus the
Nazarene, whom thou persecutest." Saul, trembling and astonished,
replied, "Lord, what wilt thou that I should do?" And
the voice said, "Rise and stand upon thy feet, and go into the
city; there thou shalt be told what to do, since for this purpose I
have appeared to thee, to make use of thee as a minister and a
witness, both of what thou hast seen and of what I will cause thee
to see,—choosing thee out of the people, and of the heathen nations
to whom I now SEND thee,—to open their eyes,—to turn them
from darkness to light, and from the dominion of Satan unto God,
that they may receive remission of sins, and an inheritance among
them that are sanctified, by faith in me."
These words are given thus fully only in Saul's own account of his conversion, in
his address to king Agrippa. (Acts xxvi. 14-18.) The original Greek of verse
17, is most remarkably and expressively significant, containing, beyond all doubt,
