Acts 9:1

Saul. See Additional Note 2 on ch. 7.

Yet. Gr. eti, “still,” connecting the narrative of ch. 9 with ch. 8:3. While the church has been expanding outside Jerusalem (ch. 8:4-40) Saul has continued to persecute it inside and around the capital.

Breathing out. Gr. emptied, “to breathe in,” or “on.” The arrest and slaughter of Christians were, figuratively speaking, the very air Saul breathed. Semitic peoples often associated the emotion of anger with breath.

Threatenings and slaughter. Rather, “threatening and murder.” The persecutor’s zeal has intensified; he is willing to go to extreme limits to stamp out the hated teaching. He himself acknowledges this in chs. 22:4; 26:9-11. He does not try to minimize the terrible part he played in ravaging the church. The early Church Fathers saw a half-prophetic parallelism between the language of Jacob, “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil” (Gen. 49:27), and the conduct of one who gloried in being of the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5), and who bore the name of the tribe’s great hero-king.

Against the disciples. The names of the victims of this continued persecution are not given, but Paul’s later confession, “When they were put to death, I gave my voice [vote] against them” (ch. 26:10), indicates that Stephen was not the only one killed at this time. The zeal Saul showed at the time of Stephen’s death led to his election to the Sanhedrin (AA 102), and he was soon armed with authority from the chief priests to hunt down Christians in Jerusalem. If it was known in Jerusalem that Samaritans had been admitted to the church (see on ch. 8:1), the hatred of the Jews doubtless was intensified.

High priest. Annas or Caiaphas (see on ch. 4:6), both of whom were Sadducees, whereas Saul gloried in being a strict Pharisee (ch. 26:5). But the strangeness of this alliance (see Vol. V, pp. 51, 52) did not deter the stern persecutor. The coalition of Sadducees and Pharisees that had earlier been formed against Jesus Christ (Matt. 26:3) was renewed against His followers.