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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 9:29 - 9:29
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Preaching boldly (parrēsiazomenos). For a while. Evidently Saul did not extend his preaching outside of Jerusalem (Gal 1:22) and in the city preached mainly in the synagogues of the Hellenists (pros tous Hellenistas) as Stephen had done (Act 8:9). As a Cilician Jew he knew how to speak to the Hellenists.
Disputed (sunezētei). Imperfect active of sunzēteō, the very verb used in Act 6:9 of the disputes with Stephen in these very synagogues in one of which (Cilicia) Saul had probably joined issue with Stephen to his own discomfort. It was intolerable to these Hellenistic Jews now to hear Saul taking the place of Stephen and using the very arguments that Stephen had employed.
But they went about to kill him (Hoi de epecheiroun anelein auton). Demonstrative hoi with de and the conative imperfect of epicheireō, to put the hand to, to try, an old verb used in the N.T. only three times (Luk 1:1; Act 9:29; Act 19:3). They offer to Saul the same conclusive answer that he gave to Stephen, death. Paul tells how the Lord Jesus appeared to him at this juncture in a vision in the temple (Act 22:17-21) with the distinct command to leave Jerusalem and how Paul protested that he was willing to meet the fate of Stephen in whose death he had a shameful part. That is to Saul’s credit, but the Lord did not want Saul to be put to death yet. His crown of martyrdom will come later.