Acts 9:1-4 - Saul, breathing threats and murder

9:1,2

Sometimes people wax lyrical about Stephen’s death having made an impression on Saul/Paul and this playing a part in his eventual conversion. Well maybe, but the Biblical evidence for this is precisely zero. At the beginning of chapter 8 we read that Saul approved of Stephen’s execution (8:1) and then was ravaging the church (8:3). Here we read that Saul was still breathing threats and murder and was on his way to Damascus to round up a few more Christians. Nor was Paul discriminating between men and women, if they followed Christ then he wanted to imprison them. This is the Biblical picture of Paul immediately prior to his conversion.

9:3,4

The reason Paul was converted is because God intervened. At no point in the tale does the will of Paul seem to come much into the picture. Paul was on his way to Damascus to capture a few more Christians, then a “light from heaven shone around him”. Saul fell to the ground and heard a voice saying “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul thought he was acting for the Lord in persecuting the church. He, along with the other religious leaders, had been blinded by Satan.

He did not realise what he was doing. By the way, this does not make him any less guilty. Far from acting for the Lord, he was acting directly against the Lord. If someone persecutes a Christian, then they are persecuting Jesus Himself.

We all know that while here he is known as Saul, later he is known as Paul. When and why did his name change. There is a very good article on this here. His name was not changed. As was quite common in those days, he had two names. Saul was his Jewish name, and Paul his Greek name. In his persecuting the church days using his Jewish name made sense. Later when he was the apostle to the Gentiles, becoming all things to all men, using his Greek name was the obvious thing to do. This was not a name change given to him by Jesus, unlike with Simon becoming Peter.