Acts 9:1,2 - Saul was breathing murderous threats

9:1

We now come to possibly the most famous part of Acts, the conversion of Saul, who would become Paul the apostle. There is no great significance to the name change, Saul is his Hebrew name, and Paul the Greek name. As he was the apostle to the Gentiles it was sensible for him to use the name Paul during his ministry. “Saul was still breathing out murderous threats ...” We have seen previous references to Paul’s active hatred of Christ, the church and the gospel. Any notions that he was “on a journey”, except one to Damascus to persecute more Christians, are entirely without foundation.

9:2

Damascus was a key trading hub, and had a Jewish population of around 10 000. As a trading hub the fear was that if the gospel took hold there then it would open the way for it spreading to many other places. So Saul went there to stop this happening. As we know, God had other ideas! And far from being the man to stop the spread, Paul became the key man in spreading the gospel to the Gentile world. Saul gained letters from the high priest, authorising him to take any believers, men or women, prisoner, and bring them back to Jerusalem.