Saul, horrified and trembling by what happened, humbly acknowledges Him who has appeared as his Lord, and himself as His servant, and asks: "What wilt thou command me to do?" The Lord commanded him to go to Damascus, where he would be told what he should do. The high priest and the Sanhedrin, apparently, gave Saul guides and assistants, who were witnesses to this extraordinary events, although they did not see anyone, but only heard the voice. Saul was blinded by the light that shone upon him: this was partly a punishment for the persecutor, partly a symbolic signification of the fact that he was blind with his eyes open in relation to the truth of Christ's teaching. After his companions had brought him, blind, by the hand to Damascus, in a deep feeling of repentance, he did not eat or drink for three days.

"There was a certain disciple in Damascus, whose name was Ananias" — judging by the name, a Christian from the Jews. The Apostle Paul himself later characterizes him as a pious man, who lived according to the law and enjoyed the respect of all the Jews of Damascus (Acts 22:12). According to tradition, he was later bishop of Damascus and died a martyr's death in Eleutheropolis. His feast day is 1 (14) October.

The Lord in a vision told him to go to Saul and lay his hand on him so that he could see. With childlike frankness, Ananias contradicts the Lord on the basis of rumors known to him about Saul as a persecutor of the Church. The Lord calms Ananias, pointing to the future great destiny of Saul: "For he is My chosen vessel."

Through the laying on of Ananias' hands, Saul received his sight and was filled with the Holy Spirit. This was an extraordinary miracle of God's special mercy over Saul: like the centurion Cornelius later, he was vouchsafed the grace of the Holy Spirit even before his baptism, and this grace was brought down upon him by a disciple who did not belong to the number of the 12 Apostles. "Thus, everything concerning Paul," notes St. John Chrysostom, "was inhuman and was not done through man, but God Himself was the perpetrator of it."

"And immediately it was as if the scales fell from his eyes" — it is impossible to think that any real substance in the kind of scales fell from Saul's eyes: it was only an internal personal sensation of him. Then he was baptized, no doubt, at the hands of the same Ananias. "And having eaten, he was strengthened," says Chrysostom, "for he was faint," says Chrysostom, "from travel, from fear, from fasting, and from sorrow."

"Saul was in Damascus several days." This does not contradict Paul's own statement in Galatians 1:17 [51] etc., that on his conversion he immediately went to Arabia. The writer does not mention Saul's journey from Damascus to Arabia and his return to Damascus. This is usual for St. Luke: he omits the description of the event, the news of which has not been preserved. There is, however, an indication here that after a few days in Damascus, Saul then "stayed there for a long time time," i.e., a long period (v. 23).

The fiery spirit of Saul did not tolerate delay, and he, having become a Christian, with the same zeal with which he had persecuted Christians before, began to preach Christianity in the synagogues. The main point of his preaching was that Jesus is the Son of God. All who heard were amazed at this extraordinary change that took place in Saul. Saul, on the other hand, was "strengthened more and more," probably after his return from Arabia, where he apparently devoted himself in silence and solitude to the study of the Holy Scriptures, already from the Christian point of view, illumined by the Holy Spirit.

Now he was proving, on the basis of the Holy Scriptures, that Jesus was the Christ, that is, the Messiah expected by the Jews. The force of his arguments was so great that he confused the Jews. The impossibility of refuting Saul's arguments aroused in them such hatred for him that they decided to kill him, and for this purpose they guarded the gates day and night, waiting for him to leave the city in order to carry out his evil plan on the way, without witnesses. It seems that they had information about Saul's intention to go to Jerusalem. Saul escaped this danger by being lowered by the disciples at night along the wall of the city in a basket, probably through the window of a house adjacent to the city wall. St. Paul himself recalls this method of deliverance from danger in 2 Corinthians 11:32 [52].

Saul in Jerusalem

(9:26–30)

"Saul Came to Jerusalem"  This was, according to Paul himself in Galatians 1:18, three years after his conversion: part of this time he was in Arabia. About this arrival in Jerusalem and a short stay in it, St. Paul himself gives brief information in Galatians 1:18-24 [53], which must be kept in mind for a correct understanding of the story of the Acts writer.

St. Paul, according to him, went to Jerusalem to meet with Peter and stayed with him for 15 days; at the same time, he did not see the other Apostles, except James, the brother of the Lord. The churches in Judea did not know him personally, but only by rumors; from Jerusalem he went to the countries of Syria and Cilicia. The writer adds that Saul "tried to cling to the disciples" (Acts 9:26), that is, the Christians, but they feared him, did not believe him, and did not receive him into their fellowship. This continued, of course, until Barnabas introduced him to the Apostles.

According to church tradition, Barnabas, who at that time enjoyed great respect in the entire Christian community, in the years of his youth together with Saul was brought up in the school of Gamaliel. Even after Barnabas became a disciple of the Lord, they met each other and argued about Christ, but Saul persisted until the event on the way to Damascus. Now Barnabas, having learned of his conversion, took him by the hand and led him to the Apostles. Probably, the Apostles were not constantly in Jerusalem, and therefore Saul saw only two – Peter and James. Saul then began to dwell openly with the believers in Jerusalem and boldly preached about the Lord Jesus. His preaching was addressed both to the Jews and to the Hellenists. By his descent from Tarsus of Cilicia, he himself was a Hellenist, and therefore it is not surprising that he especially fervently tried to convert the Hellenists to Christ. But arguing with them, he aroused their hatred so much that they attempted to kill him. The brethren, that is, the Christians of Jerusalem, having learned of this, in order to save him, sent him to Caesarea (Straton), and from there to his homeland in Tarsus. Paul himself tells this in Galatians 1:21 [54].

The Apostle Peter in Lydda, the healing of Aeneas