Acts 9:10

Acts 9:10-12 . And there was a disciple named Ananias — This Ananias, before his conversion to Christianity, had lived so conformably to the law, that he was much esteemed by all the Jews who dwelt at Damascus, Acts 22:12 . And after his conversion, his piety being still more conspicuous, he was a person of great note among the brethren also. To him Jesus appeared in a vision on the third day of Saul’s fast, and ordered him to go into the house of Judas, and inquire for Saul of Tarsus; of whom he needed no longer be afraid, because he was praying, not as he had done formerly, while a Pharisee, in self-confidence and pride, but in humiliation, contrition, and deep penitence, namely, for the pardon of his sin in persecuting the saints; and because Ananias himself had been shown to him in a vision, as sent to cure his sight. He hath seen in a vision, &c. — This vision which Saul had may be considered, 1st, As an immediate answer to his prayer, and the keeping up that communion with God which be had entered into by prayer. He had in prayer spread the misery of his case before God, and God presently manifests himself, and the kind intentions of his grace to him. 2d, As designed to raise his expectations, and make Ananias’s coming more welcome: he would readily receive him as a messenger from God, since he was told beforehand in vision, that such a one would come to him.

Ananias; he was of good repute for zeal and holiness. as appears, Acts 22:12 , but whether he was one of the seventy disciples which our Saviour sent out, Luke 10:1 , as some will have, is not certain. He said, Behold, I am here, Lord; thereby showing his willingness to be sent on God’s message, and to do as God should bid him, as Samuel to Eli, 1 Samuel 3:5 .

Acts 9:10 . Ἦν δὲ , but [now] there was ) Ananias and Saul do not seem previously to have been known to one another.— μαθητὴς , a disciple ) not an apostle: lest Saul should seem to have been a disciple of the apostles; but an ordinary disciple , that Saul might be the more humbled, and that he might not however seem to have been taught by Ananias.— ὁ Κύριος , the Lord ) Jesus.

10–22 . Saul’s sight restored. He preaches in Damascus 10 . And [Now] there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias ] Of this disciple we have no further mention in Holy Writ except in chap. Acts 22:12 , where St Paul describes him as “a devout man according to the Law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt” at Damascus. Whether he had become a Christian during the life of Jesus, or was among the Jewish converts on the day of Pentecost or at some subsequent time and had been forced to flee from Jerusalem by the persecution which followed on the death of Stephen, we are not told, but we can gather, from the words which he employs in expressing his reluctance to visit Saul, that he had much and trustworthy communication still with the Holy City, for he knows both of the havock which the persecutor has caused, and of the purpose of his mission to Damascus. On the name Ananias see Acts 5:1 , note. and to him said the Lord in a vision ] As Saul had been prepared for the visit by a vision, so Ananias is by a vision instructed to go to him.

Dean Howson’s remarks ( Life and Epistles of St Paul , i. 101) on this preparation and its similarity to the preparation of Peter and Cornelius deserve to be dwelt on. “The simultaneous preparation of the hearts of Ananias and Saul, and the simultaneous preparation of those of Peter and Cornelius—the questioning and hesitation of Peter and the questioning and hesitation of Ananias—the one doubting whether he might make friendship with the Gentiles, the other doubting whether he might approach the enemy of the Church—the unhesitating obedience of each when the Divine will was made clearly known—the state of mind in which both the Pharisee and the Centurion were found—each waiting to see what the Lord would say unto them—this close analogy will not be forgotten by those who reverently read the two consecutive chapters, in which the baptism of Saul and the baptism of Cornelius are narrated in the Acts of the Apostles.” When so much criticism has been expended to shew that the Acts is a work of fiction written at a late period to minimize certain differences supposed to exist between the teaching of St Paul and that of St Peter, it is well to know that others have seen, in these undoubted analogies, proofs of the working of a God who is ever the same, and who would have all men to be saved through Jesus Christ.

Acts 9:10 . Ὁ κύριος ] Christ. See Acts 9:13-14 ; Acts 9:17 . ἐν ὁράματι ] in a vision ( Acts 10:3 , Acts 16:9 , al. ; differently Acts 7:31 ); whether awake or asleep, the context does not decide (not even by ἀναστάς , Acts 9:11 ). Eichhorn’s view, with which Kuinoel and partially also Heinrichs agree,—that Saul and Ananias had already been previously friends, and that the appearance in a dream as naturally resulted in the case of the former from the longing to speak with Ananias again and to get back sight by virtue of a healing power which was well known to him, as in the case of Ananias, who had heard of his friend’s fate on the way and of his arrival and dream,—is a fiction of exegetical romance manufactured without the slightest hint in the text, and indeed in opposition to Acts 9:11 f., 14. The course of the conversion, guided by Christ directly revealing Himself, is entirely in accordance with its commencement ( Acts 9:3-9 ): “bat we know not the law according to which communications of a higher spiritual world to men living in the world of sense take place, so as to be able to determine anything concerning them” (Neander). According to Baur, the two corresponding visions of Ananias and ( Acts 9:12 ) Saul are literary parallels to the history of the conversion of Cornelius.

And that Ananias was a man of legal piety ( Acts 22:12 ), is alleged by Schneckenburger, p. 168 f., and Baur, to be in keeping with the tendency of Luke, although he does not even mention it here; Zeller, p. 196, employs even the frequent occurrence of the name (chap. 5. and Acts 23:2 , Acts 24:1 ) to call in question whether Ananias “played a part” in the conversion of the apostle at all.

(10) A certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias. —In Acts 22:12 St. Paul speaks of him as a “devout man” (the same word as in Acts 2:5 ; Acts 8:2 ) “according to the law,” well reported of by all the Jews who dwelt at Damascus. The name was so common that any identification must be in some measure uncertain, but the account which Josephus gives ( Ant. xx. 2, § 4) of the conversion of Izates, King of Adiabene, to the faith of Israel by a Jewish merchant who bore the name of Ananias, and who taught that it was enough for men to worship the God of Israel without being circumcised, suggests, as probable, the thought that he too was a preacher of the gospel of Christ as St. Paul preached it. The arrival of another teacher, Eleazar of Galilee, who worked on the young king’s fears and compelled him to be circumcised, presents a striking parallel to the manner in which the Judaisers followed on the track of St. Paul in Galatia and elsewhere ( Galatians 2:4 ; Galatians 4:17 ). The narrative here leaves it uncertain whether this Ananias had been a disciple during our Lord’s ministry or had been converted since the Day of Pentecost. In relation to St. Paul the name had a two-fold significance. He had come from one Annas, or Ananias, the Sadducean high priest, he was to be received by another. The meaning of the name—identical with that of Jochanan, Joannes, John, “the Lord is gracious”—was itself an omen and prophecy of pardon.