Bible. New Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Christianity -- Origin; Paul, the Apostle, Saint
2. Purpose the second--"And see this just one." Meaning, we are to
understand, the person all along spoken of under the name of the Lord;
to wit, Jesus. But, in the vision in question, if the historian is to be
believed, no Jesus did Paul see. All that he saw was a light,--an
extraordinary strong light at midday; so strong, that after it, till the
scales fell from his eyes, he saw not any person in any place: and this
light, whatever it was, was seen by all that were with him, as well as
by him.
3. Purpose the third--"And shouldest hear the voice of his mouth." Oh!
yes; if what the historian says in that other place is to be
believed--hear a voice he did; and if the historian is to be again
believed, that voice was the Lord's. But, by hearing this voice, how was
he distinguished? those that were with him, according to the historian's
own account, heard it as well as he. And what was he the wiser? This
also, it is hoped, has been rendered sufficiently visible--just nothing.
Purpose the fourth and last--"Thou shalt be his witness (the Lord's
witness), of everything thou hast seen and heard:"--that is, of that
which was nothing, and that which amounted to nothing.
Unhappily, even this is not all: for, before the subject is concluded,
we must go back and take up once more the supposed premeditated and
studied speech, which, on the second occasion, the self-constituted
Apostle is supposed to have made to the Sub-king of the Jews, Agrippa,
sitting by the side of his superior--the Roman Proconsul, Festus.
In the course of this long-studied speech,--to whom, is the
communication, such as it is,--to whom, in an immediate way, and without
the intervention of any other person, is it supposed to be made? Not to
Ananias;--not to any such superfluous and unknown personage;--not to
Ananias, but to Paul himself: viz. to the very person _by_ whom this
same communication, supposed to have been made to him, is supposed to be
reported (Acts xxvi. 16 to 18): to this principal, or rather, only
person concerned:--to this one person, the communication, such as it is,
and to him the whole of it at once, is supposed to be made.
Here then is this Ananias discarded:--discarded with this vision of his,
and that other vision which we have seen within it: the communication,
which, speaking in the first place in his own person,--and then, on one
occasion, in the person of this same hero of his--the historian had just
been declaring, was made--not to Paul, but to Ananias;--this
all-important communication, speaking again in this same third person,
but on another occasion--the discourse being supposed to be a
long-studied one--he makes this same Paul declare, was given--not to any
Ananias, not to any other person--but directly to him, Paul, himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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