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12 “While doing this very thing,[a] as I was going[b] to Damascus with authority and complete power[c] from the chief priests, 13 about noon along the road, Your Majesty,[d] I saw a light from heaven,[e] brighter than the sun, shining everywhere around[f] me and those traveling with me. 14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,[g] ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself[h] by kicking against the goads.’[i]

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Footnotes

  1. Acts 26:12 tn Grk “in which [activity].” Due to the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 12 in the translation. The referent of the relative pronoun (“which”) was specified as “this very thing” for clarity.
  2. Acts 26:12 tn Grk “going.” The participle πορευόμενος (poreuomenos) has been taken temporally.
  3. Acts 26:12 tn L&N 37.40 s.v. ἐπιτροπή states, “the full authority to carry out an assignment or commission—‘authority, complete power.’ πορευόμενος εἰς τὴν Δαμασκὸν μετ᾿ ἐξουσίας καὶ ἐπιτροπῆς τῶν ἀρχιερέων ‘going to Damascus with authority and complete power from the high priests’ Ac 26:12. In Ac 26:12 the combination of ἐξουσία and ἐπιτροπή serves to reinforce the sense of complete authority.”
  4. Acts 26:13 tn Grk “O King.”
  5. Acts 26:13 tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).
  6. Acts 26:13 tn The word “everywhere” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning of περιλάμψαν (perilampsan). Otherwise the modern reader might think that each of the individuals were encircled by lights or halos. See also Acts 9:7; 22:6, 9.
  7. Acts 26:14 tn Grk “in the Hebrew language.” See Acts 22:7 and 9:4.
  8. Acts 26:14 tn Grk “It is hard for you.”
  9. Acts 26:14 tn “Goads” are pointed sticks used to direct a draft animal (an idiom for stubborn resistance). See BDAG 539-40 s.v. κέντρον 2.sn Sayings which contain the imagery used here (kicking against the goads) were also found in Greek writings; see Pindar, Pythians 2.94-96; Euripides, Bacchae 795.