SEV Biblia, Chapter 9:1
¶ Y Saulo, respirando an amenazas y muerte contra los discípulos del Seor, vino al príncipe de los sacerdotes,
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Acts 9:1
Verse 1. Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter] The original text is very emphatic, eti empnewn apeilhv kai fonou, and points out how determinate Saul was to pursue and accomplish his fell purpose of totally destroying the infant Church of Christ. The mode of speech introduced above is very frequent in the Greek writers, who often express any vehement and hostile affection of the mind by the verb pneein, to breathe, to pant; so Theocritus, Idyll. xxii. ver. lx22: ev messon sunagon, fonon allaloisi pneontev. They came into the assembly, breathing mutual slaughter.
Euripides has the same form, pur pneousa kai fonon, breathing out fire, and slaughter, Iphig. in Taur.
And Aristophanes more fully, referring to all the preparations for war: - alla pneontav doru kai logcav kai leukolofouv trufaleiav, kai phlhkav, kai knhmidav, kai qumouv eptaboeiouv.
They breathed spears, and pikes, and helmets, and crests, and greaves, and the fury of redoubted heroes.
The figure is a favourite one with Homer: hence menea pneiontev abantev, the Abantes breathing strength.-Il. ii. 536. And how frequently he speaks of his fierce countrymen as, menea pneiontev acaioi, the Greeks breathing strength, see Il. iii. 8; xi. 508; xxiv. 364, which phrase an old Scholiast interprets, being filled with strength and fury. St. Luke, who was master of the Greek tongue, chose such terms as best expressed a heart desperately and incessantly bent on accomplishing the destruction of the objects of its resentment. Such at this time was the heart of Saul of Tarsus; and it had already given full proof of its malignity, not only in the martyrdom of Stephen, but also in making havoc of the Church, and in forcibly entering every house, and dragging men and women, whom he suspected of Christianity, and committing them to prison. See chap. viii. 3.
Went unto the high priest] As the high priest was chief in all matters of an ecclesiastical nature, and the present business was pretendedly religious, he was the proper person to apply to for letters by which this virulent persecutor might be accredited. The letters must necessarily be granted in the name of the whole Sanhedrin, of which Gamaliel, Saul's master, was at that time the head; but the high priest was the proper organ through whom this business might be negotiated.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 1. And Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter , etc.] The historian having given an account of the dispersion of all the preachers of the Gospel at Jerusalem, excepting the apostles, and of their success in other parts, especially of Philips, returns to the history of Saul; who, not satisfied with the murder of Stephen, and with the havoc he made of the church at Jerusalem, haling them out of their houses to prison, continued not only to threaten them with confiscation of goods and imprisonment, but with death itself. The phrase here used is an Hebraism; so in ( Psalm 27:12) smj jpy , one that breathes out violence, or cruelty; and this shows the inward disposition of his mind, the rage, wrath, malice, envy, and blood thirstiness he was full of; and is observed to illustrate the riches of divine grace in his conversion. And wonderful it is, that that same mouth which breathed out destruction and death to the followers of Christ, should afterwards publish and proclaim the Gospel of the grace of God; that he whose mouth was full of cursing and bitterness, should hereafter, and so very quickly, come forth in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. And this rage of his, who now ravened as a wolf, as was foretold of Benjamin, of which tribe he was, was against the lambs of Christ, and the sheep of his fold: against the disciples of the Lord ; not against wicked men, murderers, and thieves, and other evildoers, but against the harmless and innocent followers of Jesus, and which was an aggravation of his cruelty: and being thus heated, and full of wrath, he went unto the high priest ; Annas or Caiaphas, who, notwithstanding the Jews were under the Roman government, had great authority to punish persons with stripes and death itself, who acted contrary to their law.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-9 - So ill informed was Saul, that he thought he ought to do all he coul against the name of Christ, and that he did God service thereby; he seemed to breathe in this as in his element. Let us not despair of renewing grace for the conversion of the greatest sinners, nor let suc despair of the pardoning mercy of God for the greatest sin. It is signal token of Divine favour, if God, by the inward working of his grace, or the outward events of his providence, stops us from prosecuting or executing sinful purposes. Saul saw that Just One, ch 22:14; 26:13. How near to us is the unseen world! It is but for God to draw aside the veil, and objects are presented to the view, compare with which, whatever is most admired on earth is mean and contemptible Saul submitted without reserve, desirous to know what the Lord Jesu would have him to do. Christ's discoveries of himself to poor souls ar humbling; they lay them very low, in mean thoughts of themselves. For three days Saul took no food, and it pleased God to leave him for tha time without relief. His sins were now set in order before him; he wa in the dark concerning his own spiritual state, and wounded in spiri for sin. When a sinner is brought to a proper sense of his own stat and conduct, he will cast himself wholly on the mercy of the Saviour asking what he would have him to do. God will direct the humble sinner, and though he does not often bring transgressors to joy an peace in believing, without sorrows and distress of conscience, unde which the soul is deeply engaged as to eternal things, yet happy ar those who sow in tears, for they shall reap in joy.
Greek Textus Receptus
ο 3588 T-NSM δε 1161 CONJ σαυλος 4569 N-NSM ετι 2089 ADV εμπνεων 1709 5723 V-PAP-NSM απειλης 547 N-GSF και 2532 CONJ φονου 5408 N-GSM εις 1519 PREP τους 3588 T-APM μαθητας 3101 N-APM του 3588 T-GSM κυριου 2962 N-GSM προσελθων 4334 5631 V-2AAP-NSM τω 3588 T-DSM αρχιερει 749 N-DSM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
1. Breathing out (empnewn). Lit., breathing upon or at, and so corresponding to against the disciples.Threatenings and slaughter (apeilhv kai fonou). Lit., threatening; so Rev. In the Greek construction, the case in which these words are marks them as the cause or source of the "breathing;" breathing hard out of threatening, and murderous desire.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
9:1 {Yet} (eti). As if some time elapsed between the death of Stephen as is naturally implied by the progressive persecution described in #8:3. The zeal of Saul the persecutor increased with success. {Breathing threatening and slaughter} (enpnewn apeiles kai fonou). Present active participle of old and common verb. Not "breathing out," but "breathing in" (inhaling) as in Aeschylus and Plato or "breathing on" (from Homer on). The partitive genitive of apeiles and fonou means that threatening and slaughter had come to be the very breath that Saul breathed, like a warhorse who sniffed the smell of battle. He breathed on the remaining disciples the murder that he had already breathed in from the death of the others. He exhaled what he inhaled. Jacob had said that "Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf" (#Ge 49:27). this greatest son of Benjamin was fulfilling this prophecy (Furneaux). The taste of blood in the death of Stephen was pleasing to young Saul (#8:1) and now he revelled in the slaughter of the saints both men and women. In #26:11 Luke quotes Paul as saying that he was "exceedingly mad against them."
