I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 9-10.

    As I read the account of Saul’s conversion, one question comes to my mind. Did the men with Saul actually hear what the voice said to him? My understanding has always been that they heard a voice, but not what it said to Saul. Luke’s failure to identify them suggests that none of them became believers. Luke’s attention to detail leads me to believe that if they had become believers he would have sought them out and used their memory of the incident to flesh it out.

    The other aspect of Saul’s conversion I want to spend time on is two characters to whose role here we pay less attention than we should: Ananias and Barnabas. In Ananias’ case that is probably because his name is the same as the man who died for lying about how much money he received for a plot of land. However, Ananias of Damascus is someone we should strive to emulate. When God told him to go to Saul, he was wary because he knew that Saul had come to Damascus to persecute believers. It was Ananias, at great risk to himself, who delivered God’s healing to Saul and helped the Holy Spirit finalize Saul’s conversion. We do pay more attention to Barnabas, but most of that attention has to do with his role in Saul’s missionary journeys as Paul. However, when Saul returned to Jerusalem after his conversion it was Barnabas who was willing to believe that he had changed. It was Barnabas who introduced Saul to the Apostles and thus brought him into the Church. Barnabas was willing to accept that Saul had changed when no one else was.