{"id":30,"date":"2011-03-12T21:38:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-13T04:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/?p=30"},"modified":"2014-12-28T00:33:22","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T07:33:22","slug":"what-did-pauls-traveling-companions-hear-on-the-road-to-damascus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/?p=30","title":{"rendered":"What Did Paul’s Traveling Companions Hear on the Road to Damascus?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Q. On the road to Damascus, did Paul\u2019s traveling companions hear the voice that spoke to Paul?<\/em>
\nA. Yes, but they could not understand what the voice was saying.<\/h3>\n

Saul of Tarsus (more commonly known by his legal Roman name, Paul) was a Pharisee who persecuted followers of Jesus Christ (who were known for awhile as those \u201cbelonging to the Way\u201d) until he had a life changing experience on the road to Damascus. According to what Luke wrote in Acts, this is what happened:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, \u2018Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’<\/p>\n

And he said, \u2018Who are You, Lord?\u2019 And He said, \u2018I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.\u2019 The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice [footnote: Or sound<\/em><\/span>] but seeing no one.\u201d (NASB)
\n– Acts 9:3-7<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later we are told more specific details via the record of Paul\u2019s statement to the people of Jerusalem:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus at about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, \u2018Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?\u2019 And I answered, \u2018Who are You, Lord?\u2019 And He said to me, \u2018I am Jesus he Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.\u2019<\/p>\n

And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me.\u2019\u201d (NASB)
\n– Acts 22:6-9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are two different Greek words used in these passages. In Acts 9 and Acts 22, the word used to mean \u201csound\u201d or voice\u201d is phone<\/em> (\u03a6\u03c9\u03bd\u03b7), which can mean: \u201cthrough the idea of disclosure<\/em>; a tone<\/em> (articulate, bestial or artificial); by impl. an address<\/em> (for any purpose), saying<\/em> or language<\/em>: \u2013 noise, sound, voice.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Colloquially speaking, it could easily be used to refer to both a sound that was heard but not comprehended (as in Acts 9) and an address to Paul that wasn\u2019t received by others (Acts 22).<\/p>\n

The scenario is quite easy to understand through a simple example: Occasionally one of my siblings will mutter something from the distance and although I can clearly hear their voice, I can\u2019t \u201chear\u201d what exactly they are saying.
\nJust consider how often somebody says something in the middle of a crowd and another person responds, \u201cWhat?\u201d <\/em>Evidently they hear enough of the person\u2019s voice to know that something is being said, but they don\u2019t clearly understand what the message is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q. On the road to Damascus, did Paul\u2019s traveling companions hear the voice that spoke to Paul? A. Yes, but they could not understand what the voice was saying. Saul of Tarsus (more commonly known by his legal Roman name, Paul) was a Pharisee who persecuted followers of Jesus Christ (who were known for awhile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[76,239,106,73,39,77,78,13,85,82,64,84,72,90,92,91,75,80,87,88,74,79,89,86,81,83],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lukehistorians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}