Texts in Conversation
Acts uses the language of Ezekiel to describe the command for Paul to rise up and go. Paul’s experience is presented as a continuation of prophetic traditions found in the Hebrew Bible.
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Ezekiel 3:22
Hebrew Bible
20 “When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I set an obstacle before him, he will die. If you have not warned him, he will die for his sin. The righteous deeds he performed will not be considered, but I will hold you accountable for his death. 21 However, if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he will certainly live because he was warned, and you will have saved your own life.” 22 The hand of the Lord rested on me there, and he said to me, “Get up, go out to the valley, and I will speak with you there.” 23 So I got up and went out to the valley, and the glory of the Lord was standing there, just like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I threw myself face down. 24 Then a wind came into me and stood me on my feet. The Lord spoke to me and said, “Go shut yourself in your house.
Date: 6th Century B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Source
Acts 9:6
New Testament
4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 So he said, “Who are you, Lord?” He replied, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting! 6 But stand up and enter the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 (Now the men who were traveling with him stood there speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one.) 8 So Saul got up from the ground, but although his eyes were open, he could see nothing. Leading him by the hand, his companions brought him into Damascus.
Date: 75-85 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Acts 9:1-9, the first version of Paul's call, has a phrase - 'get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do' (verse 6) - that lines up with Ezekiel 3:22 ... The combination of verbs, in this order, is attested only once in pre-Christian sources, in Ezekiel, and thereafter only in a single Christian quotation of Ezekiel 3:22. The comparable sequence in Acts is almost as rare. It appears only in Acts and in later quotations of Acts ..."
Allison, Dale C.
Acts 9:1–9, 22:6–11, 26:12–18: Paul and Ezekiel
(pp. 807-26) Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 135, No. 4, 2016
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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