Acts 26:13-15

26:13 about noon along the road, Your Majesty,¹ I saw a light from heaven,² brighter than the sun, shining everywhere around³ me and those traveling with me. 26:14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,⁴ ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself⁵ by kicking against the goads.’⁶ 26:15 So I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord replied,⁷ ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

¹tn Grk “O King.”

²tn Or “from the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

³tn The word “everywhere” has been supplied in the translation to clarify the meaning of περιλάμψαν (perilamyan). 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.

⁴tn Grk “in the Hebrew language.” See Acts 22:7 and 9:4.

⁵tn Grk “It is hard for you.”

⁶tn “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.

⁷tn Grk “said.”