Meeting Ananias in Damascus – Acts 22:12-16 versus Acts 9

There are several differences between Luke’s narration of Saul’s encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts 9 and Paul’s version in Acts 22. For example, he omits Paul’s bold preaching in Damascus and his flight from Damascus after preaching Jesus as the Messiah in the synagogues there. In Acts 22:17-21, Paul says he received his call to go to the Gentiles in a vision while worshiping in the Temple, something Luke did not mention previously in Acts. In fact, in Acts 9, God tells Ananias to inform Paul of his commission. Most of the differences can be explained as Paul’s accommodation to the zealous and hostile Jewish crowd he was addressing. Only a short time before this speech, the crowd was about to take Paul outside the city and execute him for profaning the Temple.

In Acts 22:12, Ananias is described as a devout Jew, someone who keeps the Law, and is respected by all the Jews living in Damascus. Devout (εὐλαβής) is the same word Luke used to describe Simeon in the Temple (Luke 2:25) as well as the devout men in the temple who were in the Temple at Pentecost (Acts 2:5) and the devout men who buried Stephen.

Ananias’s speech is slightly different in Acts 22 when compared to Acts 9. The way he describes God and Jesus is very Jewish. The “God of Our Fathers” and “Righteous One” are typical phrases used for the God of the Hebrew Bible. That Jesus is the Righteous One is found in Luke-Acts only in Jewish contexts (Luke 23:47, Acts 3:14, 7:32,13:23; Witherington, Acts, 672). So Ananias is a “devout man according to the Law” with a good reputation in the Jewish community in Damascus (22:12-15). Luke described the Jewish men at Pentecost as “devout men” (εὐλαβής), and devout men buried Stephen (8:2). In both cases, the word refers to diaspora Jews who are loyal to the Law.

Unlike Acts 9, Ananias does not tell Paul that God has called him to go to the Gentiles. Why? This is probably because Paul wants to emphasize his divine calling and waits to share this calling until the Lord calls him from the Temple. No details about his vision, conversation with the Lord (Acts 9:10-16).

Ananias tells Paul what “the God of our fathers” has appointed him to be. The phrase used for God appeals to a Jewish audience (3:13; 5:30; 7:32; 24:14). Paul’s calling is expressed in three clauses: To know his will (the purpose and plan of God), to see the Righteous One (God? Jesus?), and to hear a voice from his mouth. Ananias functions as Jesus’s prophet, delivering a message from God to Paul. Essentially, Paul will be a witness to all he has seen and heard (22:15).

Ananias then tells Paul to be baptized, to wash away his sins (22:16). Try not to read this like a modern American baptism. What would a Jewish person mean by saying “wash away your sins”?  This is an unusual way to express the command in Greek. Luke uses an aorist middle (quite distinct from the aorist passive). The nuance of meaning ought to be “go baptize yourself”). This may imply that Paul was to baptize himself in a mikveh, as we have observed several times in Acts.

Paul’s version of his encounter with Ananias in Acts 22:12-16 is different than Luke’s version in Acts 9:10-19, but this is because Paul is summarizing what happened and presenting it to a hostile Jewish crowd in a way that should make them more favorable to him. Would a well-trained Jewish man like Paul (who was accepted by a righteous Jewish man like Ananias) really profane the Temple?