Saying unto me in the Hebrew language for speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, A.V. and T.R.; goad for pricks, A.V. I heard a voice saying, etc. (see Acts 9:7, note). In the Hebrew language.
This is an additional detail not mentioned in Acts 9:4 or Acts 22:8; but recalled here, as tending to confirm St. Paul's claim to be a thorough Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and, moreover, to represent Christianity as a thing not alien from, but rather in thorough harmony with, the true national life and spirit of Israel.
It is hard for thee to kick, etc. This, also, according to the best manuscripts, is an additional detail not mentioned before. The proverb πρὸς κέντρα λακτίζειν, to kick against the ox-goads, as the unbroken bullock does to his own hurt, instead of quietly submitting, as he must do at last, to go the way and the pace his master chooses he should go, is found in Pindar, AEschylus, Euripides, Plautus, Terence, etc.
The passages are given in Bochart, 'Hierozoicon.,' part 1. lib. it. Acts 39.; in Kninoel, and in Bishop Wordsworth. The passage in Eurip., 'Baach,' 1. 793, 794, brings out the force of the proverb, viz.
fruitless resistance to a superior power, most distinctly: "Better to sacrifice to him, than, being mortal, by vainly raging against God, to kick against the goads." Saul had better yield at once to the constraining grace of God, and no longer do despite to the Spirit of grace.
It does not appear clearly that the proverb was used by the Hebrews. Dr. Donaldson affirms that" there is no Jewish use of this proverbial expression." And this is borne out by Lightfoot, who adduces the two passages, Deuteronomy 32:15 and 1 Samuel 2:9, as the only evidences of the existence of such a proverb, together with a rabbinical saying, "R.
Bibai sat and taught, and R. Isaac Ben Cahna kicked against him" ('Exereit. on Acts,' 9:5). It is, therefore, a curious question how this classical phrase came to be used here. Bishop Wordsworth says, "Even in heaven our Lord did not disdain to use a proverb familiar to the heathen world."
But, perhaps, we may assume that such a proverb was substantially in use among the Jews, though no distinct evidence of it has been preserved; and that St. Paul, in rendering the Hebrew words of Jesus into Greek, made use of the language of Euripides, with which he was familiar, in a ease bearing a strong analogy to his own, viz.
the resistance of Pentheus to the claims of Bacchus. This is to a certain extent borne out by the use of the words θεομάχος and θεομαχεῖν (Acts 5:39; Acts 23:1-35. 9); the latter of which is twice used in the 'Bacchae' of Euripides, though not common elsewhere.
It is, however, found in 2 Macc. 7:19.