Due to a variety of circumstances, I've heard the story of the Conversion of Saul twice in a row in church now, and it gave me a chance to appreciate how the narrative is written. Luke wrote Acts in a narrative manner, but he seems to have employed particular care with the narrative of Saul's conversion (which makes sense--Saul was Luke's teacher, friend, and traveling companion, and the conversion was the turning point in Saul's life). There are plenty of theological treatises on the miracles, but since I am a writer, I thought it would be interesting and fun to break down and analyze the way Luke built up to the climax of the story and how it highlights certain aspects.
Quick note: I will of course be using a translated version, and I can't read the original Greek, so this may end up being more of a commentary on how the translator presented the story.
If you haven't read the story the way the Bible shares it, I recommend reading it all first, just to absorb the series of events as they unfolded.
Now, to tease it apart:
For a bit of background, the Book of Acts is Luke's second letter to Theophilus, whoever that was. The first book, Luke, was the story of Christ on earth; Acts is the story of the Apostles and the early Church. Presumably, this means Theophilus might have already known who Paul was, but we don't know.
The first time Saul is mentioned in Acts, it was at the stoning of Stephen the martyr. He's described thus:
57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
What an absolutely flippant and unsuspecting way to introduce Saul. He's a young man holding coats--does this introduction sound like the first appearance of one of the greatest Apostles? I think that's by design. I think Luke is trying to subvert everyone's expectations and catch everyone by surprise.
For what it's worth, this passage suggests to me that Theophilus didn't know Paul's background. If he did, would Luke give an introductory phrase of, "a young man"? But that is a point where the wording may depend on the translation. I suppose it's possible that Luke's actual phrase here didn't sound introductory in Greek. However, in English, this comes across as Luke introducing someone that Theophilus doesn't know yet, and it feels like Luke is building up tension.
After Saul's brief introduction, the next time we hear of him, we hear of the beginning of his persecution of the church:
And Saul approved of their killing [Stephen].
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
So now, we've gone from holding coats to being a villain. After that, Luke goes through and describes the actions of Philip and Peter for a full chapter. You almost forget Saul was even there. Then Luke says, "Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples." It sounds as though Saul is going to become a recurring villain.
It's fascinating to me how mundane Luke's descriptions of Saul are. On the one hand, you don't forget about him, and you're in no doubt that he's a villain. "Murderous threats", approving of killing Stephen, and dragging off men and women for prison make it clear where his loyalties lie. But then, there's also something offhand about these descriptions. They're brief, to the point, and not a lot of detail. Would you ever suspect, from these descriptions, that Saul was on his way to becoming one of the major "heroes", so to speak, of Acts? (Yes, I know Christ is the real hero, but I couldn't think of a better word.)
Then, the events that led to Saul's conversion start to roll:
He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
What strikes me about this section is that there is no hint of why this happened. Absolutely no explanation. If you're Theophilus, whoever Theophilus was, at first you had to be wondering why Luke even bothered mentioning the young man who was holding coats, and then you have to be thinking he's a villain, and now there's this sudden appearance from Jesus with no explanation about why. Or perhaps, if Theophilus is a more proactive reader, he starts to think that God is about to punish Saul, or that he has just seen God subdue Saul to protect His church. The mighty defending arm of God protecting His children. There is still no real hint of what is to come of Saul's persecution.
Skipping some verses, and Luke talks about how God appeared to Ananias in a dream:
11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.”
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
That is the first hint anywhere in Acts of what Saul would become. It comes out of absolutely nowhere; the reader doesn't hear about it until the point in the story where the disciple hears about it. There was no foreshadowing, no forewarning, nothing. It's a jolt that makes the reader's jaw drop.
And notice the use of sharp contrast! First bringing up Ananias' worry in order to recap what a villain Saul was, and then immediately saying Jesus' words that describe Saul's destiny.
As I read it, both of these elements--the jaw-dropping jolt and the sharp contrast--serve an important purpose: they show the power of God's grace. Without a warning or any foreshadowing, the reader is expecting Saul to be the villain and is engaged in disliking him and possibly fearing him. Ananias's doubt, although not the strongest point in his faith, also remind us of what Saul was guilty of. You, the reader, are invested in disliking and fearing Saul, viewing him as your enemy, when out of nowhere, he becomes God's chosen disciple who will suffer along with you. Such is the power of God's grace: He will turn those who hate Him to His heralds and followers. This is highlighted by the structure of Luke's narrative.
Now, this all comes with the caveat that reading a 2,000-year-old translated story means I might have missed something that a Greek linguist, Bible scholar, or historian would know and that would make my analysis pointless. If nothing else, all of Luke's dialogue and narrative work could simply be because he was constrained by the fact that he was writing by hand and without much ability to edit. (Seriously, the power of the backspace key is a great blessing to a writer.) But if nothing else, this is an interesting analysis of how a story can employ elements of writing techniques to startle readers and convey ideas without expressly saying them.
Besides, thinking about the story like this has helped me look at it with fresh eyes. I've been hearing this story since I was small enough to read it in the Alice in Bibleland storybook, and I am very confident that I'm not the only one, and it got dull over time. Returning to the origin story for one of the greatest evangelists of history helps me revel in God's grace anew.
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