Thread by @JamesBejon

A Brief Note on an Apparent Contradiction:

In Acts 9, Luke says Paul’s companions on the Damascus Road ‘heard a voice’ (ἀκούοντες τῆς φωνῆς) but ‘didn’t see anything’ (μηδείς).

In Acts 22, however, Paul says his companions ‘saw a light’ and ‘didn’t hear a voice’...

...(τὴν φωνὴν οὐκ ἤκουσαν).

What are we meant to make of these two statements?

First there’s the question of reconciliation, which doesn’t seem too hard.

That Paul’s companions didn’t see μηδένα (masc.) could mean they didn’t see any *one* rather than any *thing*,

in which case Paul’s companions could have seen a light and yet still be said not to have seen μηδένα in Acts 9.

(To make it clear they didn’t see anything at all, θεωροῦντες μηδὲν would, I think, be more natural.)

Meanwhile, since the verb ἀκούω (‘hear’) is followed by a genitive in Acts 9 but an accusative in Acts 22, it seems natural enough to take the two passages to use ἀκούω in a different way.

The ESV, for instance, has ‘hear’ in Acts 9 and ‘understand’ in Acts 22.

I don’t know enough about #Greek to know how plausible that is, but others out there will do.

We still, however, need to consider the question of *why* Luke has presented us with an apparent contradiction in his text.

My suggestion is as follows: Luke wants to draw our attention to the hard-hearted state of Paul’s audience in Acts 22.

They’ve seen *something* (a flash of light), but they haven’t perceived the person behind it.

And they’ve ‘heard’ (ἀκούω + gen.) but not ‘understood’ (ἀκούω + acc.), as Paul will make clear in Acts 28:

‘You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive’ (from Isa. 6).