2. desired . . . letters--of authorization.
to Damascus--the capital of Syria and the great highway between
eastern and western Asia, about one hundred thirty miles northeast of
Jerusalem; the most ancient city perhaps in the world, and lying in the
center of a verdant and inexhaustible paradise. It abounded (as appears
from JOSEPHUS, Wars of the Jews, 2.20,2) with Jews, and with Gentile
proselytes to the Jewish faith. Thither the Gospel had penetrated; and
Saul, flushed with past successes, undertakes to crush it out.
that if he found any of this way, whether men or women--Thrice are
women specified as objects of his cruelty, as an aggravated feature
of it
(Ac 8:3; 22:4;
and here).
JFB.
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