Now when many days were fulfilled, the Jews consulted together to kill him.
Damascus was meant to be the scene of Saul's triumph as a hunter of Christians. Instead his enemies hunt him there. The short phrase "when many days had passed" hides years, and the plot that follows raises a question: why did preaching that no opponent could answer end in a plan to kill?
Luke moves fast and skips years. Paul's own account in Galatians fills the gap.
Verse 19 says he was with the disciples in Damascus only "some days," while verse 23 speaks of "many days." Galatians 1:15-19 clarifies this. Between the two verses he had gone into Arabia, then returned to Damascus. So it was three years before he went to Jerusalem. We are not told how long Saul (later named Paul) was in Arabia, or what he did there. But back in Damascus he clearly took up his preaching again, for the Jews plotted to kill him.
Commentators place the Arabian journey at slightly different points inside those "many days." Either way, a servant with nothing hidden behind his public work soon has nothing left to give.
The one who is much before people in testimony needs to be much before God in private. Many a witness has wrecked his testimony because he forgot this principle. Many a servant starts out full of zeal and faithfulness. Then he gives out more than he has received, living on yesterday's manna. In the end he is empty and without strength, because he no longer lives in the secret of God's presence, and inside he becomes the plaything of Satan.
The plot is not the first move against Saul. It is what opponents fall back on when argument has failed them.
The opposition of the Jews grew as time went on. They could not answer Saul's arguments, so they took counsel to kill him. This has been one of Satan's commonest methods from times long past. Lazarus had been raised from the dead. He had become an undeniable witness to the person of Christ. So the chief priests planned to put him to death, because through him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. It made no difference to them whether the testimony about Jesus was true. They hated it even though it was true, and they meant to destroy the witness if they could.
Now Saul is on the receiving end of what he once handed out.
The letter to the Galatians speaks of a visit to Arabia. It clearly falls inside those "many days." At the end of them the persecution breaks out, and for the first time Saul tastes the same cup he had been forcing others to drink in the dark days now gone forever. At first the wonder of his conversion had thrown his opponents off balance. But it ends, as you would expect, in a violent reaction from those it has not brought to God.
The reversal reaches to the smallest detail of how he arrived and how he left.
He had expected to enter Damascus with some show of importance, as the official agent of the religious leaders in Jerusalem. In fact he entered as a humbled and blinded man. And he left in an undignified way, bundled into a basket, running from Jewish hatred.
The hostility rises from religious ground, and it uses religious language.
But the sharpness of Saul's preaching stirs up the hostility of the Jews. It is always the religious who oppose the truth, because it undercuts their own importance and traditions. The bitterness of the flesh never gives way, and least of all in religious things. They seek to stone Saul, making conscience and religion their excuse. But God watches over His servant, and Paul learns of their plot.
God delivered him, and not by anything spectacular.
The Jews went so far as to watch the gates of Damascus night and day, so that they might finish him off. The disciples valued his burning love for Christ and his zeal for people's blessing. Even so, they took him by night and let him down through the wall in a basket. There was no miracle. The escape was ordinary enough, and even humiliating for those who would surround the great apostle with a permanent halo. How little they know of the cross, of God, and of His ways!
Paul's own account names one more party to the danger.
In 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 there is extra information. The hostility he met was not limited to the synagogue. The governor under the king of that time shared it, no doubt to do the Jews a favour, as others in a similar position did later.
- Withdrawal. The "many days" cover unrecorded time in Arabia. Before God used this servant in public, He kept him out of sight.
- Testimony. They could not answer his preaching, so they set out to silence the preacher.
- Reversal. He had made others drink the cup of persecution. Now he drank it himself: into Damascus blinded, out of it in a basket.
- Enmity. Religion, not irreligion, drove the plot. Threatened tradition and standing hardened into a plan to kill.
- Rescue. God watched over him, but the escape was plain and humbling — no miracle, just a wall, a basket, and the disciples' hands.
But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched also the gates both day and night, that they might kill him;
Saul entered Damascus carrying letters that authorised arrests. Now his enemies watch the gates of that same city day and night to catch him. Why did his own people turn murderous so fast? And how did Saul find out about the plot?
The change in Saul was tested almost at once, and by the people who had once been his friends.
How soon he felt the reproach of Christ! How soon his change was put to the test! His former friends seek his life. He escapes in a basket, let down through a window over the city wall. Imagine proud Saul dodging his enemies in such a shameful way! But the attack could come from friends, who are usually the most bitter once they turn into enemies. It could come from idol-worshipping mobs in pagan cities, or from fanatical, murderous persecutors in Jerusalem. Always and everywhere he was content to bear all things for Christ's sake. None of these things moved him. He had seen the Lord, and everything else was worthless.
The plot was not random violence. It grew out of preaching that touched the standing and traditions of the men who heard it.
But the sharpness of Saul's preaching stirs up the animosity of the Jews. It is always the religious who oppose the truth, because their own importance and traditions are compromised. The bitterness of the flesh, particularly in religious things, never gives way. They seek to stone Saul, and they use conscience and religion as their excuse.
His opponents could not answer his arguments, so they moved against the man himself. The tactic was not new.
They could not answer Saul's arguments, so they now planned to kill him. This has been one of Satan's most common methods from the earliest times. After Lazarus was raised from the dead, he became an undeniable witness to who Christ is. So the chief priests planned to put him to death too, because many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus because of him… The Lord watched over His chosen vessel, so the Jews were powerless to carry out their plans. Saul learned that they were lying in wait for him. His enemies kept close watch, but the disciples helped him escape out of their hands.
after_note: DELETE
Paul's own account, in his second letter to Corinth, adds a detail Luke leaves out.
It may be worth noting what 2 Corinthians 11:32-33 adds. The hostility he met was not limited to the synagogue. The governor under the king of that time shared it too, no doubt to do the Jews a favour, as others in a similar position did later: "At Damascus, the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands."
Commentators differ on who this officer was. Was he "the chief officer of the Jews in the city," given power over that people by Aretas, king of Arabia? Or a governor under Aretas who was "not a Jew"? (C. E. Stuart)
Years passed between Saul's first preaching in Damascus and this plot.
Verse 19 says he was with the disciples in Damascus only "some days," while verse 23 speaks of "many days." Galatians 1:15-19 clears this up. Between the two verses he had gone into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. So it was three years before he went to Jerusalem… On his return to Damascus he clearly took up his preaching again. We know this because the Jews plotted to kill him, watching the gate of the city, where he was most likely to be caught.
The rescue came through ordinary people using an ordinary method.
The Jews went so far as to watch the gates of Damascus night and day, hoping to kill him. The disciples valued his warm love of Christ and his zeal for the blessing of others. Even so, they took him by night, let him down through the wall and lowered him in a basket. There was no miracle here, only an ordinary escape. It was a humiliating one in the eyes of people who want to picture the great apostle with a halo always around his head. How little they know of the cross, of God, and of His ways!
- Watched. Enemies watched the gates day and night. Behind them, "the Lord watched over His chosen vessel" — two watchers, one outcome.
- Why. Plain preaching of the truth compromised their "importance and traditions," so religious men wanted him dead.
- Method. They could not answer his arguments, so they set out to destroy the witness. The chief priests did the same to Lazarus.
- Means. "There was no miracle here" — just a window, a basket, and the hands of the disciples.
- Result. Proud Saul goes over the wall in a basket, and he is content: "He had seen the Lord, and everything else was worthless."
but the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket.
Saul came to Damascus to arrest believers. Now he is the hunted one, and the question this verse raises is why God's chosen preacher escapes over a wall instead of by a miracle.
Saul's preaching stirred up deadly opposition. One writer traces that hostility to its root and shows how the escape came about.
But the sharpness of Saul's preaching stirs up the hostility of the Jews. It is always the religious who oppose the truth, because their own importance and traditions are at stake. The bitterness of the flesh, especially in religious things, never gives way. They seek to stone Saul, using conscience and religion as their excuse. But God watches over His servant, and Paul learns of their plot. While they wait day and night for him at the gates, the disciples take him by night and let him down over the wall in a basket. So he escapes out of men's hands.
Killing the witness is an old way to silence a testimony no one can answer.
The Jews could not answer Saul's arguments, so they now planned to kill him. This has been one of Satan's most common methods from the earliest times. Lazarus had been raised from the dead. He had become an unanswerable witness to the person of Christ, so the chief priests planned to put him to death... It did not matter to them whether the testimony to Jesus was true. They hated it even though it was true, and they set out to destroy the witness if they could... The Lord watched over His chosen vessel, and so the Jews were powerless in their efforts.
The word for basket here also turns up in a very different scene.
In the New Testament three Greek words are used for basket. One is syrganē, "a hamper," in which Paul was let down by the wall (2 Cor. 11:33). For the same event Acts 9:25 uses another word, spyris, which also means "a hamper." It is the word for the seven baskets of fragments left over after the four thousand were fed.
Manuscripts differ over one small word, and commentators differ over what to make of it. Some hold that the men who lowered him were Saul's own converts.
Paul, after his conversion, was only a zealous but untaught young Christian. He too, after his stay in Arabia, began to make disciples of his own. Most agree that the true reading of Acts 9:25 is: "but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket."
Another writer, weighing the same evidence, judges the wording to be a copyist's mistake:
The oldest copies, along with ancient Latin copies, have the strange reading "his" disciples. It looks like an easy slip to make, and it does not fit the account.
Nothing here looks like a rescue from heaven. That absence is the point.
No doubt it was a remarkable escape at the beginning of his ministry. But it was the very last thing a man seeking his own glory would have repeated and put on record for ever. No angelic visitors opened the bars and bolts of massive doors, or blinded the eyes of the garrison. The apostle was let down in a basket through a window in the city wall. Truly he gloried, not in the great deeds or sayings of his ministry, but in his weakness and the Lord's grace.
The same writer sees a lesson in how quietly it was all done.
Here we find the greatest simplicity and quietness. There is no show of doing great things; nor do we read of daring of any kind: what is there of Christ in either? On the contrary, we see something that outwardly looks extremely weak; but this was the man who would one day say that he gloried in his weaknesses. He acts on what he later wrote. He was led of God.
Years later Paul told the story himself, and he set it beside the highest experience any living man had known.
He winds it all up with this very incident, in a way that stands strangely alone. He places side by side his being let down through a window in a basket by the wall, and his being caught up into paradise for exceedingly great revelations (2 Cor. 11:32–12:4). A strange pairing, but how instructive — the same man lowered from a window in a city wall, and caught up to heaven to hear words that cannot be told! Who but Paul would ever have thought of glorying in the things that concerned his weakness?
Paul's own letter adds a detail: the danger reached beyond the synagogue.
2 Cor. 11:32-33 adds more. The hostility he met was not limited to the synagogue. The governor under the king of that time shared in it, no doubt to do the Jews a favour.
- Plot — No one could answer Saul's preaching, so his hearers planned to kill him. Men who hate a true testimony destroy the witness.
- Protection — God watched over His chosen vessel. Saul learned of the plot, and the watched gates proved useless.
- Basket — No miracle opened the gates. A hamper over the wall did the work, the same kind of basket used for the fragments left after the four thousand were fed.
- Weakness — No angelic visitor opened bars or bolts. The apostle went out through a window, hunted by the synagogue and by the governor too.
- Glory — Paul recorded that night himself. He set the basket at the wall beside being caught up to paradise, and gloried in his weakness and the Lord's grace.