Acts 22:17 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Bible Comments

When I was come again to Jerusalem. — This probably refers to the visit of Acts 9:26, and Galatians 1:17-18. The objection that the mission “far hence to the Gentiles” must refer to the subsequent visit of Acts 11:30, has little or no force. When the Apostle went to Tarsus and preached the gospel to the Greeks at Antioch (Acts 11:26), there was a sufficient fulfilment of the promise, “I will send thee...” What was indicated in the vision was that he was to have another field of work than Jerusalem and the Church of the Circumcision. It may be noted as one of the “visions or revelations of the Lord” referred to in 2 Corinthians 12:1.

Even while I prayed in the temple. — Better, and as I was praying. The fact is brought forward as showing that then, as now, he had been not a blasphemer of the Temple, but a devout worshipper in it, and so formed an important part of the Apostle’s apologia to the charge that had been brought against him.

I was in a trance. — On the word and the state of consciousness it implies, see Note on Acts 10:10.

Acts 22:17

17 And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;