Acts 22:18 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And saw him— That is, the Lord Jesus. Some suppose, that this memorable event happened in the second journey that St. Paul made to Jerusalem. See ch. Acts 11:30. But the expression rather seems to intimate that it was on his first return to Jerusalem that he had this vision in the temple; and what he pleads here, Acts 22:19-20 as to the probability of their receiving his testimony, suits that circumstance of time much better than the other. His dispute with some Hellenist Jews who, toward the close of his first visit to Jerusalem, attempted to kill him, ch. Acts 9:29 engaged the brethren to hasten his departure; and our Lord's orders to him at this critical season would of course determine him to yield to their instances, which perhaps his desire and hope of usefulness at Jerusalem might otherwise have opposed. But when he had been forced in that manner to flee for his life, while the memory of his zeal against Christianity was comparatively fresh in their minds, it does not seem natural to suppose that he would have pleaded the probability of their regarding it, after an interval of six years more.