Acts 9:10 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ananias;— As we read of Ananias only in this history, it is difficult to determine who he was. Some suppose him to have been a native of Jerusalem, and to have first planted the gospel at Damascus. Some of the ancients say, that he was one of the seventy disciples; others, from his being called a devout man according to the law, ch. Acts 22:12 have thought that he was a proselyte of righteousness. Perhaps he was a native of Damascus, converted at the first Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended, and afterwards honoured him with this embassy to Saul, as a Christian of the oldest standing in that place, and so very probably an officer of the church there; which the commission to baptize him may further intimate. We may remark that God himself appoints a man to teach Saul, as an angel did in the case of Cornelius, ch. Acts 10:5 in admirable condescension dealing with us by men like ourselves.