And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Who art thou, Lord? - Τις ει, Κυριε; Who art thou, Sir? He had no knowledge who it was that addressed him, and would only use the term Κυριε, as any Roman or Greek would, merely as a term of civil respect.
I am Jesus whom thou persecutest - "Thy enmity is against me and my religion; and the injuries which thou dost to my followers I consider as done to myself." The following words, making twenty in the original, and thirty in our version, are found in no Greek MS. The words are, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks: and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? and the Lord said unto him. It is not very easy to account for such a large addition, which is not only not found in any Greek MS. yet discovered, but is wanting in the Itala, Erpen's Arabic, the Syriac, Coptic, Sahidic, and most of the Slavonian. It is found in the Vulgate, one of the Arabic, the Ethiopic, and Armenian; and was probably borrowed from Acts 26:14, and some marginal notes. It is wanting also in the Complutensian edition, and in that of Bengel. Griesbach also leaves it out of the text.
It is hard for thee, etc. - Σκληρον σοι προς κεντρα λακτιζειν. This is a proverbial expression, which exists, not only in substance, but even in so many words, both in the Greek and Latin writers. Κεντρον, kentron, signifies an ox goad, a piece of pointed iron stuck in the end of a stick, with which the ox is urged on when drawing the plough. The origin of the proverb seems to have been this: sometimes it happens that a restive or stubborn ox kicks back against the goad, and thus wounds himself more deeply: hence it has become a proverb to signify the fruitlessness and absurdity of rebelling against lawful authority, and the getting into greater difficulties by endeavoring to avoid trifling sufferings. So the proverb, Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim. Out of the cauldron into the fire. "Out of bad into worse." The saying exists, almost in the apostolic form, in the following writers. Euripides, in Bacch. ver. 793: -
Θυοιμ' αν αυτῳ μαλλον, η θυμουμενος
Προς κεντρα λακτιζοιμι, θνητος ων, Θεῳ.
"I, who am a frail mortal, should rather sacrifice to him who is a God, than, by giving place to anger, kick against the goads."
And Aeschylus, in Agamemnon, ver. 1633: -
Προς κεντρα μη λακτιζε.
Kick not against the goads.
And again in Prometh. Vinct. ver. 323: -
Προς κεντρα κωλον εκτενεις, ὁρων ὁτι
Τραχυς μοναρχος ουδ' ὑπευθυνος κρατει.
"Thou stretchest out thy foot against goads, seeing the fierce monarch governs according to his own will."
Resistance is of no use: the more thou dost rebel, the more keenly thou shalt suffer. See the Scholiast here.
Pindar has a similar expression, Pyth. ii. ver. 171-5: -
Φερειν δ' ελαφρως
Επαυχενιον λαβοντα
Ζυγον γ' αρηγει. Ποτι κεντρον δε τοι
Λακτιζεμεν, τελεθει
Ολισθηρος οιμος.
"It is profitable to bear willingly the assumed yoke.
To kick against the goad is pernicious conduct."
Where see the Scholiast, who shows that "it is ridiculous for a man to fight with fortune: for if the unruly ox, from whom the metaphor is taken, kick against the goad, he shall suffer still more grievously." Terence uses the same figure. Phorm. Act i. scen. 2, ver. 27: -
Venere in mentem mihi istaec: nam inscitia est,
Adversum stimulum calces. - "
These things have come to my recollection, for it is foolishness for thee to kick against a goad."
Ovid has the same idea in other words, Trist. lib. ii. ver. 15: -
At nunc (tanta meo comes est insania morbo)
Saxa malum refero rursus ad icta pedem.
Scilicet et victus repetit gladiator arenam;
Et redit in tumidas naufraga puppis aquas.
But madly now I wound myself alone,
Dashing my injured foot against the stone:
So to the wide arena, wild with pain,
The vanquish'd gladiator hastes again;
So the poor shatter'd bark the tempest braves,
Launching once more into the swelling waves.
Intelligent men, in all countries and in all ages of the world, have seen and acknowledged the folly and wickedness of fighting against God; of murmuring at the dispensations of his providence; of being impatient under affliction; and of opposing the purposes of his justice and mercy. The words contain a universal lesson, and teach us patience under affliction, and subjection to the sovereign will of God; and they especially show the desperate wickedness of endeavoring, by persecution, to hinder the dissemination of the truth of God in the earth. He that kicks against this goad does it at the risk of his final salvation. The fable of the viper and the file is another illustration of this proverb: it gnawed and licked the file, till it destroyed its teeth and wasted away its tongue. The maxim in the proverb should be early inculcated on the minds of children and scholars; when chastised for their faults, resistance and stubbornness produce increased coercion and chastisement. And let parents and masters learn that the oft-repeated use of the goad and ferula seldom tend to reclaim, but beget obduracy and desperation. The advice of Columella to the ploughman, having some relation to the proverb in the text, and a strong bearing on this latter part of the subject, is worthy of the most serious regard: "Voce potius quam verberibus terreat: ultimaque sint opus recusantibus remedia plagae. Nunquam stimulo lacessat juvencum, quod retrectantem calcitrosumque eum reddit: nonnunquam tamen admoneat flagello." Columella, De Re Rustica, lib. ii. cap. 2, in fine. "Let the husbandman intimidate his oxen more by his voice than by blows, to which he should never have recourse but in extreme cases. A young steer should never be goaded, for this will induce him to kick and run back; but on proper occasions the whip, as an incentive to activity, may be profitably used." In reference to the same subject, which all concerned should feel to be of the greatest importance I shall close with the advice of one greater than the Roman agriculturist: Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged, Colossians 3:21; but bring them up (εν παιδειᾳ και νουθεσιᾳ Κυριου) in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, Ephesians 6:4, using the authority that God has given you with a steady hand, actuated by a tender and feeling heart.