And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, х enneoi (G1767), or, as the best manuscripts write it, eneoi (G1769)]. If the word "stood" here is to be taken literally for the standing posture, it seems inconsistent with the apostle's own account in Acts 26:14, where he says they all "fell to the earth." One explanation of this is, that while all fell, Saul remained prostrate, while the rest quickly arose. (So Bengel and Baumgarten). Another is, that they first stood transfixed with wonder, and then sank down (so Grotius); while DeWette, Meyer, Olshausen, and Humphrey see no need to reconcile the two statements, looking upon such trifling discrepancies in different reports of a most exciting scene, as just what might be expected. But perhaps a simpler and more natural explanation is to understand the statement-`they stood speechless'-to mean no more than that 'they remained speechless,' according to a sense of the word "stood" in Greek, and indeed in most languages. In this case, the statement tells us nothing about their posture, but merely reports their silence. (So Hackett, Webster and Wilkinson, and Lechler.)
Hearing a voice, [ tees (G3588 ) foonees (G5456 ), rather, 'the voice,'] but seeing no man. This (as Humphry remarks) explains the reason of their remaining speechless: though they heard the voice, they saw not the speaker. But how, then, does Paul say afterward, they "heard not the voice of Him that spake to him"? (Acts 22:9.) No doubt the explanation is, that they heard the sound, but not the articulate words; just as "the people that stood by" when the Greeks came up to worship at the feast are expressly said to have heard the voice "which came from heaven" to Jesus, yet heard it so inarticulately that some thought it mere thunder, while others who heard better thought "an angel spake to Him" (John 12:28-29). Apparent discrepancies like these, in the different narratives of the same scene in one and the same book of Acts, furnish the strongest confirmation both of the facts themselves and of the book which records them.