Loading…
VRSZ
This sets the art on your cards and whose commentary you read on each verse. You can change it later in settings.
Translation
Loading…
What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"But I went away into Arabia." Behold a fervent soul! he longed to occupy regions not yet tilled, but lying in a wild state. Had he remained with the Apostles, as he had nothing to learn, his preaching would have been straitened, for it behooved them to spread the word every where. Thus this blessed man, fervent in spirit, straightway undertook to teach wild barbarians, choosing a life full of battle and labor. …
Theophylact of Ohrid
In what way could the apostle have said this? Had he become so proud that he considered himself self-sufficient and having no need of advisors? And had he not heard the saying: "Be not wise in your own eyes" (Prov. 3:7); and: "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes" (Isa. 5:21)? Not at all. But since his detractors were saying that one should listen to the apostles and not to him, and that they were apostles before him, he was compelled to say this in order to silence the deceivers. …
Oecumenius
[PHOTIUS] Paul said this more clearly, showing that he was not taught by the apostles but by Christ himself. He did not, he says, go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles before me and to learn anything from them. For he did go up to Jerusalem from Damascus, as the Acts indicate, (Acts 9:2) but not to be instructed, rather to preach Christ himself and to teach the faith. For just as he says he went into Arabia preaching and then again into Damascus, so likewise to Jerusalem. …
Western Saints
Jerome
Nor did I go to Jerusalem to the apostles before me. If he had mentioned the apostles, I did not confer with flesh and blood. So why was it necessary to repeat the same thing by saying, Nor did I go to Jerusalem to the apostles before me? Therefore, we must maintain the meaning that we explained above. But I went into Arabia and then returned to Damascus. …
Thomas Aquinas
Furthermore, his conversion was perfect with respect to his understanding, because he was so instructed by Christ that there was no need to be instructed by the apostles; hence he says, "Neither went I to Jerusalem," i.e., to be instructed by them. …
Translation