- Adam Clarke
- Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
- John Gill
- Tyndale
Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
In Damascus the governor under Aretas - For a description of Damascus see the note on Act 9:2. And for the transaction to which the apostle refers see Act 9:23. As to King Aretas, there were three of this name. The first is mentioned 2 Maccabeans Act 9:8. The second by Josephus, Antiq. l. xiii. c. 15, sec. 2; and l. xvi. c. 1, sec. 4. The third, who is the person supposed to be referred to here, was the father-in-law of Herod Antipas, of whom see the notes, Act 9:23, etc.
But it is a question of some importance, How could Damascus, a city of Syria, be under the government of an Arabian king? It may be accounted for thus: Herod Antipas, who married the daughter of Aretas, divorced her, in order to marry Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Aretas, on this indignity offered to his family, made war upon Herod. Herod applied to Tiberius for help, and the emperor sent Vitellius to reduce Aretas, and to bring him alive or dead to Rome. By some means or other Vitellius delayed his operations, and in the meantime Tiberius died; and thus Aretas was snatched from ruin, Joseph., Antiq. lib. xviii. c. 5. What Aretas did in the interim is not known; but it is conjectured that he availed himself of the then favorable state of things, made an irruption into Syria, and seized on Damascus. See Rosenmuller; and see the introduction to this epistle, Section 2.
The governor - Εθναρχης· Who this ethnarch was, we cannot tell. The word ethnarch signifies the governor of a province, under a king or emperor.
Desirous to apprehend me - The enemies of the apostle might have represented him to the governor as a dangerous spy, employed by the Romans.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
governor--Greek, "Ethnarch": a Jewish officer to whom heathen rulers gave authority over Jews in large cities where they were numerous. He was in this case under Aretas, king of Arabia. Damascus was in a Roman province. But at this time, A.D. 38 or 39, three years after Paul's conversion, A.D. 36, Aretas, against whom the Emperor Tiberius as the ally of Herod Agrippa had sent an army under Vitellius, had got possession of Damascus on the death of the emperor, and the consequent interruption of Vitellius' operations. His possession of it was put an end to immediately after by the Romans [NEANDER]. Rather, it was granted by Caligula (A.D. 38) to Aretas, whose predecessors had possessed it. This is proved by our having no Damascus coins of Caligula or Claudius, though we do have of their immediate imperial predecessors and successors [ALFORD].
Next: 2 Corinthians Chapter 12
John Gill Bible Commentary
And through a window in a basket was I let down,.... The house in which he was, like Rahab's, was built upon the wall of the city, and as she let down the spies by a cord through the window, and as David was by Michal; so the apostle was let down by the brethren with cords, as Jeremiah was, Jer 38:6 where the Septuagint use the same word as here, through a window; "which", as the Arabic version reads it, "was in the wall"; or he was let down by the wall side, "in a basket or net"; so and the word which the Syriac version here uses, signify and design a basket made of withs, wrought together in the form of network; frequent mention is made in the Jewish writings (e) of , "the networks and lattices of windows"; whether these were not taken off the window and put into a form like a basket, and in it the apostle let down by the brethren with the help of cords, may be inquired into: however, he
escaped his hands; the governor's, and the Jews too who lay in wait for him. This deliverance he mentions with thankfulness to God, and as an instance of divine Providence in the preservation of him, for much usefulness to the church of Christ; the Vulgate Latin version reads, and "thus he escaped his hands".
(e) Misn. Oholot, c. 8. sect. 4. & Negaim, c. 13. sect. 3. T. Bab. Cholin, fol. 125. 2.
Next: 2 Corinthians Chapter 12
Tyndale Open Study Notes
11:32-33 As a final “boast” of his weakness, Paul tells the story of his escape from Damascus a few years after his conversion (see Acts 9:23-25; Gal 1:15-18). • King Aretas IV of Nabataea controlled Damascus only after AD 37, following the death of the emperor Tiberius (see Josephus, Antiquities 18.5.1-3); the mention of Aretas dates Paul’s escape from Damascus between AD 37 and the end of Aretas’s reign in AD 39 or 40.
