Question:
Compare Acts 9:7 with Acts 22:9. Both passages describe the same event: the conversion of Saul. In Acts 22:9, Saul recounts the events leading to his conversion and states, “They did not hear the voice,” while in Acts 9:7, it says, “hearing a voice.”
Answer:
This passage of the Bible may seem contradictory, but it becomes clear when we consider the diverse use of words. The term “voice” refers both to the sound itself and to the message it conveys. In Acts 9:7, the men traveling with Paul heard the sound of a voice but did not understand the words it spoke. The margin of the Revised Version suggests “sound” instead of “voice” in this verse. For those men, the “voice” was merely a “sound.” In Acts 22:9, Paul describes what the voice communicated. His companions “indeed beheld the light, but they did not hear the voice,” meaning they did not understand it or grasp its words. Paul, on the other hand, not only heard the sound but also understood the message of the voice. To him, the “sound” was a clear “voice.”
This distinction is further illustrated in John 12:28-29: “Then a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ The multitude that stood by and heard it said it had thundered; others claimed that an angel had spoken to Him.” Some people only heard an indistinct sound, like thunder, while others recognized that words were being spoken. Jesus Himself understood the exact words that were said.
When we consider these points, we can see there is no contradiction between the accounts of Saul’s experience. Rotherham also uses “sound” in the margin of Acts 9:7. Boothroyd translates Acts 9:7 as: “And the men who journeyed with him remained silent, hearing a sound but seeing no man,” and Acts 22:9 as: “And those that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid, but they did not hear the words of Him who spoke to me.”
