[10.72] With the Mormons, and in the American trances, almost all the conversions are also induced by nervous excitement, producing hallucinations.
[10.73] The circumstance that the companions of Paul saw and heard as he did may be legendary, especially as the accounts are on this point, being in direct contradiction. Comp. Acts ix. 7; xxii. 9; xxvi. 13. The hypothesis of a fall from a horse is refuted by these accounts. The opinion which rejects entirely the narration in the Acts, founded on ἐν ἐμοί of Gal. i. 16, is exaggerated, ἐν Ἐμοί in this passage, has the sense of “for me.” Comp. Gal. i. 24. Paul surely had at a fixed moment, a vision which resulted in his conversion.
[10.74] Acts ix. 3, 7; xxii. 6, 9, 11; xxvi. 13.
[10.75] This was my experience during my illness at Byblos. My recollections of the evening preceding the day of the trance are totally effaced.
[10.76] II. Cor. xii. 1, etc.
[10.77] Acts ix. 27; Gal. i. 16; I. Cor. ix. 1; xv. 8; Hom. Pseudo-Clem, xvii. 13–19. Comp. the experience of Omar, Sirat errasoul, p. 226, etc.
[10.78] Acts ix. 8; xxii. 11.
[10.79] Its ancient Arabic name was Tarik el Adhwa. It is now called Tarik el Mustekim, answering to Ῥύμη ἐυθεῖα. The eastern gate (Bâb Sharki) and a few vestiges of the colonnades yet remain. See the Arabic texts given by Wustenfield in the Zeitschrift für vergleichende Erdkunde of Lüdde for the year 1842, p. 168; Porter, Syria and Palestine, p. 477; Wilson, The Lands of the Bible, II., 345, 355–52.
[10.80] Acts xxii. 11.
[10.81] The account given in Acts ix. appears to have been formed from two mingled narratives. One, the more original, comprises vv. 9, &c. The other more developed, containing more dialogue and legend, includes verses 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. The 12th verse belongs neither to that which precedes nor to that which follows it. The account in chapter xxii. 12–16, is more conformed to the above-mentioned texts.