Bible Strands
Acts 9:1
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord. He approached the high priest
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator states that Saul was still actively directing violent threats against the Lord's followers and went to the high priest. This occurs immediately before his journey to Damascus to secure official documentation for arresting believers.
The words — The Greek participle ἐμπνέων ἀπειλῆς (empneōn apeilēs) literally means "breathing out threats." The form emphasizes the continuous, unceasing nature of his hostility rather than a single act.
The thread — This active persecution aligns with his earlier destruction of the church in Acts 8:3 and his later self-description as a former blasphemer and violent persecutor in 1 Timothy 1:13 and Galatians 1:13.
Why it lands — The text establishes Saul as an agent of religious violence seeking institutional authority before his conversion. It requires the reader to acknowledge the historical severity of his opposition to the early church and the concrete steps he took to suppress it.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,
Cross-references
- Acts 8:3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.
- 1 Timothy 1:13 I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man; yet because I had acted in ignorance and unbelief, I was shown mercy.
- Galatians 1:13 For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it.
- Acts 9:11 “Get up!” the Lord told him. “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.
- 1 Corinthians 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles and am unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
- Acts 7:58 They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
- Acts 22:3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.
- Acts 26:9 So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
- Philippians 3:6 as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.
- Psalms 27:12 Do not hand me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence.