And straightway - Immediately. It was an evidence of the genuineness of his conversion that he was willing at once to avow himself to be the friend of the Lord Jesus.

He preached Christ - He proclaimed that Jesus was the Christ. See Acts 9:22. Many manuscripts read here Jesus instead of Christ. Griesbach has adopted this reading. Such is also the Syriac, the Vulgate, and the Ethiopic. The reading accords much better with the subject than the common reading. That Christ, or the Messiah, was the Son of God, all admitted. In the New Testament the names Christ and Son of God are used as synonymous. But the question was whether Jesus was the Christ, and was therefore the Son of God, and this Paul showed to the Jews. Paul continued the practice of attending the synagogues; and in the synagogues anyone had a right to speak who was invited by the officiating minister. See Acts 13:15.

That he is the Son of God - That he is the Messiah.

Preached Christ in the synagogues - Instead of ΧριϚον, Christ, Ιησουν, Jesus, is the reading of ABCE, several others of high importance, together with the Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, Slavonic, and Vulgate.

The great question to be determined, for the conviction of the Jews, was that Jesus was the Son of God. That the Christ, or Messiah, was to be the Son of God, they all believed. Saul was now convinced that Jesus, whom they had crucified, and who had appeared to him on the way, was the Son of God, or Messiah; and therefore as such he proclaimed him. The word Christ should be changed for Jesus, as the latter is, without doubt, the genuine reading.

The first offers of the grace of the Gospel were uniformly made to the Jews. Saul did not at first offer Jesus to the heathens at Damascus; but to the synagogues of the Jews.

And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues,.... The Syriac version adds, "of the Jews"; that is, which were in Damascus, Acts 9:2 from whence it appears, that he was immediately, as soon as converted, qualified for the work of preaching the Gospel: nor did he confer with flesh and blood, or stand disputing and debating with himself and carnal reason, what was best for him to do; but as soon as he knew Christ himself, he preached him to others, and whom he always made the subject of his ministry; and particularly,

that he is the Son of God; the only begotten of the Father, the eternal Son of God, truly and properly God, of the same nature and essence with God his Father, and equal to him. His design was to assert and maintain the dignity of his person, which is the foundation of his office, as Mediator, and of all the wonderful things he performed: had he meant no more than that he was the Messiah, the sense would only be, that he preached that Christ was the Christ; but the meaning is, that he preached that Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah, was not a mere man, but a divine person, even the Son of God: he set out in his ministry, with the principal and most fundamental article of the Christian religion, that which Christ asserted, and for which he suffered, and which all the apostles, and first Christians believed. The Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read "Jesus", instead of "Christ".

Christ

The correct reading is Jesus, the individual or personal name of the Lord. Christ was not yet current as his personal name. Paul's object was to establish the identity of Jesus the Nazarene with the Messiah.

{2} And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

(2) Paul begins immediately to execute the office which was given and commanded to him, never consulting with flesh and blood.

9:20 Straightway. Following this he began to preach

Christ in the synagogues. Jesus in the Revised Version. He preached that the Crucified Jesus is the Son of God.

[1] that he is the Son of God

Cf. Acts 2:36. Peter, while maintaining the deity of Jesus--"God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ"--gives especial prominence to His Messiahship. Paul, fresh from the vision of the glory, puts the emphasis on His Deity. Peter's charge was that the Jews had crucified the Son of David Acts 2:25-30 Paul's that they had crucified the Lord of glory 1Cor 2:8. In the A.V. the sense is largely lost. The point was, not that the Christ was God, a truth plainly taught by Isaiah. Isa 7:14 9:6,7 but that Jesus, the crucified Nazarene, was the Christ and therefore God the Son.

20-22. preached Christ . that he is the Son of God-rather, "preached Jesus," according to all the most ancient manuscripts and versions of the New Testament (so Ac 9:21, "all that call on this name," that is, Jesus; and Ac 9:22, "proving that this Jesus is very Christ").

9:10-22 A good work was begun in Saul, when he was brought to Christ's feet with those words, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And never did Christ leave any who were brought to that. Behold, the proud Pharisee, the unmerciful oppressor, the daring blasphemer, prayeth! And thus it is even now, and with the proud infidel, or the abandoned sinner. What happy tidings are these to all who understand the nature and power of prayer, of such prayer as the humbled sinner presents for the blessings of free salvation! Now he began to pray after another manner than he had done; before, he said his prayers, now, he prayed them. Regenerating grace sets people on praying; you may as well find a living man without breath, as a living Christian without prayer. Yet even eminent disciples, like Ananias, sometimes stagger at the commands of the Lord. But it is the Lord's glory to surpass our scanty expectations, and show that those are vessels of his mercy whom we are apt to consider as objects of his vengeance. The teaching of the Holy Spirit takes away the scales of ignorance and pride from the understanding; then the sinner becomes a new creature, and endeavours to recommend the anointed Saviour, the Son of God, to his former companions.