Paul will tell his story of this encounter two other times in the book of Acts
And he will share a condensed version of it again with the Galatians
• in 1 Corinthians he will argue,
Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? (1 Cor. 9:1)
• that was the day Jesus stopped Paul in his tracks and turned him around
- but if not for his eyes, there would be no story
• if you look for visual clues in the story, words and sentences pop out
a light shone; others were hearing the voice but seeing no one;
getting up although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing;
he was without sight; Ananias was given a vision in which he was told him to look for Saul;
Jesus told Ananias, behold, Saul too had seen a vision;
Ananias went to so he could regain his sight;
Jesus was going to show Saul how much he would suffer;
Jesus had appeared to Saul—and so on
(notice also the similarity of Saul's experience and what happened on his first mission (Acts 13:11)