But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
3. But Saul. We must note two things in this place, how great the cruelty of the adversaries was, and how wonderful the goodness of God was, who vouchsafed to make Paul a pastor of so cruel a wolf. For that desire to lay waste the Church wherewith he was incensed did seem to cut away all hope. Therefore his conversion was so much the more excellent afterward.
In these verses we have, I. Something more concerning Stephen and his death; how people stood affected to it - variously, as generally in such cases, according to men's different sentiments of things. Christ had said to his disciples, when he was parting with them (Joh 16:20), You shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice. Accordingly here is, 1.
Commenting on Acts 8:1-3
As for Saul, he made havoc of the church,.... Did evil to the saints, destroyed them that called upon the name of Christ, Act 9:13 and persecuted and wasted the church of God, as he himself says, Gal 1:13 and now did Benjamin, of which tribe Saul was, ravine as a wolf, Gen 49:27 Entering into every house; where the saints dwelt: and haling men...