Acts 9:5

Who art thou, Lord? - Τις ει, Κυριε ; Who art thou, Sir? He had no knowledge who it was that addressed him, and would only use the term Κυριε , as any Roman or Greek would, merely as a term of civil respect.

I am Jesus whom thou persecutest - " Thy enmity is against me and my religion; and the injuries which thou dost to my followers I consider as done to myself." The following words, making twenty in the original, and thirty in our version, are found in no Greek MS. The words are, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks: and he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? and the Lord said unto him. It is not very easy to account for such a large addition, which is not only not found in any Greek MS. yet discovered, but is wanting in the Itala, Erpen's Arabic, the Syriac, Coptic, Sahidic, and most of the Slavonian. It is found in the Vulgate, one of the Arabic, the Ethiopic, and Armenian; and was probably borrowed from Acts 26:14 , and some marginal notes. It is wanting also in the Complutensian edition, and in that of Bengel. Griesbach also leaves it out of the text.

It is hard for thee, etc. - Σκληρον σοι προς κεντρα λακτιζειν . This is a proverbial expression, which exists, not only in substance, but even in so many words, both in the Greek and Latin writers. Κεντρον , kentron , signifies an ox goad, a piece of pointed iron stuck in the end of a stick, with which the ox is urged on when drawing the plough. The origin of the proverb seems to have been this: sometimes it happens that a restive or stubborn ox kicks back against the goad, and thus wounds himself more deeply: hence it has become a proverb to signify the fruitlessness and absurdity of rebelling against lawful authority, and the getting into greater difficulties by endeavoring to avoid trifling sufferings. So the proverb, Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim . Out of the cauldron into the fire. "Out of bad into worse." The saying exists, almost in the apostolic form, in the following writers. Euripides, in Bacch. ver. 793: -

Θυοιμ ' αν αυτῳ μαλλον, η θυμουμενοςπ

Προς κεντρα λακτιζοιμι, θνητος ων, Θεῳ .

"I, who am a frail mortal, should rather sacrifice to him who is a God, than, by giving place to anger, kick against the goads."

And Aeschylus, in Agamemnon, ver. 1633: -

Προς κεντρα μη λακτιζε .

Kick not against the goads.

And again in Prometh. Vinct. ver. 323: -

Προς κεντρα κωλον εκτενεις, ὁρων ὁτιπ

Τραχυς μοναρχος ουδ ' ὑπευθυνος κρατει .

"Thou stretchest out thy foot against goads, seeing the fierce monarch governs according to his own will."

Resistance is of no use: the more thou dost rebel, the more keenly thou shalt suffer. See the Scholiast here.

Pindar has a similar expression, Pyth. ii. ver. 171-5: -

Φερειν δ ' ελαφρως<-144 Επαυχενιον λαβονταΖυγον γ ' αρηγει. Ποτι κεντρον δε τοιΛακτιζεμεν, τελεθειΟλισθηρος οιμος .

"It is profitable to bear willingly the assumed yoke.

To kick against the goad is pernicious conduct."

Where see the Scholiast, who shows that "it is ridiculous for a man to fight with fortune: for if the unruly ox, from whom the metaphor is taken, kick against the goad, he shall suffer still more grievously." Terence uses the same figure. Phorm. Act i. scen. 2, ver. 27: -

Venere in mentem mihi istaec: nam inscitia est,

Adversum stimulum calces . - "

These things have come to my recollection, for it is foolishness for thee to kick against a goad."

Ovid has the same idea in other words, Trist. lib. ii. ver. 15: -

At nunc (tanta meo comes est insania morbo)

Saxa malum refero rursus ad icta pedem.

Scilicet et victus repetit gladiator arenam;

Et redit in tumidas naufraga puppis aquas