And Manaean, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch. Behold the customs of each of them: not even the fact of being brought up together saves them both. See how absolutely evil Herod was, for he did not want to be converted. But his foster brother Manaean certainly changed a great deal, because he was considered worthy of the gift of prophecy.

But consider the authority of the Holy Ghost. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul.’ What being, unless of the same authority, would have dared to say this? And this happened so that they should not remain together among themselves. The Spirit saw that they had greater power and could be sufficient for many.

It must be noticed that the Holy Spirit does not speak to those who happen to be there by chance but to those who serve him and observe fasting. And it must be noticed again that they did not lay hands on the deacons at random but on those who were previously fasting and praying.

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. What does worshiping mean? It means preaching. Set apart Barnabas and Saul. What does set apart for me mean? It means for the work, for the apostleship. Remember who ordained him? Lucius the Cyrenean and Manaen, or rather, one should say, the Spirit. For the more lowly the personages involved, the more palpable the grace of God. Paul is ordained henceforth to apostleship, to preach with authority. How is it then that he himself says, Not from men nor by men?^[1] Because it was not humankind that called him or brought him over. This is what or by men means. For this reason he says that he was not sent by this man but by the Spirit.

The Lord, upon appearing to Paul from heaven, said, Go to Damascus, and you shall be told that you are my chosen vessel,^[1] because [the Lord] had established him as the herald of the gospel to all the world. Then Ananias said to him, when he arrived in Damascus, Brother Saul, see once more: the God of the fathers has preordained you.^[2] And lest you think this word [i.e., God] refers to Christ, he adds, to do his will and to know his just one Jesus.^[3] [Paul], making this calling and preordaining a title, says, Paul a slave of Jesus Christ, called apostle.^[4] Then he says something else regarding this calling, Set aside for the gospel of God.^[5] The Acts of the Apostles taught that the Spirit directed the setting aside, for it says, While the apostles were fasting and praying, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set aside for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have called them.’ If the Lord, the God of the fathers, chose him whom he had preordained, while the Son called him forth, and the Spirit, using the operation of [the divine] nature, set the same one aside, how is there a difference of nature in the Trinity in which an identity of operation is found?

As soon as they were ordained they went forth and hastened to Cyprus, seeing that no plot was being hatched against them there and the Word had already been sown. In Antioch there were enough [teachers]. As to Phoenice, it was near Palestine, but not so Cyprus. However, do not ask why, when it is the Spirit that directs their movements. For they were not only ordained by the Spirit but also sent forth by him.

As Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus, was the first to believe in his preaching, he took his name from him because he had subdued him to faith in Christ.

The apostle Paul, who was previously called Saul, had no other reason, it seems to me, for choosing this name but to point out his own smallness as the least of the apostles. Hence, in order to praise this grace of God, he frequently fought courageously and vigorously against the proud and the arrogant and those who relied on their own works. After all, the grace of God was really seen more clearly and more obviously in him.

Why didn’t Paul perform another miracle? Because there was none equal to this—the capture of the enemy. And notice how he first makes his indictment and shows that the man suffers justly by saying, O full of all deceit. Nothing [Paul] said was lacking, and he said it well. Of all deceit, because the man was playing the part of a hypocrite. Son of the devil, because he was doing his work. Enemy of righteousness, because this [which they preached] was the whole of righteousness. It seems to me that he is also reproving his manner of life. It was not out of anger that he spoke, and to show this, the writer begins with, filled with the Holy Spirit, that is, with his operation.

And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon you. It was not vengeance, then, but healing. For it is as though he had said, It is not I but the hand of God. Look how unassuming it is! No light, as in the case of Paul, shone round about him.^[1] Thou shall be blind, he says, not seeing the sun for a season, so that he may give him a chance for repentance. Never did they wish to become conspicuous by their sternness, even in the case of enemies. But in respect to their own people, they were stern; in the case of others, no, lest [the obedience of faith] be thought a matter of compulsion and fear.

And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind. It was the sign by which [Paul] was himself converted, and by this he wished to convert this man. And the words for a season were spoken by one who seeks not to punish but to convert. For if he had wanted to punish, he would have made him blind forever. This is not what happens here, but only for a season, so that he may gain the proconsul. For the man was prepossessed by sorcery, and he had to teach him a lesson by this punishment, just as the magicians [in Egypt] were taught by the boils.^[1]

Be reasonable now. What happened to the magician through the intervention of the apostle is not contrary to the divine commandment that commands us to love our enemies. But since that man distorted the ways of preaching and drove the proconsul away from the faith through which the entire multitude could easily have been admitted to salvation, Paul punished that blasphemer on the basis of his own way of working things out. After he was warned by being blinded he was then led to knowledge. Indeed he was taught through Paul to cure his infidelity with a remedy, just as Paul cured the contradictions of the law. After he set the limit until the right time for judgment so that it might cause in itself the recuperation of the man, he changed his ways for the better.

They sat down in the synagogue, he says, and on the sabbath day, to prepare the way beforehand for the Word. And they did not speak first but when invited, seeing that they summoned them as strangers. Had they not waited, there would have been no discourse. Here for the first time we have Paul preaching. And notice his wisdom: where the word was already sown, he passes on; but where there was none, he makes a stay. It is as he himself writes, Yes, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named.^[1] Great courage was also embodied in this. Truly from the very outset a wonderful man! Crucified, drawn up in the line of battle, he knew how great was the grace he obtained, and he brought in an equal zeal.