“As he journeyed,” literally, “in the journeying,” in the very act of going forward. “He came near,” literally, “it happened (came to pass) that he drew near, or approached.” The omission of the first verb is confined to the Authorized Version; the older ones have “chanced,” “fortuned,” or “befell.” “Shined” or, more exactly, “flashed around him,” the Greek verb being properly applied to lightning. It is not, however, a mere flash of lightning that is here described, but a continued light from heaven, illuminating the place for some time. “A light” or, more simply and emphatically, “light,” without the article. “From heaven” not only indicates the apparent or visible direction, but implies the supernatural or celestial source of the illumination. (See above, on 2:2.)
From: The Acts of the Apostles Explained by Joseph Addison Alexander; 2 volumes (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Company, 1857), 1:357. Comment on Acts 9.3.
Joseph Addison Alexander (1809-1860) was the son of Archibald Alexnder (1772-1851) and the younger brother of James Waddell Alexander (1804-1859). All three men were intimately involved as teachers at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey. Joseph Addison Alexander died of complications of diabetes on January 28, 1860, at the age of 50. He died almost exactly six months, to the day, after his brother James died (July 28, 1859), at the age of 55.
