Where was Saul traveling when he encountered a great blinding light?

Answer 1

A:

Acts contains three versions of the account of Paul's (or Saul's) conversion on the road to Damascus, each a little different to the others. In each account in Acts, there was a blinding light, which appeared only to Paul in the version at Acts 9:3-8 and probably at Acts 26:13-19, but appeared to both Paul and his men at Acts 22:6-11. Although others saw the same light in Acts 22:6-11, only Paul was blinded.

In the account of Paul's conversion, Jesus is supposed to have remarked to Paul as he lay on the ground, "It hurts you to kick against the goad [or 'pricks']" (Acts 25:14). This should give a good indication of how Paul would have felt, lying blinded and helpless on the ground. However, this is a quotation from the ancient play, the Bacchae, by Euripides, and there are other parallels with the play and at least one use of the same play in Acts of the Apostles. Paul never mentions this episode anywhere in his epistles, so it is probable he was never made blind. All this suggests that the account of Paul being blinded on the road to Damascus was a literary creation rather than a historical account, and he was made blind in order to progress the story.