ContradictionsReading order 163Bible context 1 min read
Did the men with Paul hear the voice?
The two Acts accounts give opposite reports about whether Paul's companions hear the voice during his encounter.
- Textual conflict
- Interpretive tension
- The passages pull in different directions, but the conflict depends on how their wording, scope, or narrative context is read.
- Importance
- Supporting
- A supporting event, teaching, or biographical claim.
The same companions hear and do not hear the voice in parallel accounts, unless hearing carries different sound-versus-understanding senses.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Paul's companions hear a voice but see no man
And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
Acts 9:7
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Acts 9
Wording affects the comparison
In Acts 22:9, the KJV says the companions did not hear the voice; the NIV says they did not understand it. Compare that choice with Acts 9:7, which describes them hearing a voice. Hearing and understanding are different claims.