Acts 9:15
The context
Acts 9 recounts the encounter on the Damascus road and then Ananias's reluctance to visit a known persecutor. The objection is answered not with reassurance about Paul's character but with a statement of purpose. Verse 15 is that answer, and it names three audiences in a sequence the rest of Acts will follow.
What it establishes
It establishes that Paul's commissioning is stated at the moment of his call, and that its scope was fixed from the beginning: Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. The initiative belongs to the one doing the choosing.
What it does not establish
It does not give the content of the mission. The verse names audiences, not a message, and it does not say how the three groups relate to one another. Nor does it establish that Gentile mission began here.
Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.
Cited in these answers
Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.


