Question:
There seems to be some contradiction between these two verses: Acts 9:7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man, and Acts 22:9, And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. Please clarify.
Answer:
In Acts 9:7, “And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing A VOICE, but seeing no man.”
In Acts 22:9, “And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not THE VOICE of him that spake to me.”
In Acts 9:7, it refers to the fact that the men could hear a voice, and in Acts 22:9 it refers to the fact that they could not hear to understand what the voice was saying. They heard “a” voice (some noise, a sound) (Acts 9:7), but they could not hear “the” voice (the words) (Acts 22:9).
We make the same kind of statements all of the time. Your wife may say something to you, and you hear the sound of her voice, but cannot understand her, so you say, “I am sorry, but I did not hear you.” Are you lying? You heard the sound of her voice. No, you are not lying. What you meant was, “I could not understand what you just said.”
There is no contradiction here. That is common use of the language. A good book for you to purchase would be “Things Hard To Be Understood” by David W. Cloud. It explains this passage, and many others like it. You can find it at “http://wayoflife.org/~dcloud/catalog/issues.htm”.