Goads

It is hard for you to kick against the goads..
Acts 9:5

In the KJV this is 'kick against the pricks'- which is now now proverbial in English, as my Oxford dictionary has it: "hurt oneself in persisting in useless resistance.." A goad is a prickly thing used to motivate oxen to move- more stick than carrot. Interestingly many of my translations miss this line- whether because it is not easy to understand, or to avoid a somewhat rude word, or out of misguided reverence for St Paul, I'm not sure. I think it is important, which is why the KJV & this Orthodox translation leave it in: yes, the Apostle Paul is one of the greatest Christians the world 🌍 has ever seen, but as I'm sure he would be the first to tell you, on this particular day he was behaving with misguided zeal & hence Jesus metaphorically compares him to a dumb ox. How like St Paul we are in this- we cannot fight God, yet we persist in trying. 


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