The Greek adjective enneos means 'speechless,' 'dumb,' or 'struck dumb' — unable to speak, typically from astonishment or shock. It appears once in the New Testament, in Acts 9:7, describing the men traveling with Saul on the road to Damascus when the risen Christ appeared.
Acts 9:7 describes Saul's companions on the Damascus road: 'The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone.' This witness — men rendered speechless by the encounter — validates the objective, external nature of Paul's conversion experience.
The enneos of Saul's companions is a small but significant detail. The encounter with the risen Christ is not merely subjective vision or private hallucination; it was attended by phenomena that left witnesses without words. The inability to speak in the presence of divine holiness echoes Isaiah's 'Woe to me! I am ruined!' (Isaiah 6:5) — the appropriate human response to the encounter with the living God.