Acts 9:18

9:10-22 A good work was begun in Saul, when he was brought to Christ's feet with those words, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And never did Christ leave any who were brought to that. Behold, the proud Pharisee, the unmerciful oppressor, the daring blasphemer, prayeth! And thus it is even now, and with the proud infidel, or the abandoned sinner. What happy tidings are these to all who understand the nature and power of prayer, of such prayer as the humbled sinner presents for the blessings of free salvation! Now he began to pray after another manner than he had done; before, he said his prayers, now, he prayed them. Regenerating grace sets people on praying; you may as well find a living man without breath, as a living Christian without prayer. Yet even eminent disciples, like Ananias, sometimes stagger at the commands of the Lord. But it is the Lord's glory to surpass our scanty expectations, and show that those are vessels of his mercy whom we are apt to consider as objects of his vengeance. The teaching of the Holy Spirit takes away the scales of ignorance and pride from the understanding; then the sinner becomes a new creature, and endeavours to recommend the anointed Saviour, the Son of God, to his former companions.

There fell - scales (ἀπέπεσον - λεπίδες) Both words occur only here in the New Testament. In Paul's own account of his conversion in ch. 26 he does not mention his blindness: in ch. 22 he mentions both the blindness and the recovery of sight, but not the particular circumstances which Luke records. The mention of the scales, or incrustations, such as are incidental to ophthalmia, is characteristic of the physician, and ἀποπίπτειν, to fall off, was used technically by medical writers of the falling of scales from the skin, and of particles from diseased parts of the body. "We may suppose that Luke had often heard Paul relate how he felt at that moment" (Hackett).

Acts 9:18 . Εὐθέως , immediately ) A miracle.— ἀπέπεσον , there fell from ) Saul, after having beheld Christ, does not see by reason of the splendour: upon Ananias, whom He sent, coming, he recovers his sight.— ὡσεὶ λεπίδες , as it were scales ) The humour in the eyes having been dried up.— ἐβαπτίσθη , he was baptized ) by Ananias; but instructed by the Lord.

18. there fell from his eyes as it were scales—"This shows that the blindness as well as the cure was supernatural. Substances like scales would not form naturally in so short a time" [Webster and Wilkinson]. And the medical precision of Luke's language here is to be noted. was baptized—as directed by Ananias (Ac 22:16).

Verse 18. - Straightway for immediately , A.V.; as it were for as it had been , A.V.; received his sight for received sight forthwith , A.V. and T.R.; he arose for arose , A.V. As it were scales ( λεπίδες ); scales , or flakes ; any thin substance which peals off; a frequent term in Greek medical writers. And was baptized . It is a curious difference between St. Paul and the other apostles that, if they were baptized at all, which is doubtful, they must have been baptized by Christ himself; whereas St. Paul received his baptism at the hands of Ananias. This is one mark of his being "born out of due time." And yet he was not behind the very chiefest apostles. Acts 9:18

18 . And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales ] The word rendered “scales” is used as a technical term for a disease of the eye by Hippocrates, and the verb derived from it is found ( Tob 11:13 ) used of the cure of a disease of similar character. “And the whiteness pilled away from the corners of his eyes.” This “whiteness” is rendered in the margin ( Tob 2:10 ) “white films,” and was clearly something like the “scales” which caused Saul’s blindness, and a process for the cure thereof is called ( Acts 3:17 ) “to scale away the whiteness of Tobit’s eyes.” St Paul ( Acts 22:11 ) ascribes his blindness to the glory of the heavenly light, and it may have been some secretion, caused by the intensity of that vision, which formed over them, and at his cure fell away. Some have thought that his constant employment of an amanuensis, and the mention of the large characters in which he wrote in his Epistle to the Galatians ( Acts 6:11 ) “Ye see in what large letters I have written to you,” are indications that the Apostle suffered permanently in his eyesight from the heavenly vision. and he received [recovered, and so in 17] sight forthwith ] The oldest MSS. omit the last word. and arose, and was baptized ] In the fuller account ( Acts 22:16 ) we learn that the exhortation to be baptized was part of the message with which Ananias was charged, and so was divinely commissioned to receive Saul thus into the Christian Church.

(18) There fell from his eyes as it had been scales. —The description suggests the thought that the blindness was caused by an incrustation, caused by acute inflammation, covering the pupil of the eye, or closing up the eye-lids, analogous to the “whiteness,” that peeled (or scaled ) off from the eyes of Tobit ( Tobit 11:13 ). Like phenomena are mentioned by Hippocrates, and the care with which St. Luke records the fact in this instance, may be noted, with Acts 3:7 ; Acts 28:8 , as one of the examples of the technical precision of his calling as a physician. Arose, and was baptised.—It is clear that both Saul and Ananias looked on this as the indispensable condition for admission into the visible society of the kingdom of God. No visions and revelations of the Lord, no intensity of personal conversion, exempted him from it. For him, too, that was the “washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5), the moment of the new birth, of being buried with Christ (Romans 6:3-4). It may be inferred almost as a matter of certainty that it was at the hands of Ananias that he received baptism. The baptism would probably be administered in one or other of the rivers which the history of Naaman had made famous, and so the waters of “Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus” (2Kings 5:12), were now sanctified no less than those of Jordan for the “mystical washing away of sin.”

As it had been scales - ὡσεὶ λεπίδες hōsei lepides. The word ὡσεὶ hōsei, "as it had been," is designed to qualify the following word. It is not said that scales literally fell from his eyes, but that an effect followed as if scales had been suddenly taken off. Evidently, the expression is deigned to mean no more than this. The effect was such as would take place if some dark, imperious substance had been placed before the eyes, and had been suddenly removed. The cure was as sudden, the restoration to sight was as immediate, as if such an interposing substance had been suddenly removed. This is all that the expression fairly implies, and this is all that the nature of the case demands. As the blindness had been caused by the natural effect of the light, probably on the optic nerve ( Acts 9:8-9 , note), it is manifest that no literal removing of scales would restore the vision. We are therefore to lay aside the idea of literal scales falling to the earth. No such thing is affirmed, and no such thing would have met the case. The word translated "scales" is used nowhere else in the New Testament. It means properly "the small crust or layer which composes a part of the covering of a fish, and also any thin layer or leaf exfoliated or separated, as scales of iron, bone, or a piece of bark, etc." (Webster). An effect similar to this is described in Tobit 11:8, 13. It is evident that there was a miracle in the healing of Saul.

The "blindness" was the natural effect of the light. The "cure" was by miraculous power. This is evident: (1) Because there were no means used that would naturally restore the sight. It may be remarked here that "gutta serena" has been regarded by physicians as one of the most incurable of diseases. Few cases are restored, and few remedies are efficacious (See the Edinburgh Encyclopedia's "Surgery" on Amaurosis.) (2) Ananias was sent for this very purpose to heal him, Acts 9:17. (3) the immediate effect shows that this was miraculous. Had it been a slow recovery, it might have been doubtful; but here it was instantaneous, and it was thus put beyond a question that it was a miracle. And was baptized - In this he followed the example of all the early converts to Christianity. They were baptized immediately. See Acts 2:41; Acts 8:12, Acts 8:36-39.

Acts 9:18 . καὶ εὐθέως : as the immediate result of the laying on of hands the recovery of sight is given, but the baptism follows for the reception of the Holy Ghost, cf. Acts 22:13 ff.— ἀπέπεσον … ὡσεὶ λ .: the words cannot be taken as merely figurative with Weiss or Zöckler, or with Blass as merely indicating the speediness of the cure—some scaly substance had formed over the eyes, probably as the result of the dazzling brightness which had struck upon them, cf. Tob 3:17 ; Tob 11:13 ; Tob 2:10 ( cf. Acts 6:8 ), λευκώματα = white films (see H. and R., sub v ., λεύκωμα ). St. Chrysostom’s comment is also to be noted: καὶ ἵνα μὴ νομίσῃ φαντασίαν τις εἶναι τὴν πήρωσιν , δια τοῦτο αἱ λεπίδες . Here, as elsewhere, we may see traces of St. Luke’s accuracy as a physician. Both ἀποπίπτειν and λεπίς are used only by St. Luke in N.T. ( λεπίς , although found six times in LXX, does not occur in the sense before us), and both words are found conjoined in medical writers, the former for the falling off of scales from the cuticle and particles from the diseased parts of the body or bones, etc., and λεπίς as the regular medical term for the particles or scaly substances thrown off from the body (see instances in Hobart, p. 39, and Felten, in loco ), and cf. also Zahn, Einleitung in das N.