Acts 9:18

Acts 9:18. There fell from his eyes as it had been scales. A good deal has been written on the nature of the injury which Saul's eyes had suffered. The blinding glare of the light from heaven which surrounded the glorified Jesus had destroyed the sight, and now it was miraculously restored. Whether or not some scaly substance which had spread over his eyes fell off at the command of Ananias, is of little importance. We know after the Lord met him, and appeared to him in the way near Damascus, the eyes of Saul were sightless. We know, too, after Ananias, acting on the Lord's command, had laid his hands on him, the power of seeing returned to the sightless eyes.

And was baptized. Most likely in the house of Judas, where Saul was staying. Damascus is abundantly supplied with water. At this day, the Barada (the Abana of the Old Testament) runs directly through the city, supplying the cisterns, baths, and fountains; all the better houses have a reservoir in their court, or stand beside a natural or artificial stream.

The motives which led to the conversion of St. Paul have been often inquired into. Jew and Gentile unbelievers have again and again sought to discover an earthly motive for the change which so suddenly passed over Saul the Pharisee, whose words and works more than any other mere man's have influenced the fortunes of Christianity. These inquiries date from the earliest times. Epiphanius mentions an old story current among the Ebionites, an heretical sect of Judaising Christians of the second century, which relates how Saul first became a Jew that he might marry the high priest's daughter, and then became the antagonist of Judaism, because the high priest deceived him. The charge that he was a fanatic or an impostor is a favourite one in all times among the enemies of the faith of Jesus. It is surely impossible to entertain for a moment the idea that he was a fanatic, when we read his letters, and his story in these ‘Acts,' and consider fairly his calmness, his wisdom, his prudence, his humility. It is still more impossible to conceive that he changed his religion for mere selfish purposes.

Was he moved by the ostentation of learning? He cast aside in a moment all that he had learned from Gamaliel and the great Jewish doctors, after so many years of patient study, and took up the teaching of the unknown Rabbi of Nazareth and His untaught followers.

Was it love of rule which induced him to throw off his old allegiance? He abdicated in a moment the great power which he possessed as a rising and favourite leader of a dominant party in the nation, for a precarious influence over a flock of sheep driven to the slaughter, whose chief Shepherd had been put to a shameful death but a little time before, and all that he could hope from his change was to be marked out in a particular manner for the same fate.

Was it love of wealth? Whatever might be his worldly possessions at the time, he joined himself to those who were for the most part poor, and among whom he would frequently have to minister to his own necessities, and to the necessities of those about him, with the labour of his own hands. Was it the love of fame? His prophetic power must have been greater than that ever possessed by mortal man, if he could look beyond the shame and scorn which then rested on the servants of a crucified Master, to that glory with which Christendom now surrounds the memory of St. Paul.

If, then, the conversion of this man be the act neither of a fanatic nor of an impostor, to what was it due? He himself often answers the question: It arose from a miraculous appearance of Christ, It must be remembered, on this occasion, he was accompanied with others. The time was ‘mid-day,' the scene a public and much frequented highway. No attempted explanation has ever yet thrown the least doubt upon the plain unvarnished story which Paul told so often to account for the change in his life, viz. that Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified, the Risen One, showed Himself to Paul when on his way to Damascus, and spoke with him face to face, eye to eye (see Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul, chap. iii.).