What Does Acts 9:8 Mean?

(8) **He saw no** **man.**—The blindness was that of one who has been dazzled with excess of light (comp. Acts 22:11), the natural result of the vision of the supernatural glory, a witness to the man himself that the vision was not a mere play of imagination. Traces of its permanent effect on his powers of sight have been found in his habit of dictating rather than writing letters (see Note on 2Thessalonians 3:17), in the large characters traced by him when he did write (see Note on Galatians 6:11), in his not recognising the high priest who commanded him to be struck. (See Notes on Acts 23:2-5.) Of the many theories as to the mysterious “thorn in the flesh” (see Note on 2Corinthians 12:7), there seems most reason for accepting that which connects it with some affection of the eyes, involving, perhaps, attacks of agonising pain. On this assumption, the eager wish of the Galatians, if it had been possible to have plucked out their own eyes and given them to him, receives a special and interesting significance. (See Note on Galatians 4:15.) For Saul himself, the blindness may well have had a spiritual significance. He had looked on himself as a “guide of the blind,” boasting that he saw clearly (Romans 2:19). Now, for a time, till inward and outward light should shine in on him, he had to accept his blindness. The new-born soul had to be as “An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry.” **They led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.**—The mission on which Saul had come was already known at Damascus, and his arrival expected with alarm. Now he came, and the mission fell to the ground. The letters to the synagogues were not delivered.