Saul on the road to Damascus

Sight taken for a time. Sight restored. Acts 9:1-19; Acts 22:6-16.

What led up to it

Saul is a young Pharisee who has been arresting followers of Jesus. He is travelling to Damascus with letters authorizing him to bring more of them back to Jerusalem as prisoners.

What happens

A light from heaven flashes around him near the city. He falls, hears Jesus speak to him, and gets up unable to see. His companions lead him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he is without sight and does not eat or drink. A disciple named Ananias, afraid of him at first, is sent to lay hands on him. Something like scales falls from his eyes, he sees again, and he is baptized. Years later Paul tells the story himself in Acts 22.

In their shoes

A grown man, capable and in command of a mission, loses his sight in an instant and has to be led by the hand. For three days he does not know whether it will come back. The text says only that he was praying. He must then let a stranger, one of the people he came to arrest, put hands on him. Ananias's first words are "Brother Saul." Of all the accounts, this is the nearest to losing sight in the middle of life, though for Saul it lasted three days.

The place and the time

What the old books and the archaeologists can add. Each paragraph names its source.

Damascus lay about 130 miles north-east of Jerusalem, in Smith's words, in a plain of great size and fertility on the edge of the desert, and had always been a centre of trade. Saul set out on a long road to a rich and busy city, and arrived in it unable to see.

Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entry "Damascus."

Visitors to Damascus have long been shown a street called Straight, running through the city from east to west, and the houses of Judas and Ananias. Smith's, in the 1860s, allowed that the street may be the one in Acts but said little confidence could be placed in the house traditions. Where Saul sat in the dark for three days is not known.

Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entry "Damascus."

A physician writing in the 1915 encyclopedia thought Saul's blindness was a temporary paralysis of the retina from the brightness of the light, that the "scales" were how it felt rather than a thing that fell, and that his eyes may have stayed weak afterwards. That is one doctor's opinion from a century ago, stated more confidently than the text allows, and the Bible gives no diagnosis.

Source: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), entry "Blindness."

The passage

Acts 9:1-19

1 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord. He approached the high priest

2 and requested letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women belonging to the Way, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

3 As Saul drew near to Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?”

5 “Who are You, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” He replied.

6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless. They heard the voice but did not see anyone.

8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could not see a thing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus.

9 For three days he was without sight, and he did not eat or drink anything.

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Here I am, Lord,” he answered.

11 “Get up!” the Lord told him. “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.

12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, many people have told me about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.

14 And now he is here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on Your name.”

15 “Go!” said the Lord. “This man is My chosen instrument to carry My name before the Gentiles and their kings, and before the people of Israel.

16 I will show him how much he must suffer for My name.”

17 So Ananias went to the house, and when he arrived, he placed his hands on Saul. “Brother Saul,” he said, “the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here, has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

18 At that instant, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and his sight was restored. He got up and was baptized,

19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. And he spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.

Acts 22:6-16

6 About noon as I was approaching Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.

7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’

8 ‘Who are You, Lord?’ I asked. ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ He replied.

9 My companions saw the light, but they could not understand the voice of the One speaking to me.

10 Then I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’ ‘Get up and go into Damascus,’ He told me. ‘There you will be told all that you have been appointed to do.’

11 Because the brilliance of the light had blinded me, my companions led me by the hand into Damascus.

12 There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the law who was highly regarded by all the Jews living there,

13 came and stood beside me. ‘Brother Saul,’ he said, ‘receive your sight.’ And at that moment I could see him.

14 Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear His voice.

15 You will be His witness to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name.’