Ver. 8. ἀνεφγμένων ; see critical notes. —otdéva ἔβλεπε: his eyes, which he had closed mechanically, as he fell over- whelmed with the dazzling brightness of the light, and of the appearance of Jesus, he now opens, but only to find that he saw nothing (οὐδέν) (see critical note)—he had become blind (so Weiss and Wendt, cf. xxii. 11). This blind- ness was the clearest proof that the appearances vouchsafed to him had been a reality (Felten), see also ver. 18.— χειραγωγοῦντες: the necessary result of
Δαμασκόν.
οὐδὲ Emer.
his blindness, cf Judg. xvi. 26 and Tob. xi. 16, but in each case the reading is varied (see H. and R.); in N.T. only in Acts, cf. xxii. 11 (and see xiii. 11); it is also found in the Apocryphal Gospel of Peter, x. (ver. 40 in Harnack’s edition). ‘He who would strike others was himself struck, and the proud Phari- see became a deeply humbled penitent —a guide of the blind” he was himself to be guided by others (Felten).
Ver. 9. fv... μὴ βλέπων: on ἦν with participle, characteristic, see above on chap. i. 10. Wendt (in seventh edition, not in eighth), and so Felten, Alford, Hackett, distinguish between py and οὐ with ἔφαγεν and ἔπιεν, and see especially Winer-Moulton, lv., 5. od β. would have simply meant blind; μὴ B. is not seeing (not able to see)—said of one who had been, and might appear to be again, possessed of sight; the not eating and not drinking are related simply as matters of fact ; see the whole section. Blass regards py with participle as simply = ov, 50 in ver. 7 µηδένα with participle = οὐδένα, ut alias (see also Lumby’s note).—otK ἔφαγ. κ.τ.λ.: there is no reason why the words should not be taken literally, in spite of Wendt’s ob- jection as against Meyer in loco, as an expression of penitential sorrow and con- trition for his perversity (so Weiss and Holtzmann, no less than Felten): ‘‘ with what fervour must he then have prayed for ‘more light’” (Felten). On Saul’s blindness and its possibly lasting effects, see Plumptre, in loco, Felten, p. 196, and on the other hand Lightfoot on Gal. vi. 11, and Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, etc., pp. 38, 39.
Ver. το. “Avavias: nomen et omen, ‘‘ Jehovah is gracious” (cf. xxii.12). No doubt a Jewish Christian (he is supposed by some, as by St. Augustine, to have been the presbyter to whose care the Church at Damascus was committed). For more details and traditions con- cerning him, see Dr. James, ‘‘ Ananias,” Hastings’ B.D., and Felten, {π loco. The objections raised against the histori- cal character of the meeting between Ananias and Saul, by Baur, Zeller, Over- beck, are considered by Wendt as quite insufficient. Weizsacker regards the narrative of the blindness and its cure by Ananias as transparently symbolical,