Acts 9:8

Eyes were opened. But they were sightless.

Saw no man. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading “saw nothing.” He had been blinded by the dazzling glory of the heavenly light (cf. ch. 22:11). His blindness proved that what he had seen was no mere hallucination. 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 (cf. Rom. 2:19). Now for a time, till inward and outward light should shine upon 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.”

Some commentators find evidence of the permanent effect of this experience on his power of sight in the fact that he generally dictated his letters (see 2 Thess. 3:17), that he used large characters as he wrote (see on Gal. 6:11), and that he did not recognize the high priest who commanded him to be struck (see Acts 23:2-5). The most reasonable of the many theories concerning his “thorn in the flesh” is that it was an affliction of the eyes, perhaps involving attacks of agonizing pain (see on 2 Cor. 12:7). On this assumption, the eager wish of the Galatians to pluck out their eyes, if possible, and give them to him, takes on special significance (see on Gal. 4:15).

They led him. His companions’ eyesight was relatively unaffected. Perhaps they had not gazed so directly at the blazing glory, or the full radiance had not shone upon them.

In any case they were able to guide Saul, leading by the hand him who had started forth as their leader. Saul’s pride was now changed to humiliation. His mission was already known at Damascus, and his arrival had been eagerly anticipated by the priestly faction and dreaded by the Christians. Now he had come, but the mission had collapsed. The letters to the synagogues were never delivered.