Acts 9:18

καὶ εὐθέως : as the immediate result of the laying on of hands the recovery of sight is given, but the baptism follows for the reception of the Holy Ghost, cf. Acts 22:13 ff. ἀπέπεσον … ὡσεὶ λ.: the words cannot be taken as merely figurative with Weiss or Zöckler, or with Blass as merely indicating the speediness of the cure some scaly substance had formed over the eyes, probably as the result of the dazzling brightness which had struck upon them, cf. Tob 3:17; Tob 11:13; Tob 2:10 (cf. Acts 6:8), λευκώματα = white films (see H. and R., sub v., λεύκωμα). St. Chrysostom's comment is also to be noted: καὶ ἵνα μὴ νομίσῃ φαντασίαν τις εἶναι τὴν πήρωσιν, δια τοῦτο αἱ λεπίδες. Here, as elsewhere, we may see traces of St. Luke's accuracy as a physician. Both ἀποπίπτειν and λεπίς are used only by St. Luke in N.T. (λεπίς, although found six times in LXX, does not occur in the sense before us), and both words are found conjoined in medical writers, the former for the falling off of scales from the cuticle and particles from the diseased parts of the body or bones, etc., and λεπίς as the regular medical term for the particles or scaly substances thrown off from the body (see instances in Hobart, p. 39, and Felten, in loco), and cf. also Zahn, Einleitung in das N. T., ii., p. 436 (1899). ἂναστὰς, see above on Acts 8:26; the word may here be taken literally (although not necessarily so), as of Saul rising from a sitting or reclining position (so Weiss). ἐβαπτίσθη : no doubt by Ananias there was no reception into the Church without this. λαβὼν τροφὴν, see on Acts 9:9. ἐνίσχυσεν : here used intransitively (1Ma 7:25, 3Ma 2:32), if we adopt reading of T.R. which is retained by Weiss. We have the verb, in the N.T. peculiar to St. Luke, used in the transitive sense (cf. Luke 22:43-44, W. H., App., 67, and Plummer, in loco), and in this sense its use outside the LXX is confined to Hippocrates and St. Luke, Hobart, p. 80 (cf. 2 Samuel 22:40, Sir 1:4); but cf. Psalms of Solomon, Acts 16:12. The reading here to which Wendt apparently inclines is ἐνισχύθη (see critical notes), as this would be in accordance with the transitive use of the verb in Luke 22:43, and other instances.