Why did scales fall from Paul's eyes?
Scales fell from the apostle Paul's eyes in the book of Acts to symbolize that Paul's mind was opened by God. The scales are a callout to the Leviathan, Satan, who is the god of this world that blinds unbelievers.
One of the most incredible Christian conversion stories is from the man himself who wrote a large portion of the New Testament in the Bible: the apostle Paul.
I think volumes of books could be written on Paul alone and what a fascinating and absolutely unique character he was in the Bible. In this article, however, I want to focus on his conversion event regarding his eyesight and what exegetical significance I think it merits.
Saul of Tarsus
As a quick reminder, before Paul became the hero that we know him as today, he was formerly known as Saul of Tarsus. Saul was a zealous member of Judaism, an avid and passionate hater of God's people and "The Way" as Christianity was initially labeled. He voluntarily spent his time in service to the high priest, assisting the Jewish authority in hunting down and arresting early Christians to "commit them to prison" (Acts 8:3 ESV).
Saul was present during Stephen's stoning and was evidently approving of Stephen's public execution; the witnesses of Stephen's execution even laid down their garments at Saul's feet as the scriptures say:
Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Saul developed quite the infamous reputation for himself, something that would invoke the direct rebuke of the Lord himself, and that's when Saul's life changed forever.
Saul becomes blind
You probably know the famous story from here, where Saul, on his way to persecute yet more Christians in Damascus, was knocked to the ground by a stunning and terrifying vision of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus directly confronted Saul and asked him why Saul was persecuting him directly - something that is beautiful to think about since Jesus interprets attacks on his believers as attacks directly against himself.
After a brief conversational exchange with Jesus, Saul gets up off the ground completely blind.
Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
And there, just like that, the most bloodthirsty persecutor of "The Way" was laid low in an instant by the Lord himself.
Scales from the eyes
Saul remained completely blind for three days until he was eventually healed by a disciple named Ananias. Through a vision, God gave Ananias instructions on where to find Saul and how to heal him of his blindness.
When Ananias eventually finds Saul, he does as God instructed him to:
So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Now here is the next, very small, yet fascinating detail about Saul's healing:
And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;
Why scales?
Did you notice the small detail? Scripture says that "something like scales" fell from Saul's eyes. Let's think about that for a moment: why scales? What is the significance of scales? Is there even a significance at all?
I am going to posit the idea that, yes, this little detail matters. Per my hermeneutics, I believe that the small details in Scripture matter, and I think we should struggle and push ourselves to comprehend the significance of those small details.
And after having my scriptural life completely revamped recently by Dr. Michael Heiser (and Chuck Missler, too), I am now paying attention to all of the small details since, as Heiser often said,
"If it looks weird, it's probably important."
Now I look for supernatural references all throughout Scripture, and I think we have a significant one here.
The Leviathan
Lately, I have been deeply studying the book of Job, and one character that really catches my attention in the book of Job is the Leviathan that God mentions in Job 41. In this chapter of Job, God is rebuking Job and essentially letting him know that Job does not come anywhere close to seeing the universe and all the roads of causality like God does.
After scrutinizing Job so much recently, I have since become convinced that the Leviathan in Job 41 is none other than Satan himself, the accuser who appears in Job 1 and Job 2 to make a bet with God about how Job will weather intense suffering. I'll have a dedicated article on Job 41 and the Leviathan soon.
The Leviathan is described as a sea serpent, a terrifying beast where man is "laid low even at the sight of him" (Job 41:9 ESV). As he is described as a literal fire-breathing serpent, one of his characteristics is that he is covered in strong layer of what sound like scales. This is consistent with the typical imagery anyone would find when describing a dragon.
His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated.
Given this illustrative description of the Leviathan's impenetrable body armor, I think Saul's scales are a callout to the Leviathan. And if the scales are on Saul, then I think that symbolizes that Saul is a slave to the evil of the Leviathan.
The god of this world
The Leviathan has many different names throughout Scripture, some of which include Ha Satan, the serpent, the devil, Satannas, the deceiver, the tempter, the father of lies, the accuser of our brethern.
One of the strangest names he receives, however, is "the god of this world". Paul himself wrote those words to the church in Corinth, saying,
And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
These are profound and unsettling verses, but a biblical author would not throw around a title like that nonchallantly, especially a title for the primary enemy. So if Scripture says it, then we should take it seriously. It would appear that Leviathan, who is the "god of this world", has the spiritual and epistemological ability to shut people's minds away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. In other words, he can place "scales" before people's eyes, just as he accomplished with Saul of Tarsus before he encountered Jesus.
This actually makes a great deal of sense to me: when Paul wrote those verses to the Corinthians, I would wager that he recalled his personal conversion experience and subsequent healing where those "scales" fell from his eyes, and he probably realized the greater spiritual significance of those scales in regards to the serpent and rebel elohim.
From scales to rescue
I think, rather beautifully, then, what Scripture is wanting us to understand about Paul is that God claimed Paul directly from the power of Satan. The Leviathan covered Saul's eyes with his impenetrable scales, so to speak, his veil that was blinding Saul's mind. Once Jesus appeared, those scales and its spiritual veil were torn to shreds - not unlike the holy of holies veil being torn in two on the day of Christ's crucifixion.
I think the biblical author is wanting us to understand that Paul's conversion was not so much divine punishment as it was divine rescue. God spiritually regenerated Paul with a harsh rebuke that actually saved him from Leviathan; Paul's mind was closed tightly shut, and God opened it. That's really beautiful, and I notice when reading Scripture that God has a tendency to accomplish multiple goals at once with a simple brush stroke.
Paul was freed from the Leviathan's scales.
I hope you are, too, image bearer.
