Did Paul Literally Have Scales on His Eyes?

In Acts 9, it is written: "And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized," (Acts 9:18 ESV). The context of this passage is Paul is heading to Damascus (Acts 9:3) where he hoped to persecute the church (Acts 9:1). Paul became blind (Acts 9:6-10), likely to symbolize his spiritual blindness, but when he accepted Christ his vision became restored (Acts 9:17-19).

Verse 18 tells us "something like scales" fell from his eyes. The original Greek is "ὡς λεπίδες". The Greek word "ὡς" just means "like" or "as" while "λεπίδες" means a scale, crust, rind (outer skin of a fruit), or shell (Mounce). It is possible Paul had something akin to rheum or eye boogers that covered his entire vision. We see something similar to this physical event (Crossway 2099) in other ancient texts such as Tobit: "So Raphael was sent to heal both of them: Tobit, by removing the white films from his eyes, so that he might see God’s light with his eyes," (Tobit 3:17a NRSVCE). The Greek for "white films" is the same as in Acts 9 (Keener 347). The passage seems to be literal with a symbolic undertone.

References:

ESV Study Bible. United States, Crossway, 2008.

Image by Liviu Florescu on Unsplash

Keener, Craig S.. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 2nd Edition. United Kingdom, InterVarsity Press, 2014.

New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.