Commentaries:
Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)
Upon thee (epi se). The use of epi with the accusative is rich and varied, the precise shade of meaning depending on the content. The "hand of the Lord" might be kindly (Acts 11:21) or hostile (Hebrews 10:31), but when God's hand touches one's life (Job 19:21) it may be in judgment as here with Elymas. He has not humbled himself under the mighty hand of God (I Peter 5:6).
Not seeing (mh blepwn). Repeating with negative participle the negative idea in "blind" (tuflov). "It was a judicial infliction; blindness for blindness, darkness without for wilful darkness within" (Furneaux). He was an example of the blind leading the blind that was to cease and Sergius Paulus was to be led into the light. The blindness was to be "for a season" (axri kairou, Luke 4:13), if it should please God to restore his sight. Paul apparently recalls his own blindness as he entered Damascus.
A mist (axluv). Especially a dimness of the eyes, old poetic word and late prose, in LXX, only here in N.T. Galen uses it of the opacity of the eye caused by a wound.
He went about seeking some one to lead him by the hand (periagwn ezhtei xeiragwgouv). A rather free rendering. Literally, "going about (periagwn, present active participle of periagw) he was seeking (ezhtei, imperfect active of zhtew) guides (xeiragwgouv, from xeir, hand, and agwgov, guide, from agw, one who leads by the hand)." The very verb xeiragwgew, to lead by the hand, Luke uses of Paul in Acts 9:8, as he entered Damascus.
Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing Acts 13:11:
Luke 1:66
Acts 3:17
Acts 8:9
Acts 11:21
1 Corinthians 9:5
DISCLAIMER: Church of the Great God (CGG) provides these resources to aid the individual in studying the Bible. However, it is up to the individual to "prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21). The content of these resources does not necessarily reflect the views of CGG. They are provided for information purposes only.
