The Blinding of Paul and the Power of God: Masculinity, Sight, and Self-Control in Acts 9

Treatments on the Lukan Paul have traditionally taken his status as a "man" for granted, rarely assessing the central character of Luke's second volume in relation to ancient constructions of masculinity. Yet while Paul evinces some characteristically masculine traits, he is by no means the paragon of a "manly" man. This point is particularly evident in Acts 9 with Paul's conversion, or call to follow Jesus. Here Paul, while en route to Damascus, loses control of his bodily faculties as a result of his encounter with "the Lord," culminating in his loss of sight. For at least a number of Luke's hearers, Paul's divinely inflicted blindness would have arguably undermined his standing as a "manly" man, since blindness in the ancient world was viewed as particularly debilitating and, for a man who has that disability foisted upon him, emasculating. This article traces the story of Paul's encounter with "the Lord" Jesus and his resulting blindness in Acts 9, examining (1) Paul's loss of self-control, (2) the "unmanly" nature of blindness in the ancient world, and finally (3) Paul's restoration of sight and subsequent characterization. After journeying with Paul on his way to Damascus, I will maintain that Luke's first snapshot of his so-called hero Paul is anything but heroic and is, in fact, manifestly unmanly. When Paul loses his sight and self-control in Acts 9, he becomes subject to a God whose power is made complete in the persecuted person of Jesus, the crucified "Lord."(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)Despite Paul's status as one of the central male characters in the Acts of the Apostles, his status as a "man" often goes unmarked. Scholarship rarely situates the Lukan Paul in relation to constructions of masculinity in the Greco-Roman world, even though such constructions are increasingly becoming a topic of inquiry in the field of NT studies.1 The few works that do look at the Lukan Paul through a gendercritical lens, however, tend to dovetail with a popular trend in Acts scholarship that underlines Paul's apologetic role in the narrative as a whole.2 According to this typical interpretative bent, Luke parades Paul as a "hero" of the faith in an effort to legitimate Paul in the eyes of his elite audience. Paul, so the argument often goes, navigates the landscape of Acts in the guise of an able philosopher and rhetorician, displaying the cardinal virtues of the Hellenistic world, especially the virtue of selfcontrol. Before his conversion, or call on the road to Damascus, Paul was out of control, but after his conversion, he in fact epitomizes self-control.3Works on the Lukan Paul and gender, few though they may be, take up this emphasis on Paul as a powerful speaker and a man of self-mastery.4 Such works highlight that public speaking and control of one's body were important masculine traits in the ancient world, and they portray Paul as an especially potent "manly man" who perpetuates imperial virtues of masculinity and reinscribes male control among followers of "the Way."5 Paul, so some claim, functions as a powerful apologetic in Luke-Acts, for he persuades men of high standing like himself that following a crucified "Lord" ??? is actually manly.To be sure, such arguments have validity on several fronts. In the ancient world, public speaking and self-control were important markers of masculinity, and Paul exhibits both of these qualities after his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus road.6 Paul speaks quite frequently in a variety of public forums ranging from the Areopagus in Athens (17:22) to the audience hall in Caesarea (25:23). He also addresses his speeches to other men (13:16; 14:15; 17:22; 22:1; 23:1, 6; 27:21, 25; 28:17) in the vein of his predecessors Peter and Stephen (2:14,22; 3:12; 7:2) and frequently follows rhetorical practices that were popular among elite males.7 Paul also conveys more self-control after his Damascus road encounter in the sense that he no longer performs excessive acts of violence against followers of Jesus (8:3; 9:1-2, 13-14; 22:4-5; 26:9-11) and often remains calm in crisis situations in contrast to those around him (e. …