Saul … opened his eyes (see Jerusalem Bible “with this eyes wide open” and New English Bible “when he opened his eyes”) correctly translates the force of the Greek participial expression; the King James Version (“when his eyes were opened”) may wrongly imply that someone else opened Saul’s eyes for him.

An expression for opened his eyes must indicate clearly that this simply meant opening his eyelids, for he obviously was not able to see. A number of languages make a clear distinction between the opening of the eyelids and the capacity to see.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .