Acts 9:9

‘And he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink.’

The condition of blindness lasted ‘three days’. In accordance with usual custom this could mean anything from one and a half days upwards (‘three days’ often signifying part of a day, a day, and part of a day). During that time he did not eat or drink. We can understand that he was traumatised, and that his mind had to take its time to adjust itself to this remarkable experience which had turned all his thinking upside down, for it was no longer possible for him to see Jesus as a charlatan. The idea took some getting used to. Rather he now recognised Him as Someone to be reckoned with. And he wanted to be left alone to think about it without being pestered with food. The fasting was clearly his own choice as he thought his way through what he had experienced. His life was, as it were, beginning again.

Luke may well have intended us here to compare how Jesus was in the grave for three days, after which He partook of food (Luke 24:41-43). Here Saul is, as it were, seen as being ‘crucified’ with Him and rising again with Him (Galatians 2:20).