Now there were in Antioch, in the assembly which was [there], prophets and teachers Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, and Manaen, foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
Antioch was a Gentile city far from Jerusalem, and there the church's outward mission starts again — with no office and no council, only five names. Who were these men, why are they listed in that order, and what did prophets and teachers do?
The mission that follows does not set out from where the story began:
Notice, before we set out with the apostles on their journey, how changed everything is. They start, note, not from the old centre, Jerusalem, but from Antioch, a city of the Gentiles. This matters. Jerusalem and the twelve apostles have lost their place in outward authority and power. The Holy Spirit calls Barnabas and Saul to the work, fits them for it, and sends them out, without the twelve having any authority over it.
Yet this shift caused no split:
Antioch, instead of Jerusalem, now became a centre for spreading the gospel. It was independent of apostolic authority, yet it did not break the unity of the Spirit by forming a separate church.
Five gifted men, yet Luke writes of one "church at Antioch":
No one can deny that there were many gifted men here, five of high standing in full service of Christ, and this plainly in "the church at Antioch." "Churches" in the same place, each with its own minister, are ignored here as everywhere. This does not mean the believers may not have met regularly to break bread in many houses here and there, as we know they did in Jerusalem. Even so, in that city as in every other, they made up "the assembly" there.
The five were not a closed circle. Later arrivals joined the same work:
From Acts 13:1, I see that at Antioch there were only five whom the Holy Spirit recognised as teachers: Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul. No doubt at every meeting it was only these five, one or more of them, whom the believers expected to speak. This was a settled ministry. But it was not an exclusive one. When Judas and Silas came (Acts 15:32), they were glad to take their place among the others, and then there were more recognised teachers.
Barnabas heads the list and Saul closes it. The order is not a ranking of importance:
Notice too that these five prophets and teachers are not listed by worldly rank or by church office. If they were, Barnabas would not have been first, and Saul would certainly not have been last. They seem instead to be arranged in the order of their spiritual birth… But the gracious power of the Lord, in keeping with His word in Matthew 20:16, was soon to make first in the testimony of His truth the man who here stands last.
Luke names two gifts, not one:
Here the writer draws a distinction, we think, between a prophet and a teacher, since he mentions both… A prophet is someone who has the mind of God and can pass it on, whether he foretells the future or not. So Abraham is the first person in the Old Testament called a prophet, though he never, as far as we read, predicted any event (Gen. 20:7).
Put simply, the two gifts reach a person at different points:
A teacher unfolds the mind of God to the assembly… The prophet is one whose ministry brings the conscience into the immediate presence of God. "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet," said the woman of Sychar, when her conscience was reached. In general, the teacher is for the understanding, the pastor for the heart, the prophet for the conscience.
The five came from very different backgrounds:
This large church, made up mostly of Gentiles, had no fewer than five prophets and teachers among its members. Their names are given, and they teach us much. One had a surname that probably shows he was a black man (Niger means Black). One was notable enough to have been a foster-brother of Herod. Barnabas was a Greek-speaking Jew. Saul had been a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Lucius may have been a Gentile. So it was clear very early that race and breeding are not what count most in the church, but the gift given from on high.
Manaen and Herod grew up together as foster-brothers:
How different the paths of the two foster-brothers! Herod had ruled his own region for years, but had lately been sent into exile… The other, through grace, became an heir of God and a joint-heir with Christ, called to reign with Him — and before His judgment seat Herod Antipas must one day stand to receive his sentence as the murderer of John the Baptist.
- New centre. The work starts again from Antioch, a Gentile city, not Jerusalem — a fresh centre, not a rival church.
- New gifts. Five prophets and teachers serve there. The prophet reaches the conscience. The teacher unfolds the mind of God to the understanding.
- New reach. A black man, a Greek-speaking Jew, a former Pharisee and Herod's foster-brother stand side by side. The gift from above counts for more than race or breeding.
- New order. The list is not a ladder of rank. The Lord would soon make the man named last first in the testimony of His truth.
- New pattern. One assembly in one city. Its ministry was settled but not closed, and later workers joined the five.
And as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.
In Antioch a small group of teachers and prophets are praying and fasting when the Holy Spirit breaks in with a command. The moment raises questions that still shape Christian service: what were they doing when He spoke, who called Barnabas and Saul, and does the Spirit still direct His workers this way?
What filled the room was not preaching to people. It was time spent with the Lord Himself. (The quotes here use an older translation, which reads "as they ministered to the Lord.") One writer rules out two common misreadings and explains what the fasting added:
Do not confuse this ministering to the Lord with serving Him in preaching or teaching. It was no doubt mainly prayer and intercession. The idea that the Lord's Supper was involved is crude and unfounded... The fasting that went with their spiritual action toward the Lord confirms this. Fasting humbles the outward nature, so that the inner man may be before Him with an undivided heart.
That posture is not a relic of the past. It raises a question about how we start work for God today:
We may well ask whether our service for God today is often taken up too easily. Would it not help spiritual power and effectiveness if we were more often found in this attitude before we began anything for God?... Our question is about waiting on God together, with fasting, before we start work in which all the saints have a common interest. The early Church understood this.
The wording of the command is the point. Something that speaks, claims servants for itself, and issues orders is not a force:
Many have thought of the Holy Spirit as only an influence, and not as a Person, equal with the Father and the Son in the unity of the Godhead. But Scripture shows plainly that He speaks and acts only as a Divine Person can speak and act. The present occasion bears this out. An influence cannot say, "Separate ME Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." This is the language of a Divine Person. It is the speech of sovereignty, and only a Divine Person is qualified to use it, out of a will that is all-powerful and wholly wise.
Notice the tense. The Spirit does not say "I am calling them" but "I have called them." The separation falls on two men who had already served for years:
Whatever the channel, the word was not spoken to the church but to the fellow workers, to separate those two for the special work in front of them. It is the Spirit Who says, "I have called them." This was not the first time either Barnabas or Saul had been called with authority to the service of Christ. Even the younger of the two had worked openly and well for years, both in the gospel and in the church. Men in a hurry to find the rite of ordination in this passage end up with ordination carried out by brothers of lower rank than the two men themselves.
The commission did not come from Jerusalem, from the twelve apostles, or from the meeting in Antioch. Their work traced back to one source:
The Holy Spirit commands them to separate to Him Barnabas and Saul for the work to which He had called them... The definite and obvious source of their mission was the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who called them to the work. He sent them out — an all-important principle in the Lord's ways on earth. We come out from Jerusalem, from Judaism, and from the authority of the apostles the Lord chose while He was on earth.
One writer draws the line between what belonged to that hour alone and what stays with the Church:
The occasion was momentous. It was the first regular going out from the assembly of messengers who would carry the gospel to Gentiles as well as Jews. Some features here belong to the apostles alone. Yet in the main it is a simple picture of the spirit of prayer, self-denial, dependence and fellowship that should mark the Church of God at all times. There may be no "prophets" now who can put the infallible "thus says the Lord" in front of their own words. But we have the "thus says the Lord" in His all-sufficient and infallible word, and we have the same sovereign Spirit, who can certainly make His will known.
- Waiting — They were not planning a campaign. They were busy with the Lord in prayer and fasting. Guidance came to men already turned toward Him.
- Speaking — A mere influence cannot say "Separate Me." The One who broke the silence claims servants for Himself. That is the language of God.
- Calling — The call came first, the separation second. God's summons to a work is His own act, not a rank conferred by other men.
- Sending — The mission came from the Spirit, not from Jerusalem, not from the twelve apostles, not from the meeting at Antioch. A new starting point on earth had opened.
- Continuing — Some features belonged to that one hour. The prayer, self-denial, dependence and fellowship are for the Church always, and the same sovereign Spirit still makes His will known.
Then, having fasted and prayed, and having laid [their] hands on them, they let [them] go.
The Spirit had just named Barnabas and Saul for the work He had called them to. This verse records what the gathering at Antioch did next: fasting, prayer, and hands laid on the two men. What did that act give them, if anything?
The chapter mentions fasting twice. One writer reads that repetition as a sign about the people waiting on God, not about the food.
Twice fasting is mentioned, and it must be specially significant. I do not speak of the mere going without food. I mean that spirit of earnest longing, of self-denial, of absorption, which lies behind the actual neglect of food. Fasting is not an end, and hardly a means to an end. It is a sign of the purpose of a soul that has lost its natural inclinations in one mastering desire. It is to such souls, emptied of self, that the Spirit makes known His will.
One writer answers those who say such passages only describe an inner attitude:
The assembly identified themselves fully with their mission by fasting, prayer, and laying on of hands. I think when Scripture says a fast, it means a fast. Often one hears it said, "That means a moral state." Do you think it was only a moral state at Antioch? The moral state existed, and it showed itself by an actual, physical fast, which was not commanded, so far as we read.
The account explains the gesture later, when the two men return to where they started.
This was not to confer authority... The end of Acts 14 explains what this action was, and why hands were laid on them. It says there that they sailed to Antioch, the starting-point, from where "they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled." That was the object and meaning of the hands laid on Barnabas and Saul. It was not the presumptuous thought that men who were spiritually below the apostles could give them what they themselves did not have to the same degree. It was simply a brotherly commendation to the grace of God.
One writer draws out what a hand laid on a man commits you to.
Note this, no hypocrisy. If I pray, and put my hands upon a man, I am identified with him. If I put my hand on my brother in prayer, I ought next to put my hand into my pocket, to help him, because "the laborer deserves his wages." They identified themselves with these two men, and no doubt supported them.
One writer asks who was laying hands on whom, and what that would mean if the act were ordination.
Here prophets are together, and the Holy Spirit says, "Separate me Barnabas and Saul to the work to which I have called them." There was no popular choice of office-bearers, at any rate. And these prophets (not the presbytery, of which there is not a word) laid their hands on them. It was not to ordain them, but to commend them to the grace of God for the work which they then fulfilled. ... If this is ordination, it is ordination of apostles by laymen.
The last words of the verse matter. Where the ESV reads "sent them off," one writer argues that the assembly only let them go:
They were all waiting on the Lord in complete seriousness of spirit when the word came. Afterwards, when they laid their hands on them, prayer and fasting went with the action. But those who acted with this true and earnest interest took no authority in it. They "let them go" — not "sent them away." The text says next, in plain words, that the "sending forth" was of the Spirit.
From here the base shifts, and so does the authority behind the mission.
They were sent forth by Him — an all-important principle as to the Lord's ways on earth. We come out from Jerusalem, from Judaism, from the jurisdiction of the apostles named by the Lord while He was on earth. ... A glorious Christ in heaven acknowledges the disciples as members of His body, as Himself on high. The mission comes from the Holy Spirit on earth, and it knows only His energy as the source of action and authority. This is the work which now opens.
- Emptied — fasting is the sign of a soul absorbed in one desire, and the Spirit makes His will known to such souls.
- Commended — the hands on Barnabas and Saul meant one thing, and the end of Acts 14 says it: the assembly commended them to the grace of God for the work.
- Identified — real commendation continues in support: a hand on a man in prayer, then a hand in the pocket.
- Released — the assembly only let them go; the word for sending them out belongs to the Holy Spirit in the next verse.
- Sent — the mission came from the Spirit, not from Jerusalem or any office, and the work now opens away from the old centre.
They therefore, having been sent forth by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia, and thence sailed away to Cyprus.
At Antioch the disciples had just let Barnabas and Saul go, yet Luke does not say the church sent them out — he says the Holy Spirit did. That raises the question behind the rest of the book: who sends a servant of God, and where does the work start?
The verse names who sent them. One writer traces the whole ministry of these two men back to that source.
The Holy Spirit commands them to set apart for Him Barnabas and Saul for the work He had called them to do. Such was the source of the ministry of these two. It certainly bore witness to the One they had believed in, whom Saul at least had seen. They acted under His authority. But the clear and obvious source of their mission was the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit who called them to the work. He sent them out (v. 4). This is an all-important principle about the Lord's ways on earth.
The men at Antioch did one thing in verse 3; the Spirit did another in verse 4. One writer shows that Luke's words keep the two apart, and that the Spirit speaks here as one acting in His own sovereign right.
"Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." "Set apart for Me," "I have called them." These words show sovereign action… But they went on their mission, Luke adds, "being sent out by the Holy Spirit." Both their call to this new work and their mission as apostles came from the Holy Spirit. The disciples let them go to their work; the Holy Spirit sent them out. The words used here in the inspired record are worth noticing. They support the translation "let go" instead of "sent away" in verse 3.
The starting point matters as much as the sender. The work now goes out from Antioch, and a new man takes the lead.
Apart from his share in the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15), Peter disappears from the history in front of us. Another figure comes not just into prominence, but into the centre — and he does so from this very chapter, the first chapter of what we may fairly call the second volume of the Book of Acts. We hear of a mission by the Holy Spirit — not from Jerusalem, but from Antioch. That city was already known for a Christian zeal that made a strong impression on outsiders, and for the first united stand made or mentioned among the Gentiles.
Naming the sender also rules out every other sender. One writer applies this to any group of men who claim the right to commission.
It is as outrageous to imagine two directors at the same time as to think of two heads giving orders to one body. It was not the assembly of saints that called and sent these men out on their mission, and it was not a body of officials either. The Holy Spirit chose them (v. 2), and the Holy Spirit sent them out (v. 4).
Being sent by the Spirit did not cut the two men off from the believers who let them go. When they came back, they called the assembly together.
Next, notice this. The Holy Spirit sent them out with authority (Acts 13:4), and that put them under direct responsibility to the Lord, whose servants they were. Even so, they were quick to share all He had done with the saints. They call together the assembly they had gone out from, so that all might rejoice in His grace — above all in His grace to the Gentiles. The church is not the source of the mission. It is the place of fellowship with the grace of God — grace that used the truth to bless the Gentiles through Paul (not Peter), starting on earth from Antioch (not Jerusalem, and not Rome).
The sending shows up on a map. They sail from a real port to an island that one of them came from.
Without delay they went out. They took ship at Seleucia, the port of Antioch. It was a thriving place then, with a good harbour; now it is a ruin, its two basins choked with sand… They went first to Cyprus, the home country of Barnabas. Many Jews lived on that island: at Salamis, the city where they landed, there were several synagogues.
- Called. The Spirit says "I have called them" — words of sovereign action, not the language of an impersonal force.
- Let go. In verse 3 the disciples only let them go; the wording carries no commissioning.
- Sent. Verse 4 supplies what verse 3 withheld: the mission itself came from the Holy Spirit.
- Out. The starting point moves from Jerusalem to Antioch, a Gentile city — a new centre for the work.
- Back. They came back and told the assembly everything: the church does not send the mission, but shares the joy of God's grace in it.
And being in Salamis, they announced the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John also as [their] attendant.
Cyprus is the first stop on a journey the Holy Spirit set in motion. The account is bare: a landing, preaching, and a young helper named John. Two questions sit inside the verse. Why did the preaching begin in Jewish synagogues? And what was John there to do?
Earlier in the chapter the workers at Antioch let Barnabas and Saul go. One writer looks closely at the word used for that. He warns that a loose translation makes it sound as if men had commissioned the two.
"They sent them forth" is a poor rendering here. It might be taken — and has been taken — to mean the mission which they had authorised Barnabas and Saul to undertake. But the word chosen rules out any such thought. It means only "let them go," without a shadow of commission in it. The idea of being sent comes out strongly at the start of verse 5: "They then, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there sailed away to Cyprus."
At Salamis the preaching started with his own people. That was a settled order, and he kept it until the Jews themselves refused the message.
At Salamis he began by preaching in their synagogues. He did not give up the Jews until the Jews rejected the gospel.
There was also a plain practical reason for the choice. The synagogue was the one setting where a visiting Jew could stand up and speak freely from the Scriptures.
When at Salamis they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. It was indeed the only religious place where any such liberty existed. And such was God's order too, until Jerusalem was destroyed... But until then the door was open, and those who had a Jewish title were free there to read or explain the Scriptures.
ESV says John was there to "assist them"; older versions say "minister." The word does not describe a church office. Its picture comes from a ship.
ὑπηρέτης, literally "under-rower," and so an "attendant" on, or "assistant" to, a superior authority. It is also translated "officer" and "servant."
One writer rules out the church-office reading and says what the work actually was. It was ordinary and unglamorous.
We must not turn this into a church institution... Plainly the idea would be absurd, because it would not be a ministry to others, but to Paul and Barnabas. So Mark's service here, I suppose, lay in finding suitable lodgings, in getting people to come and hear the apostles preach, and in the care a young man would give to those he was privileged to accompany and attend in the Lord's work.
Luke reports what happened at Salamis and stops. He says nothing about converts, opposition, or numbers.
Among the Jews the fact of the preaching is not followed by any statement about its effect; there may have been an effect... but it is certain that only the fact is given us here, not its consequences. The Jew is still sought by divine grace, and sought in a special way as well. Giving up the nation as such does not mean any turning away of the offer of salvation from them... The breach is on their side, not on His.
John's name appears here without comment. One writer looks ahead to what became of him.
We shall soon hear more of John Mark... But we may note even here that there is no real reason to doubt he was the future writer of the second Gospel. That Gospel traces by divine inspiration the blessed and only perfect service of our Lord Jesus. Mark was now for a while the companion of His servants... We shall soon see how Mark fared. If he failed, love did not fail. And recovery by grace is precious in its way, as is still more the grace that enables the weak to stand by faith.
- Sent. The men at Antioch let Barnabas and Saul go. The word used carries no hint of a commission from men. The mission itself came from the Holy Spirit.
- Spoken. At Salamis the word of God went out in the synagogues. The order "to the Jew first" held until the Jews rejected the message.
- Served. The word for John's help means an under-rower, an attendant. He found lodgings and gathered hearers. It was not a church office.
- Silent. Luke records the preaching, not its results. God's love still seeks the very people who broke with Him.
- Salvaged. If the young attendant failed, love did not fail. Grace recovers, and there is good reason to see him as the writer of the second Gospel.
And having passed through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain man a magician, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus,
Barnabas and Saul cross Cyprus from coast to coast and reach Paphos, where the first named opponent of their mission is waiting. Luke describes him three ways at once: a magician, a false prophet, and a Jew.
The verse ends a journey that began at Salamis on the eastern coast. One writer measures the distance and fills in what Luke leaves unsaid.
The true reading is "through the whole island": they went from east to west. The land journey from Salamis to Paphos was about one hundred miles — the same distance they had already covered by sea from Seleucia to Salamis. No doubt they visited towns and places along the way, and preached the gospel as they went.
The man carried two names. Neither of them matched what he was.
A renegade Jew called Bar-Jesus, also named Elymas (an Arabic name meaning "the wise," or "the occult"), a false prophet, was the tool Satan used. This sorcerer would feel that his own trade was in danger, so he tried to turn the governor away from the faith.
Another writer sets the name against the man's work:
But a Jewish false prophet and sorcerer named Bar-Jesus ("son of Jesus" — a name built to mislead!) was there, opposing God's word. He tried to turn Sergius Paulus against the truth that Barnabas and Saul were presenting.
The word "sorcerer" links this man to others in the New Testament. Scripture's verdict on the trade is severe.
In the New Testament, besides the girl with a spirit of Python already mentioned, we read of others. Simon used sorcery and held the people of Samaria under his spell for a long time, Acts 8:9-11. Elymas the sorcerer, a Jew whom they met in Cyprus, twisted the right ways of the Lord... Sorcery ranks with the worst of sins, and the same word describes the professing church in mystical Babylon.
The sorcerer already had the governor's ear. That is what made the clash so bitter.
But it was at its capital, Nea Paphos (not quite the spot famous as the immoral centre of Aphrodite worship), that the gospel met more than Jewish prejudice. Religious fraud and sorcery had sharpened that prejudice and made it bitter... The Roman governor's interest stirred the jealous opposition of the corrupt Jew. He had held influence over a mind sickened by degrading idolatry, yet open to displays of power that carried some appearance of revelation. What could break the Jewish impostor's hold more completely than the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ?
This man had counterparts elsewhere in Acts.
Such evil people, special instruments of Satan, appear again and again in this book, usually when the Gospel reached new regions. In Samaria it was Simon Magus. In Macedonia it was the girl with the familiar spirit. Here it is this demon-possessed Jew.
One writer draws real encouragement from it:
When they arrived at Paphos, they were encouraged to find the chief ruler of the island ready for the Word of God. But at the same time they ran into Satanic opposition. Opposition from the powers of darkness is an encouraging sign, not a discouraging one.
One writer sees in this single opponent a picture of the whole nation.
Bar-Jesus becomes the striking picture of the Jews. They were blind themselves, and they tried to turn the blind Gentiles away from the light of life. Yet this is not for ever, but "for a season". In due time God will give them to look on Him Whom they once rejected to death — and meanwhile the loss and ruin are their own.
- Advance. The gospel crossed a hundred miles of Cyprus, town by town, before it reached Paphos. The opponent shows up at the end of the road, not at the start.
- Counterfeit. The man bore a religious name, "son of Jesus," and a title meaning "the wise." Satan's tool at Paphos was a false prophet, not an open unbeliever.
- Motive. His trade was in danger. A governor listening to Barnabas and Saul meant a sorcerer losing his hold.
- Pattern. Simon Magus in Samaria, the girl with the spirit in Macedonia, Bar-Jesus in Cyprus. Such figures appear wherever the gospel reaches new ground. Opposition marks progress, not failure.
- Picture. Bar-Jesus tried to keep the light from a Gentile. He stands for a nation blind itself — and that blindness lasts for a season, not for ever.
who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. *He*, having called Barnabas and Saul to [him], desired to hear the word of God.
On Cyprus the gospel reached the island's top official, and he sent for the missionaries himself. Who was Sergius Paulus, and why does it matter that a Roman ruler asked to hear the word of God?
"Proconsul" is a precise Roman title, and Rome had not always used it for Cyprus.
Sergius Paulus was the proconsul of Cyprus. Cyprus had been under imperial authority, but later passed to the senate, and so became proconsular.
Luke gets the local titles right in city after city.
We have seen how accurate Luke was in describing Sergius Paulus as the proconsul of Cyprus. He is equally accurate in calling the magistrates at Philippi praetors and their officers lictors (16:20, 35). When writing of the authorities at Thessalonica, he calls them politarchs (17:6)... By giving each city's rulers their correct title, Luke shows that he knew well what he was about. This mark of accuracy should increase confidence in him as a faithful historian.
Luke calls him a man of intelligence. One writer links that description to the job he held.
We read that he was a prudent man, "intelligent." We may be sure, then, that he got his post because he had all the qualifications it needed.
Something deeper than intelligence was at work in him. It also explains why a sorcerer had already gained his ear.
The Roman governor's interest stirred up the jealous opposition of the corrupt Jew. That man had held influence over a mind shocked by degrading idolatry, yet open to displays of power... But the proconsul (not "deputy" or legate, as the King James Version has it) had a conscience at work and, by grace, an ear for the truth. It soon turned toward what was of God when the testimony reached his soul.
He did not send for a display of power. He sent for a message. One writer traces that desire back to an emptiness pagan religion could not fill.
There the proconsul, a prudent and thoughtful man, asks to hear the gospel. A false prophet was already around him. That man took advantage of the felt need of a soul which, while ignorant, was longing for something to fill the void it felt in the emptiness of pagan ceremonies and in its disgusting immorality. Even so, the proconsul sends for Barnabas and Saul.
Miracles can impress a man without saving him. One writer sets Sergius Paulus beside another man in Acts who was drawn by miracles.
Faith founded on miracles is worth so little that the Saviour refused to commit Himself to believers of this sort when they surrounded Him (John 2:23-25). True faith rests on the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Miracles attracted Simon Magus, and he proved a fraud. Sergius Paulus wanted to hear the Word of God, and so became a true disciple (Acts 8:13; Acts 13:7, 12).
The next verse shows the magician fighting back. The opposition starts the moment the governor asks to hear.
The proconsul had called for Barnabas and Saul to hear the word of God from them. When the magician found that out, he not only withstood them, but tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith... One man presented the gospel; the other tried to stop it being received... God in His grace seeks our blessing — the devil our curse. Here, then, we find a man wanting to hear the word of God, and Satan using one of his children — a magician — to turn him away.
Another writer adds that the man's rank made the conflict sharper.
For a man of the Deputy's position to turn to God was too good an advertisement for the Christian faith to pass without a challenge.
In this verse the order is "Barnabas and Saul." Elsewhere the two names are reversed, and one writer sees the same pattern in the Old Testament.
Sometimes the order is "Barnabas and Paul"; elsewhere it is "Paul and Barnabas"... The reader of the Old Testament may find a similar principle in Exodus 6:13, 20, 26 and 27. In the order of nature it is "Aaron and Moses"; in sovereign grace it becomes "Moses and Aaron."
- Accuracy. Luke uses the right Roman title for Cyprus, and the right titles in city after city. That care marks him as a faithful historian.
- Appetite. Sergius Paulus was intelligent, but more was at work in him: a conscience, and an emptiness that pagan religion could not fill.
- Asking. He called for Barnabas and Saul and asked for the word of God — not for a display of power.
- Attack. The magician moved against the message the moment that desire appeared. God seeks our blessing; the devil seeks our curse.
- Answer. What settles a soul is the word, not wonders. Sergius Paulus heard it and became a true disciple.
But Elymas the magician (for so his name is by interpretation) opposed them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith.
The gospel had just reached Cyprus. At Paphos the Roman governor asked to hear the word of God, and a sorcerer at his side stepped in to pull him away before he could believe.
The man had two names. "Bar-Jesus" was given to him; "Elymas" was the title he traded under. At Paphos two kinds of resistance met at once.
At its capital, Nea Paphos, the gospel collided with more than Jewish prejudice. Religious fraud and sorcery had sharpened that prejudice and made it bitter. … The interest of the Roman governor stirred up the jealous opposition of the corrupt Jew. This man had held influence over a mind shocked by degrading idolatry but open to displays of power, with some show of revelation about them. What could damage the Jewish impostor's influence more than the grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ? But the proconsul had a conscience at work, and by grace an ear for the truth. It soon turned toward what was of God, when the testimony reached his soul. Bar-Jesus (meaning son of Jesus, or Joshua) called himself "Elymas", the wise man, or magician.
The name he chose for himself advertised the trade he lived by, and that trade was now under threat.
A renegade Jew, Bar-jesus, surnamed Elymas (an Arabic name, meaning "the wise," or "the occult"), a false prophet, was the tool Satan used. This sorcerer would feel that his own craft was in danger, and so he tried to turn the governor away from the faith.
A man who lives off his hold on a ruler will fight anything that loosens it.
Elymas withstands them. This was natural. He would lose his influence with the governor if the governor received the truth that Paul preached. Now Elymas was a Jew.
Sergius Paulus now had a choice to make. One speaker gave; the other only took away.
Bar-Jesus was also a Jew. The proconsul had called for Barnabas and Saul to hear the word of God from them. When he saw this, he not only withstood them; he tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. His object was plain. Sergius Paulus was now in real difficulty. He had to decide between rival claims and find, if he could, where the truth lay. Both speakers were Jewish, and both could appeal to the Scriptures. While the one presented the gospel, the other tried to hinder its reception. The one acted positively, giving out good. The other acted negatively, working to stop anyone accepting it. This last, in some form, is always Satan's way. God in His grace seeks our blessing — the devil our curse.
Several writers read this one man as standing for something larger. He is a Jew who will not have the gospel himself and works to keep a Gentile from having it either.
All the more, then, he is the true picture of the Jew. Judaism fell through opposition to Christ into the power of the enemy, and then became the most bitter of foes. Such is this Bar Jesus, with his fair name and his practice of occult arts, a false prophet through and through. He is the worst hindrance to the Gentile inquirer, and a stubborn refuser of salvation on his own account.
Commentators read the judgment that followed in the same way, and its time limit as part of the same picture.
He was an enemy of all righteousness. He tried to keep the Word from the Roman, Sergius Paulus. In this way the Jews tried to keep the gospel from reaching the Gentiles. The judgment that fell on this wicked Jew pictures the judicial blindness that has come on the Jews. This sorcerer who opposed the gospel was not to see the sun for a season. In the same way, the blindness of the Jews is not permanent.
The real question at Paphos was which power stood behind which man.
Elymas was a Jew who had turned from his faith and sold himself to the service of the devil. He became the chief opponent of the gospel at Paphos. Satan's power came out in him. In the same way the power of the Holy Spirit energised Saul. Here was a striking and drastic proof that "he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).
- Name — He called himself "Elymas" — the wise man, or magician. "Bar-Jesus" was a fair name, and he practised occult arts behind it.
- Motive — His hold on the governor was at risk, so he fought the message that would end it.
- Method — He gave nothing; he only worked to keep the word from a man who wanted it. Commentators call this Satan's usual way: God seeks our blessing, the enemy our curse.
- Picture — One Jew kept the word from a Gentile. That pictures a nation refusing salvation and blocking others. The blindness that follows is for a season, not forever.
- Outcome — Satan's power worked in Elymas; the Holy Spirit's power worked in Saul. The greater power won, and the governor kept his ear for the truth.
But Saul, who also [is] Paul, filled with [the] Holy Spirit, fixing his eyes upon him,
Barnabas and Saul have crossed Cyprus to Paphos. There the Roman governor asks to hear the word of God, and a Jewish sorcerer tries to stop him. At this moment Luke drops the name Saul and starts using Paul.
The change of name comes at the start of a mission aimed outward, beyond Israel.
When Elymas opposed Barnabas and Saul, Luke names him "Saul, who was also called Paul." The Spirit of God takes this opportunity to bring forward his Gentile name. The mission was to be mainly among the Gentiles, although it began with the Jew according to the ways of God. Then, filled with the Holy Spirit, he sets his eyes on the evil worker, gives him his true character, and searches him through and through.
A popular guess is that he borrowed the name from the governor he had just met, Sergius Paulus. One writer rules that out and gives the plain sense of the word:
Some have suggested that he took the name in honour of Sergius Paulus, but that is incorrect. Paul is a Roman name, and it means "little." Later he writes of himself as "less than the least of all saints." He took the lowest place, and the name that means this now comes to the front. Barnabas takes second place. It is no longer Barnabas and Saul, but Paul and Barnabas.
Commentators differ on whether the name was new. Some read Luke's wording as a note about a name already held:
The historian in no way suggests that the name Paul was now given for the first time. His way of introducing it would confirm that impression. "Saul, who was also called Paul," are his words. The ordinary reader would conclude that Saul already bore the name of Paul. Now he was working among Greeks and Gentiles. To Greek ears his Hebrew name would suggest anything but honour, since Saul in Greek means conceited or affected. So he was content to bear his Roman name. It might suggest he was small in height, but it carried nothing that would stir prejudice against him.
The meaning of the name and the shift in leadership arrive together.
From this point in the story Luke gives Saul his new name of Paul, which means Little. At the same time we see the Spirit thrusting him into the leading position in service and ministry. So in verse 13 the phrase used is "Paul and his company." There is a designed connection, we think, between the change of name and the change of position. He who is Little becomes the Leader.
Scripture uses two different phrases about the Spirit. This verse uses "filled with," not "full of."
"Full of the Holy Spirit" tells us, it seems, of what usually marked the person. Scripture describes Stephen and Barnabas this way. "Filled with the Spirit" is different. Scripture uses that phrase for vessels taken up for God's service, whether for a longer or a shorter time.
The filling meets a moment of conflict. Paul faces a man serving the enemy.
He was filled with the Spirit as he stood against Satan's power. What boldness! What faith it involved! And yet the power was not his own.
Paul's words to Elymas are severe. One writer warns against copying the tone without the same leading:
In answer to the cunning opposition of Elymas the sorcerer, Paul did an unusually solemn thing. His words were startling. They exposed the man as full of all deceit and mischief, a child of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness. Normally we ought never to go this far in speaking to a man, but Paul was clearly led by the Spirit of God in doing so.
The blindness that falls on Elymas is the same trouble Paul himself once knew on the Damascus road.
Satan's power was expressed in Elymas. In the same way the power of the Holy Spirit energised Saul. Here was striking and drastic proof that "he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). After three days the scales had fallen from the eyes of Saul. On Elymas there came a mist and darkness, which fitly matched the misty darkness of his mind.
- Little — Paul is a Roman name meaning "little." The man now leading takes the lowest place.
- Lifted — Where he becomes Little, the Spirit moves him to the front. "Barnabas and Saul" becomes "Paul and his company."
- Filled — "Filled with the Spirit" describes a vessel taken up for God's service, not a permanent state. Here it meets one hour of conflict.
- Fearless — The boldness to unmask Elymas was real faith, but the power behind it was not Paul's own.
- Fitting — The blindness matches the darkness in the man's mind. It also mirrors the three days of darkness Saul himself once passed through.
said, O full of all deceit and all craft son of [the] devil, enemy of all righteousness; wilt thou not cease perverting the right paths of [the] Lord?
At Paphos the Roman governor asks to hear the word of God, and a Jewish sorcerer tries to stop him. Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, answers him in four blows — words that raise the question of whether we may ever speak like this.
His opposition was self-defence. The title he took told people what he wanted them to think of him.
A renegade Jew, Bar-jesus, surnamed Elymas (an Arabic name, meaning "the wise," or "the occult"), a false prophet, was the tool Satan used. This sorcerer would feel that his own craft was in danger, and he therefore sought to turn the Deputy from the faith.
His birth name pointed one way and his life another.
A Jewish false prophet and sorcerer named Bar-Jesus ("son of Jesus" — a deceitfully misleading name!) was there. He opposed God's word and tried to turn Sergius Paulus against the truth that Barnabas and Saul preached.
The first charge, "full of all deceit," rests on a word the New Testament uses elsewhere.
This word is often translated "guile" in the New Testament. It means cunning, craftiness, and plotting to deceive. It usually has to do with what a person says. There was no guile found in the mouth of Christ (1 Peter 2:22)… Elymas the sorcerer was full of it, for it was part of his wicked stock-in-trade (Acts 13:10).
The phrase is not about physical descent. In Scripture, "son of" regularly marks resemblance.
Besides using this term for natural birth, Scripture also uses it as a picture. The name 'son' implies 'likeness.' It marks moral likeness, as of a son to a father — so 'a son of Belial,' 1 Samuel 25:17; 'you son of the devil,' Acts 13:10; 'sons of disobedience,' Ephesians 5:6; also 'sons of light' and 'sons of day,' 1 Thessalonians 5:5.
Paul does not throw the title around. It lands on a man who has already shown what he is, and it lands in public.
Many perhaps stood in awe of him, afraid of the power he held. Now he met one who was not afraid to face him, and to unmask him before everyone. "You son of the devil!" Scripture calls no one a child or a son of the devil until he has shown determined and persistent opposition.
The last charge names work that did not die with Elymas. One writer sees the same enemy at work now, and points to the armour that answers him.
It is with these tricks that we have to wrestle. It is armour fitted to meet the corrupter of the truth, the one who never stops perverting the right ways of the Lord (Acts 13:10). It is the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.
One writer reads the scene as more than one man's downfall. A Jew blocking a Gentile's path to the light becomes a portrait.
I have no doubt that in this wretched Bar-jesus we see a picture of the Jews at the present time. They are struck with blindness for a season, because they are jealous of the influence of the gospel. To fill up the measure of their sin, they opposed the preaching of it to the Gentiles. They are opposed to grace and seek to destroy its effect on the Gentiles, so they have been struck with blindness — still only for a season.
Paul's words are recorded, not recommended. One writer weighs what the Spirit did through an apostle against what we may copy, and shows where Paul aimed his closing question. Where the quote says "mischief," the ESV reads "villainy."
In answer to the cunning opposition of Elymas the Sorcerer, Paul did a very solemn thing. His words were startling. They exposed the man as full of all deceit and mischief, a child of the devil and an enemy of all righteousness. Normally we ought never to go this far in speaking to a man, but Paul was clearly led by the Spirit of God in doing so. He also appeals to the man's conscience about his perverting the right ways of the Lord.
Another adds a caution for how we judge others: not every opponent is beyond hope.
Spiritually minded people can spot some children of the devil quickly. But remember: many a rebel child of disobedience, who might have been taken for a child of the devil, has been broken down under conviction of sin and brought to repentance through the goodness of God.
- Mask — "Elymas" advertised wisdom and the occult; "Bar-Jesus" means son of Jesus. Both names hid a man defending his own trade against the truth.
- Unmasking — Paul's four words strip the disguise. Deceit is in his mouth, the devil's likeness in his nature, hostility to righteousness in his aim.
- Likeness — "Son of" marks resemblance, not birth. Scripture waits to use this title until opposition is settled and deliberate.
- Perverting — Bending the Lord's straight ways is still the enemy's work. The armour that meets him is truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the Spirit.
- Season — The blindness was real judgment, but limited. One writer sees in it a nation blinded for a time for blocking the gospel to the Gentiles.
And now behold, [the] Lord's hand [is] upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell upon him a mist and darkness; and going about he sought persons who should lead him by the hand.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Then the proconsul, seeing what had happened, believed, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.
On Cyprus, a sorcerer tried to keep the Roman governor from the faith, and at Paul's word the sorcerer went blind. Commentators press one question here: did the miracle make the governor a believer, or the teaching?
The verse gives two things together: what he saw, and what amazed him. Writers are careful about which one produced faith.
The proconsul believed, and it was the teaching of the Lord that impressed him, not the miracle.
The distinction matters. Evidence can convince a mind without changing a heart:
It was not the wonder which struck him most, but the truth he was taught. The miracle caught his attention, no doubt, and well it might. But how many people like Simon Magus may have been amazed as they watched signs and great works of power! Faith grounded on such evidence is only natural, and has no divine root. The senses are struck, the reason is convinced, the mind receives the testimony, and the mouth confesses it. But there is no life until the conscience is awakened to one's own evil before God. And there is no life until Christ becomes the object of the soul, given as the gift of God's love to a guilty sinner in pure grace. Sergius was amazed at the teaching, which brought God before his soul and brought him into God's presence. This alone is effectual. It is eternal life.
Several writers set Sergius Paulus beside Simon Magus, a sorcerer amazed by miracles earlier in Acts. The same evidence took the two men in opposite directions.
Simon Magus was attracted by miracles, and proved a fraud; Sergius Paulus desired to hear the Word of God, and so became a true disciple.
Fereday adds why the difference is not an accident: "Miracles can catch and convince the mind, and they can confirm faith where it already exists. But only the word of God can lay bare the heart and conscience."
Luke calls him a proconsul — the Roman governor of the province. He had already asked to hear the message, and one writer notes what that shows:
What strikes one in Sergius Paulus is his evident desire to hear. His mind was open. A clash of different teachings did not stop him from listening to both sides, but grace enabled him to believe the truth.
Two results stood side by side in Paphos: one man believing, one man blind.
Two men were left behind as illustrations: one of divine grace, the other of God's government. Sergius Paulus received blessing for eternity. Elymas was to be blind for a season. Mercy tempered the judgment.
Several writers see something larger in the pairing. Kelly reads the blinded sorcerer as a picture of a whole nation: "Bar-Jesus becomes a striking picture of the Jews. They were blinded themselves while trying to turn the blind Gentiles away from the light of life. Yet it is not for ever, but 'for a season'."
If the miracle was not the true cause, what does faith marvel at most?
In the eyes of faith, no display of power, however wonderful, is as amazing as the grace of God in saving the lost through His own Son. God enabled the governor to receive this, and we never hear another word about the great man. The gospel gives to the greatest on earth; but it receives no glory from man.
Scripture records the conversion of a Roman governor and then says nothing more about him. The account keeps no trophy.
- Desire — He asked to hear before he saw anything. His mind was open, he listened to both sides, "but grace enabled him to believe the truth."
- Opposition — The sorcerer who fought the message went blind for a season, while the governor received blessing for eternity. Even that judgment was mixed with mercy.
- Sight — He saw the miracle, and it caught his attention. But sight alone is where Simon Magus stopped: signs can strike the senses and convince the reason, yet leave the conscience untouched.
- Astonishment — The teaching amazed him because it brought God before his soul and brought him into God's presence. Life begins there, not in evidence.
- Silence — After he believes, Scripture says nothing more about him. The gospel gives everything to the greatest on earth, but receives no glory from man.
And having sailed from Paphos, Paul and his company came to Perga of Pamphylia; and John separated from them and returned to Jerusalem.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.