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.