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.