But a certain man, by name Simon, had been before in the city, using magic arts, and astonishing the nation of Samaria, saying that himself was some great one.
Acts 8 brings the gospel to Samaria, and there it meets a rival: a man who had held the city under his influence for a long time. Two questions follow — what power was Simon using, and what happens to it when the good news about Christ arrives?
The verse names Simon's trade before anything else. One writer sums up who he was and how he built his hold on the people.
Who was that sorcerer? His name was Simon, and people usually call him Magus. That title points to his profession — a magician or sorcerer. By his magical arts he had bewitched the people, and had established himself in their eyes as a marvel. He gave himself out for some great one.
He was not the only one. The New Testament names others who practiced the same arts.
In the New Testament, besides the slave girl who had a spirit of divination, we read of others. Simon used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria for a long time (Acts 8:9-11). Elymas the sorcerer, a Jew met in Cyprus, perverted the right ways of the Lord (Acts 13:6, 8). Sorcery ranks with the grossest of sins.
The wording is careful. He said he was somebody great, but he never said what made him great. The vagueness did his work for him.
He had dazzled them with wonder-working. He was content to drop a mysterious hint about its source: some greatness in himself beyond nature. That left their imaginations to go further than his cautious claim. For them he came to be "the power of God which is called great"; but before the true power of God all this collapsed.
Commentators do not treat Simon's hold as mere showmanship. They see him as an agent, and the city as ground the enemy already held.
The power over unclean spirits stands out here. In this and in other ways, Samaria appears to be largely under the power of the enemy, despite its professed worship of the true God. The truth had begun to work among them. That may well have stirred up special resistance from one who knew its power. Simon the sorcerer had been his special agent, sent to distract the Samaritans and turn their minds away from the truth.
Philip also worked wonders in that city. The difference between the two men lay in who they put forward.
To those captivated by Simon, Philip preached — not himself, however, but Christ. How different he must have appeared to them all from the sorcerer. Both did wonders. Simon exalted himself, and accepted the crowd's flattery. Philip preached Another, and enlisted the converts as disciples of Christ. He sank himself, his glory, his greatness, in the excellency of the One whom he preached.
A hold built over years came to an end. Commentators point to the message itself as the thing that broke it.
Simon's sorcery and falsehoods did great damage, leading on to his own blasphemous claims. We are told here that he misled everyone around him, small and great. What use are rank or education to guard from error? Yet all of it vanished like smoke before the light of the gospel. "The kingdom of God" and "the name of Jesus" wiped out the Samaritan's empty tricks and shameless frauds.
Philip came with the gospel of Christ, and that broke this man's spell. Nothing else can deliver people from slavery to Satan, whatever form that slavery takes.
Verse 13 says Simon believed and was baptized. Commentators read that response in the light of what impressed him.
Alas! it was the miracles and signs that struck him, not the word of God. Faith founded on miracles is worth very little. The Lord, when He was here, would not entrust Himself to such faith (John 2:23-25). Miracles may arrest and convince the mind. They may confirm faith where it already exists. But the word of God alone can lay bare the heart and conscience. This the unhappy Simon never knew.
- Claim — Simon's trade was sorcery. He hinted at some greatness in himself and let the crowd's imagination supply the rest.
- Capture — The hint worked on everyone, small and great; rank and education guarded no one from the error.
- Contrast — Philip did wonders too, but he preached Another. Simon exalted himself and took the applause.
- Collapse — Years of influence vanished like smoke before the light of the gospel. Nothing else sets people free from such bondage.
- Caution — The signs amazed Simon, but the word never searched him. Faith resting on miracles alone never reaches the conscience.
To whom they had all given heed, from small to great, saying, This is the power of God which is called great.
A whole city, from the lowest to the highest, had settled on one verdict about one man: he was God's power in person. The verse shows what a crowd will believe when a show of power comes without the truth of God.
The crowd's words are more than praise. One commentator points to a single word in them, and to what the oldest manuscripts say about it:
The oldest manuscripts keep the word "called"; the less reliable copies leave it out. The copyists probably did not see why it mattered and thought someone had simply added it. The word expresses the outrageous assumption of the impostor.
Behind the crowd's verdict lay a deliberate substitute for the truth:
The enemy seemed to be in possession like a flood. But the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him in the preaching of Philip, backed by the signs Philip did in front of their eyes. … Satan had sought to blot out the truth and set up a rival in sorcery. Sorcery is always ready to seduce, interest, and alarm those who do not know the true God. … The energy of the Spirit was at work in Samaria through a free herald of the gospel. This came after Jerusalem had refused the testimony with hatred to the point of death.
Nobody was exempt — not the educated, not the leading citizens. And one thing broke the whole system:
Simon's sorcery and falsehoods did great damage, and they led to his own blasphemous claims about himself. We are told here that he misled everyone around him, small and great. What use are rank or education in guarding a person from error? Yet it all vanished like smoke before the light of the gospel. "The kingdom of God" and "the name of Jesus" destroyed the empty trickery and shameless frauds of the Samaritan.
Why would a man work to gather a title like this? One writer names two motives, and the only thing that can break such a hold:
Self-exaltation and personal gain were his objects, as with every other misleader, ancient and modern. … Philip's coming with the gospel of Christ broke this man's spell. There is indeed nothing else that can deliver people from slavery to Satan, whatever form that slavery may take.
Set the crowd's great man beside the One Philip preached, and the contrast is total:
Pride and self-exaltation have always been the marks of man. So people have become easy prey for Satan, whose thoughts and desires have always been set against God and His Christ. What a contrast we see in the blessed Man whom Philip preached! … Here was a blessed Man whose ways were exactly opposite to those of every other man.
Loud claims to power should make a reader cautious. One writer holds the crowd's cry up as a mirror for today:
The Lord hates pretension to power in a day such as the present. The display of merely human power which we see on all sides is nothing like the power of the Spirit. Those who make loud claims that the power of God is with them resemble the crowds who followed Simon Magus, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called Great." They also resemble Laodicea, which says, "I am rich," not knowing that she is "wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked."
- Claimed power. The crowd's title carried Simon's own outrageous assumption. The word "called" marks it as a claim, not a fact.
- Borrowed power. Satan set up sorcery as a rival to the truth. It seduces, interests and alarms people who do not know the true God.
- Unquestioned power. Simon misled everyone, small and great. Rank and education guard nobody from error.
- Broken power. The kingdom of God and the name of Jesus made the whole system vanish like smoke. Nothing but the gospel of Christ frees people from slavery to Satan.
- Counterfeit power. Self-exaltation was Simon's aim. It is the reverse of the Man Philip preached, whose ways were the opposite of every other man's. So loud talk about having God's power should make us cautious, not impressed.
And they gave heed to him, because that for a long time he had astonished them by his magic arts.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.