who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understanding. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fastened his eyes on him, and said, “You son of the devil, full of all deceit and all cunning, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is on you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a season!” Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him. He went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
Then the proconsul, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7. And whereas Sergius Paulus, desiring some better thing…
7. And whereas Sergius Paulus, desiring some better thing than that which he had learned from his childhood, was unaptly drawn aside unto diverse superstitions, I gather hereby that he sendeth for Paul and Barnabas of his own accord, to teach him. Therefore, he had conceived a certain reverence and fear of God, though he knew him not as yet; and forasmuch as he was persuaded that that was the true God which was worshipped in Judea, he desired to know out of his word a pure and certain rule of godliness. So soon as he hath tasted of the dotings of the false prophet he standeth in doubt. And it is not to be doubted, but that God doth solicit his mind, that he may not be altogether stayed in vanity, though he suffered himself to be deceived for a time by a wicked man.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv8, 10, 11 The devil maketh the conquest of Christ more glorious,…
The devil maketh the conquest of Christ more glorious, in that that he setteth himself against him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7 Which was with the deputy of the country,…
7 Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God.
Ver. 7. Which was with the deputy] The greater opposites to the truth have been ever the greatest courtiers. The Arians in their age. And of them the Jesuits learned it, and of them the Arminians, as Utenbogardus in the Low Countries, and Canterbury here.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–12 The deputy of the country; whether he was pro-consul…
The deputy of the country; whether he was pro-consul or proprietor, it is in effect the same; for he it was that governed the island.
Desired to hear the word of God; this desire was extraordinary, and wrought by God, in order to the fitting him for the further mercy of his conversion and salvation. Where such a desire is, it shall be granted: Ask, and it shall be given you, Luk 11:9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Which was with the deputy of the country, &c.…
Which was with the deputy of the country, &c. Or the Roman governor of the island; who very likely dwelt at Paphos, it being a principal, if not the principal city in the island, since Pliny mentions it first of all the cities in it, as before observed: and with this governor, or proconsul, as the word signifies, or rather praetor, Bar-jesus was: either he lived with him, making great pretensions to knowledge and learning, which the governor might be a favourer of, or in quality of a physician; the Ethiopic version adds, "and he was a servant of the governor"; or he might be only with him occasionally and accidentally, just at that time, though the former seems most likely: and the name of this deputy was Sergius Paulus; the name of Paulus was common among the Romans; Pliny the younger speaks (b) of one Passienus Paulus, a famous Roman knight, and very learned, who wrote elegies; and Trajan (c), in an epistle to him, makes mention of Paulus the proconsul; and Pliny the older, among his authors from whom he compiled his history, cites one of this very name, Sergius Paulus (d). The island of Cyprus was at this time in the hands of the Romans, and this man was the governor of it; it was first inhabited by some of the sons of Japhet; Josephus (e) assigns it to Cittim: Cittim, he says,
"had the island Chetima, which now is called Cyprus; and from it all the islands, and most places about the sea, are called Chethim by the Hebrews; and as a proof of what I say, (adds he,) one of the cities in Cyprus still retains the name; for it is called Citium by those who have made it Greek, and not much differing from the name Chethimus.''
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After the Trojan war, it came into the hands of the Grecians; and continued with them from the times of Teucer, until Evagoras and his son Nicocles; and then it fell into the hands of the Romans, and through them to the kings of Egypt; and after them became a Roman colony, in the following manner: Clodius Pulcher condemned Cyprus to the Roman people, to possess which Cato being sent, Ptolomy the king of the island, having cast his money into the sea, prevented the ignominy of it by a voluntary death, Anno U. C. 698 (f). The Roman historian says (g), Cyprus being conquered, the glory of it was not assigned to any, seeing it was made a province by the decree of the senate, by the means of Cato, through the death of the king, which he brought upon himself; and from that time, as Strabo says (h), it became a praetorian province, and was now governed by a praetor, though he is called a deputy, or proconsul; the reason of which Dr. Hammond thinks was, because that P. Lentulus, Ap. Claudius, and M. Cicero, being proconsuls of Cilicia, had the administration of Cyprus also granted to them by the senate; hence afterwards the governors of Cyprus were called proconsuls, or deputies. This same Greek word here used, is adopted by the Jewish Rabbins into their language; hence we read of "the deputy", or "proconsul" of Caesarea (i); which is explained by a governor, and a judge (k) or a third from the king (l); and it is refined in the Syriac version: this deputy is said to be a "prudent man". The Arabic version seems to distinguish Paul the prudent man, from Sergius the deputy, or tribune, as it calls him; reading the words thus, "who was by Sergius the tribune, with Paul a prudent man"; but Sergius and Paulus undoubtedly design one and the same man, who was prudent: he is said to be "a prudent man", in the management of his affairs, as a governor; and might be very learned, ingenious, and an understanding man; a man of great sagacity and penetration, who very likely saw through the vain pretensions, and impostures of Bar-jesus, and was desirous to expose him in a public manner; or at least might conclude he would be discovered and exposed by those good men, who were come into the city; and what follows seems to be mentioned as an instance of his prudence:
who called for Barnabas and Saul; sent messengers to them, to desire them to come to him; Barnabas is mentioned first, though the inferior person, because he was a native of the country, and might be best known:
and desired to hear the word of God; whether this was at first from mere curiosity, or from any political view, or from a true desire of knowing the way of life and salvation, which might be wrought in his soul by the Spirit of God, is not certain; though the latter seems most likely, since it issued in his conversion.
(b) L. 6. ep. 15. p. 139. (c) Ib. l. 10. ep. 68. p. 267. (d) Elenchos Hist. ex autoribus, l. 2. & 1. 18. (e) Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1. (f) Petav. Rationar. Temp. par. 1. l. 4. c. 18. p. 191. (g) Velleius Paterculus, l. 2. (h) Geograph. l. 14. p. 471. (i) T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 9. 1. Midrash Kohelet, fol. 66. 3. & 82. 2. (k) Arnch apud Mattanot Cehuna in Midrash ib. (l) David de Pomis Lex, Heb. fol. 9. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10, 11, 12 The proconsul - The Roman governor of Cyprus, a…
The proconsul - The Roman governor of Cyprus, a prudent man - And therefore not overswayed by Elymas, but desirous to inquire farther.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Verse 7. The deputy of the country] ανθυπατω, The…
Verse 7. The deputy of the country] ανθυπατω, The proconsul. Rosenmuller and others remark, that in those days the Romans sent two different kinds of governors into the provinces. Some of the provinces were Caesarean or imperial, and into those they sent propretors; others belonged to the senate and people of Rome, and into those they sent proconsuls. Cyprus had formerly been an imperial province; but Augustus, who made the distinction, had given it to the people, whence it was governed by a proconsul. See Dion Cass. Hist. Rom. lib. iv. p. 523. [Edit. Leunclav.]
Sergius Paulus] This proconsul is not mentioned any where else: he became a Christian, had his name written in the book of life, and, probably on that very account, blotted out of the Fasti Consulares.
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A prudent man] ανδρι συνετω, A man of good sense, of a sound understanding, and therefore wished to hear the doctrine taught by these apostles; he did not persecute the men for their preaching, but sent for them that he might hear for himself.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv9, 12 Act 13:9-11. Then Saul, who also is called Paul…
Act 13:9-11. Then Saul, who also is called Paul — Moved by an immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him — Looked steadfastly on that impostor, and said, with just indignation, O full of all subtlety — Παντος δολου, of all guile, as a false prophet; and all mischief — As a magician; thou child of the devil — A title well suited to a magician; and one who not only was himself unrighteous, but laboured to keep others from all goodness; wilt thou not cease — Even now, when thou hast heard the truth of the gospel; to pervert — By thy crafty and diabolical misrepresentations; the right ways of the Lord — The ways of truth, piety, and virtue; the only right ways. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee — The hand of the heavy displeasure of the Lord Jesus, whose gospel thou opposest; and thou shalt be blind — Totally so, not seeing even the sun at noon-day, for a season — That thou mayest be convinced of thy sin and folly; and, if possible, be brought to repentance for it. And immediately — While Paul was yet speaking; there fell on him a mist and a darkness — That is, a gradually increasing darkness; and he went about — In the utmost confusion; seeking some to lead him by the hand — As not being able so much as to find the door without a guide, and afraid that he might run upon any person or thing that stood in his way.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Which was with the deputy - Or with the…
Which was with the deputy - Or with the proconsul. The exact accuracy of Luke in this statement is worthy of special remark. In the time when Augustus united the world under his own power, the provinces were divided into two classes. Augustus found two names which were applied to public officers in existence, one of which was henceforward inseparably blended with the imperial dignity and with military command, and the other with the authority of the senate and its civil administration. The first of these names was “Praetor”; the other was “Consul.” What is to be accounted for here is that the latter is the name given by Luke to Sergius Paulus, as if he derived his authority from the senate. The difficulty in the ease is this: that Augustus told the senate and the people of Rome that he would resign to them those provinces where soldiers were unnecessary to secure a peaceful administration, and that he would himself take the care and risk of the other provinces where the presence of the Roman legions would be necessary.
Hence, in the time of Augustus, and in the subsequent reigns of the emperors, the provinces were divided into these two classes; the one governed by men who went forth from the senate, and who would be styled Proconsul, ἀνθύπατος anthupatos - the term used here; and the other those sent forth by the emperor, and who would be styled Procurator, Ἐπίτροπος Epitropos or Proproetor, Ἀντιστράτηγος Antistratēgos. Both these kind of officers are referred to in the New Testament. Now we are told by Strabo and Dio Cassius that “Asaia” and “Achaia” were assigned to the senate, and the title, therefore, of the governor would be Proconsul, as we find in Act 18:12; Act 19:38. At the same time, Dio Cassius informs us that Cyprus was retained by the emperor for himself, and the title of the governor, therefore, would naturally have been, not “Proconsul,” as here, but “Procurator.” Yet it so happens that Dio Cassius has stated the reason why the title “Proconsul” was given to the governor of Cyprus, in the fact which he mentions that “Augustus restored Cyprus to the senate in exchange for another district of the empire.” It is this statement which vindicates the strict accuracy of Luke in the passage before us. See Life and Epistles of Paul, vol. 1, pp. 142-144, and also Lardner’s Credibility, part 1, chapter 1, section 11, where he has fully vindicated the accuracy of the appellation which is here given to Sergius by Luke.
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Sergius Paulus, a prudent man - The word here rendered “prudent” means “intelligent, wise, learned.” It also may have the sense of candid, and may have been given to this man because he was of large and liberal views; of a philosophic and inquiring turn of mind; and was willing to obtain knowledge from any source. Hence, he had entertained the Jews; and hence, he was willing also to listen to Barnabas and Saul. It is not often that men of rank are thus willing to listen to the instructions of the professed ministers of God.
Who called for Barnabas and Saul - It is probable that they had preached in Paphos, and Sergius was desirous himself of hearing the import of their new doctrine.
And desired to hear ... - There is no evidence that he then wished to listen to this as divine truth, or that he was anxious about his own salvation, but it was rather as a speculative inquiry. It was a professed characteristic of many ancient philosophers that they were willing to receive instruction from any quarter. Compare Act 17:19-20.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv9–10 Then Saul, who also is Paul. This is the…
Then Saul, who also is Paul. This is the first time we find the apostle called Paul. Some, therefore, think it was given him when he converted this proconsul, Sergius Paulus. Others, that Saul being a Hebrew word, the Greeks, or rather the Romans, turned it into Paul. (Witham) --- This is the first place in which this apostle is called Paul. He took this name out of respect to the illustrious convert he had made in the person of the proconsul, the governor of the island. (Menochius) --- Or, more probably, his former name, by a small change, was modelled into Paulus, which was a sound more adapted to a Roman ear. He begins to bear this name only, when he enters on his mission to the Gentiles. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv7–12 Which was with the deputy--properly, "the proconsul." This name…
Which was with the deputy--properly, "the proconsul." This name was reserved for the governors of settled provinces, which were placed under the Roman Senate, and is never given in the New Testament to Pilate, Felix, or Festus, who were but procurators, or subordinate administrators of unsettled, imperial, military provinces. Now as Augustus reserved Cyprus for himself, its governor would in that case have been not a proconsul, but simply a procurator, had not the emperor afterwards restored it to the Senate, as a Roman historian [DIO CASSIUS] expressly states. In most striking confirmation of this minute accuracy of the sacred historian, coins have actually been found in the island, stamped with the names of proconsuls, both in Greek and Latin [AKERMAN, Numismatic Illustrations of the New Testament]. (GROTIUS and BENGEL, not aware of this, have missed the mark here).
Sergius Paulus, a prudent man--an intelligent man, who thirsting for truth, sent for Barnabas and Saul, desiring ("earnestly desiring") to hear the Word of God.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7. Deputy—The proconsul. When Augustus became by military fortune…
7. Deputy—The proconsul. When Augustus became by military fortune master of the Roman empire, he provided that all the provinces requiring a military government should be in his own imperial hands; and those at peace, and needing only a civil authority, should be in the hands of the Senate; thus skilfully retaining all military power under his own control. The provinces under the emperor were governed by a legatus or representative, namely, of the emperor. The provinces under the Senate were governed by a proconsul. This title is rendered deputy in our translation, from the fact that the officer was deputed by the Senate to govern under its authority. The original term proconsul really signifies literally a consul’s substitute, a title which was inherited by the Senate from the republican age of Rome. Now, a century ago, according to all existing evidence, it was supposed that Cyprus was under the emperor, and that its governor was not a proconsul, as Luke calls him, but a legatus, and Luke’s accuracy was impeached. And, in fact, it was governed by a legatus at first; but later investigations have historically proved that Augustus subsequently surrendered the island to the Senate; and thus was shown Luke’s peculiar accuracy in calling the governor just at this time proconsul. Later still a medal has been found bearing the picture and name of a proconsul of Cyprus.
A prudent man—An understanding man; namely, in the matters here discussed.
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Called—in consequence of his intelligent interest in spiritual and religious matters he had a desire to know what these preachers of the crucified Jesus could present.
Word of God—He sent not to see prodigies, but to hear truths. He both saw and heard, and, in consequence, believed.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–12 7. which was with the deputy of the country…
7. which was with the deputy of the country [proconsul], Sergius Paulus] Under Augustus the Roman provinces were divided into two classes, one class of which (needing the presence of troops for their government, and the possession of which gave the Emperor the control of the army) was called imperatorial, while the others were called senatorial provinces. The former were governed by an officer named proprætor, the latter by a proconsul. We know from Dio Cassius (liii. 12) that Cyprus was originally an imperatorial province, and therefore under a proprætor. This also Strabo confirms (xiv. 685), but says that Augustus made it over to the people along with Cyprus and part of Galatia, and took instead of these Dalmatia for one of his provinces. So that the government was at St Paul’s visit held by a proconsul for the Roman Senate, as is here recorded; and this is another instance of the historic faithfulness of St Luke’s record.
Of Sergius Paulus we know nothing, but the opportunities now afforded, by the English occupation of Cyprus, for the investigation of the antiquities of the island, may lead to some discovery of his name and office in coin or inscription.
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a prudent man] The presence of Elymas among his staff shews that the proconsul was a man of enquiring mind, and the same is displayed by his desire to hear Barnabas and Saul.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7–12 (7) Which was with the deputy of the country,…
(7) Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulius.—The translators consistently use the word “deputy” as representing the Greek for “proconsul.” It will be remembered that it was applied, under Elizabeth and James, to the governor, known in more recent times as the Viceroy, or Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and was therefore a very close approximation to the meaning of the Latin. The provinces of the Roman empire, under the organisation of Augustus, were divided (B.C. 27) into two classes. Those that were looked on as needing direct military control were placed under the emperor as commander of the legions, and were governed by proprætors, or generals; the others were left to the Senate, and were under the rule of proconsuls. Strabo (xiv. ad fin.) describes Cyprus as a military or proprætorian province, and this has led some to question St. Luke’s accuracy. It appears, however, that Augustus, in A.D. 22, re-assigned it to the Senate (Dio. Cass. iv. p. 523). Coins of Cyprus are extant, bearing the date of Claudius, and the name of Cominius Proclus as proconsul (Akerman, Numismatic Illustrations, pp. 39-42), and as stated above (Note on Act_13:4), one has recently been discovered in Cyprus itself, in which that title appears as borne by one of the name of Paulus. Under Hadrian, it appears to have been under a proprætor; under Severus, it was again under a proconsul. Of the proconsul himself we know nothing certain more than is recorded here. The name probably implied a connection with the old Æmilian gens, among whom, as in the case of the great conqueror of Macedonia, it was a favourite cognomen. Dr. Lightfoot has, however, pointed out that Pliny, writing circ. A.D. 90, names a Sergius Paulus as his chief authority for the facts in Books 2 and 18 of his Natural History, and that among these are two specially connected with Cyprus; and that Galen, writing circ. A.D. 150, speaks of one bearing the same name, also a proconsul, as a contemporary of his own, and as distinguished for his love of wisdom. Here, of course, identity is out of the question, but relationship is, at least, probable.
A prudent man.—The adjective describes what we should call general intelligence and discernment, as in Mat_11:25; Luk_10:21; 1Co_1:19. It was shown in this instance in his at once recognising the higher type of character presented by the Apostles, and desiring to know more of the “word” which they spake to him as a message from God.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–12 The proconsul for the deputy of the country, A.V.;…
The proconsul for the deputy of the country, A.V.; a man of understanding for a prudent man, A.V.; the same for who, A.V.; unto him for for, A.V.; sought for desired, A.V.. The proconsul (ajnqupatov); here and vers. 8, 12. This is an instance of Luke"s great accuracy. Cyprus had become a proconsular province in the reign of Claudius, having previously been one of the emperor"s provinces governed by a propraetor, or legatus. A man of understanding (ajndri sunetw). Sunetov is a rare word in the New Testament, and is always translated in the A.V. "prudent" (Mat_11:25; Luk_10:21; 1Co_1:19) It is common in the LXX, where it represents the Hebrew words ybime wObn lyKicm, and all signifying "intelligence," "skill," "knowledge," and the like. The substantive sunesiv has the same scope (see Luk_2:47; Eph_3:4; Col_1:9, etc.) ajnhv, therefore, means something more than a prudent man." It means a man of knowledge and superior intelligence and understanding. And such was Sergius Paulus, a noble Roman, who is twice named by Pliny in the list of authors placed at the commencement of his work as the authorities from whom he derived the matter contained in the several books. It is not a little remarkable that the two books, lib. it. and lib. 18., for which Sergius Paulus is quoted are just those which contain accounts of the heavenly bodies, and prognostications from the sun and moon and stars, from thunder, from the clouds, and such like things, which doubtless formed the staple of Elymas"s science; so that there can be little doubt that Sergius Paulus had Elymas with him, that he might learn from him such matters as might be useful for the hook which he was writing. There is also a curious passage in lib. 30. cap. 1. of the "Hist. Nat."(quoted by Lewin, vol. 1. p. 128), in which Pliny, after enumerating the most famous teachers of magic, Zoroaster, Orthanes, Pythagoras, and others, adds, "There is also another school of magic which springs from Moses and Jannes, who were Jews, but many thousand years later than Zoroaster; so much more recent is the school of Cyprus;" showing that he knew of a school of magic art at Cyprus taught by Jews, and leading us to infer that he had acquired this knowledge either from the pen or the mouth of Sergius Paulus. Anyhow, a remarkable confirmation of St. Luke"s narrative. Another Sergius Paulus, who might be a son or grandson of the proconsul, is highly commended by Galen for his eminent philosophical attainments (Lewin, vol. 1. p. 127). One L. Sergius Paulus was consul suffectus in A.D. 94, another in A.D. 168. Renan thinks they may have been descendants of the Sergius Paulus in the text.
Seekers after God.
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This passage introduces to us a Roman official, speaks of him in generally good terms as a prudent man," but lets us know something of his secret feelings and his unrest of heart, by adding that he "desired to hear the Word of God." The way in which heathen religions prepared the way for the gospel is often pointed out, but we have not yet adequately apprehended the fact that a Divine work of preparation was carried on in many heathen souls; such instances as this of Sergius Paulus being properly treated as prominent examples of a general fact. It is to the yearning of the heathen heart for the true God and the eternal life that St. Paul makes his appeals; and in later missionary work remarkable instances have been met with of soul-seeking for God, before the missionaries brought the gospel light. We ought, indeed, to expect to find men everywhere seeking after God, seeing that he hath made of one blood all nations to dwell upon the earth," and has never left himself without a witness;" but a conception of the exclusiveness of the revelation in Christ has so occupied Christian thought that the noble conception of Christ"s revelation as the ultimate issue and completion of all other revelations, is only now gaining acceptance. Men have so strongly felt the antagonistic sides of the heathen religions that they have failed to ask whether earnest souls within utterly corrupt systems may not be
Infants crying in the night; Infants crying for the light; And with no language but a cry.
Dean Plumptre gives an interesting inscription the date of which is, however, uncertain, and may be of the second or third century after Christ found at Galgoi, in Cyprus, which shows a yearning after something higher than the polytheism of Greece. It reads thus: "Thou, the one God, the greatest, the most glorious Name, help us all, we beseech thee." The unrest and anxious inquiring of Sergius Paulus are farther indicated in the fact that he had come into the power of Elymas the sorcerer, who evidently persuaded him that he could settle all his doubts. The subject introduced by this incident may be considered under the following divisions:
I THE NATURAL DISPOSITION OF MAN TO SEEK FOR GOD. Remember St. Augustine"s words, "Man is made for God, and can find no rest till he finds rest in him." Seeking God is necessary to the dependent creature, who must lean, and must find some one on whom he may perfectly lean. "A belief in some personal power, the arbiter of man"s destiny, above and beyond himself, is a primary necessity of the human mind. Mankind can never dispense with this belief, however superfluous in certain cases and for a time it may seem to be to the individual" (Canon Farrar). Much has been made of the fact that some tribes of men have been found which had no name for God, and indeed no knowledge of him or concern to hear about him; but it may fairly be urged, from the utterly degraded condition of these tribes, that men have never lost their care for God until they have virtually lost their manhood. Degraded to be like the beasts, they cease to have uplooking eyes and yearning hearts. Humanity is knit in brotherhood by its great united cry for its Father.
II THE THINGS THAT MAY TEMPORARILY SATISFY THE SEEKING. These take one of three forms; either:
1. The absorption of a man in purely material and selfish interests, which may overlay and crush down the soul"s great needs; just as now the world and its business and pleasure so often silence the soul"s cry in the Christian.
2. The teachings of a philosophy which attempts to put "thoughts" and" ideas" in the place of a living being.
3. So-called false religions, which give unworthy views of God, but, by ceremonial, seek to satisfy the religious instinct. Such religions offer, what man appears to need, a doctrine about God, and a cult or worship of him. It may be shown that, in subtle forms, men are enticed from their seekings, even in these Christian days, by one or other of these evil influences.
III THE UNREST WHICH SOONER OR LATER RETURNS. For man can only find permanent rest in that which is true. The false has no staying power." It may seem to fit at one time, but life advances, new needs arise, new thoughts stir within, and the false theory will no longer serve, the man finds himself looking out again, as anxiously as in the early days, and with the feeling that life is passing and the time for the quest is brief, for the truth and God wherein are final rest. Sooner or later a man wakes up from his sleep of delusion, feels the darkness all about him, and puts out his hand, feeling after God, if haply he may find him. The unrest that surely comes to men within the world"s care and pleasure, within skeptical philosophies, and within merely ceremonial religions, is our constant plea for the preaching of the gospel and the revelation to men of God, in Christ manifest.
IV THE RESPONSE WHICH GOD SURELY MAKES WHEN A WHOLE SOUL IS TURNED To HIM. He waiteth to be gracious, stands at the door ready for the opening, really wants every man to be saved, in the mystery of his great Fatherhood has a real need of souls, desires their love, finds his own joy in their trust, and so is sure to respond when men turn and seek him. And finding God, and coming into personal relations with him, is the end of man"s quest. Against God, and everything in life is hard and dark and wrong. Apart from God, and all life and relations lie bathed in the lurid glow of stormy passion and self-will. With God, and earth, life, duty, and fellowship catch the soft, sweet sunlight, and everything takes on its beauty and perfection. If we have God we have all; and we have all in God, in the God whom St. Paul preached, of whose glory Jesus the Man is the express and blessed image. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv9, 12 Then Saul (who also is called Paul).
Act_13:9-11
Then Saul (who also is called Paul).
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The crisis in Sauls history and his change of name
From this point Paul appears as the great figure in every picture, and Barnabas falls into the background. The great apostle now enters on his work as preacher to the Gentiles; and simultaneously his name is changed. As Abram was changed into Abraham when God promised that he should be the father of many nations; as Simon was changed into Peter when it was said, On this rock I will build My Church; so Saul is changed into Paul at the moment of his victory among the heathen. What the plains of Mamre were to the patriarch, what Caesarea Philippi was to the fisherman of Galilee, that was Paphos to the tent maker of Tarsus. Are we to suppose that the name was now given for the first time--that he adopted it as significant of his own feelings--or that Sergius Paulus conferred it on him in grateful commemoration of the benefits he had received, or that Paul, having been a Gentile form of the apostles name in early life conjointly with the Hebrew Saul, was now used to the exclusion of the other to indicate that he had receded from his position as a Jewish Christian, to become the friend and teacher of the Gentiles? We are inclined to the opinion that the Cilician apostle had this Roman name before he was a Christian. This adoption of a Gentile name is so far from being alien to the spirit of a Jewish family, that a similar practice may be traced through all the periods of Hebrew history. Beginning with the Persian epoch (B.C. 550-350), we find such names as Nehemiah, Sehammai, Betteshazzar, which betray an oriental origin, and show that Jewish appellatives followed the growth of the living language. In the Greek period we encounter the names of Philip, and his son Alexander, and of Alexanders successors--Antiochus, Lysimachus, Ptolemy, Antipater; the names of Greek philosophers, such as Zeus and Epicurus; even Greek mythological names, as Jason and Menelaus. When we mention the Roman names adopted by the Jews the coincidence is still more striking--Crispus, Justus, Niger, Drusilla and Priscilla might have been Roman matrons. The Aquila of St. Paul is the counterpart of the Apella of Horace. Again, in the earlier part of the Middle Ages we find Jews calling themselves Basil, Leo, Theodosius, Sophia, and in the latter part Albert, Benedict, Crispin, Denys. It is indeed remarkable that the separated nation should bear in the very names recorded in its annals the trace of every nation with whom it has come in contact and never united. It is important to our present purpose to remark that double names often occur in combination, the one national, the other foreign. The earliest instances are Belteshazzar-Daniel and Esther-Hadasa. Frequently there was no resemblance or natural connection between the two words, as in Herod-Agrippa, Salome-Alexandra, Inda-Aristobulus, Simon Peter. Sometimes the meaning was reproduced, as in Malich-Kleodemus. At other times an alliterating resemblance of sound seems to have dictated the choice, as in Jose-Jason, Hillel-Julus, Saul-Paulus. Thus satisfactory reasons can be adduced for the apostles double name without having recourse to the hypothesis of Jerome, who suggests that as Scipio was called Africanus from the conquest of Africa, and Metellus Creticus from the conquest of Crete, so Saul carried away his new name as a trophy of his victory over the heathenism of the proconsul Paulus, or to the notion of Augustine when he alludes to the literal meaning of the word Paulus, and contrasts Saul the unbridled king, the proud, self-confident persecutor of David, with Paul, the lowly, the penitent, who deliberately wished to indicate by his very name that he was the least of the apostles and less than the least of all saints. Yet we must not neglect the coincident occurrence of these two names just here. We need not hesitate to dwell on the associations which are connected with the name of Paulus, or on the thoughts which are naturally called up when we notice the critical passage where it is first given to Saul. It is surely not unworthy of notice that as Peters first Gentile convert was a member of the Cornelian house, so the surname of the noblest family of the Cornelian house was the link between the Apostle of the Gentiles and his convert at Paphos. Nor can we find a nobler Christian version of any line of a heathen poet than by comparing what Horace says of him who fell at Canute, Animae magnae prodigum Paulum, with the words of him who said at Miletus, I count not my life dear unto myself, etc. And though Saul most probably had the name of Paul at an earlier period, and that it came from some connection of his ancestors (perhaps as manumitted slaves) with some member of the AEmilian Pauli; yet we cannot believe it accidental that it occurs at this point of the inspired narrative. The heathen name rises to the surface at the moment Paul enters on his office as apostle to the heathen. The Roman name is stereotyped at the moment when he converts the Roman governor; and the place where this occurs is the very spot which was notorious for what the gospel forbids and destroys. Here, having achieved his victory, the apostle erected his trophy, as Moses, when Amalek was discomfited, built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi--the Lord my banner. (J. S. Howson, D. D.)
Filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, and said, O full of all subtlety and mischief.--
Sin and its punishment
Pauls rebuke, of course, applies to the specific iniquity of Elymas, but with a master hand the apostle at the same time delineates the characteristics of sin in general. The punishment of Elymas is also typical.
I. Sin.
1. Its subtle methods. There is nothing straightforward about sin; nor can there be: for were its nature and consequences clear, it would be universally shunned and abhorred. Its methods, therefore, must needs be crooked and insinuating. Evil is dressed up in the guise of good. The fruit of the tree was made pleasant to the eyes of Eve. So is it all through time.
2. Its mischievous effects. It debases the body, degrades the mind, debilitates the will, and damns the soul.
3. Its Satanic paternity. The serpent was more subtle than all the beasts of the field. The devil injects the sinful thought, guides the sinful resolution, helps the sinful action, and enjoys the sinful effect.
4. Its enmity to righteousness. Right and wrong are not coordinate powers which, like adjacent states, can flourish side by side and enter into peaceful alliances with each other. They are ever in irreconcilable antagonism, and the prosperity of the one is absolutely dependent on the destruction of the other.
5. Its perversion of the right ways of the Lord. This is the essence of sin. It is not simply negation, but perversion; and its highest achievement is to secure the acceptance of evil under the guise of good. Elymas, as a Jewish prophet, armed with the authority of a Divine dispensation, threw a spell over the mind of the proconsul, and endeavoured to use his usurped authority for selfish and villainous purposes. Wherein does he differ from the modern hypocrite?
II. Its punishment.
1. Its subtlety is detected.
(1) Sometimes sin overreaches itself; it is not sufficiently comprehensive in its views. Ahab calculated on getting Naboths vineyard, but did not calculate on Elijah. So here Elymas overlooked the possibility of the advent of a Paul.
(2) Sometimes its detection is the result of some extraordinary Divine agency--Saul, filled with the Holy Ghost. The common saying, Murder will out. How often, by a trivial oversight on the part of the criminal, or by some trifling coincidence, has a great crime been revealed.
2. Its mischievous effects are turned upon the sinner. He who sought to blind the intellect of Sergius Paulus is himself made blind. Be sure your sin will find you out.
3. The son inherits the fathers punishment. Satan is the prince of darkness, and his children are doomed to walk in darkness. The dark ways in which the devil leads his victims leads to outer darkness.
4. Its enmity to righteousness is met by the righteous God. Though hand join in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished.
5. Its perversion is met by perversion. He went about, etc. (verse 11). (J. W. Burn.)
Reproof: how a true servant of God uses his office of
1. Not in carnal passion, but in the Holy Ghost (verse 9).
2. Not with worldly weapons, but with the sword of the Word, by which he discloses the evil state of the heart (verse 10), and announces the judgment of God (verse 11).
3. Not for death or condemnation, but for warning and for the salvation of souls. (K. Gerok.)
The punishment of Elymas was
I. In correspondence with the transgression. He who blinded others is himself blinded.
II. Striking and convincing for the spectators.
III. With all its severity conducive to amendment by an intimation of the Divine mercy. Paul himself, at his conversion, had been blind for a season, and knew from his experience how profitable this darkness was for internal collection and composure of mind. (Apostolic Pastor.)
The exceptional character of the miracle
The miracles of the New Testament are generally distinguished from the Old by being worthy works of mercy. Two only of our Lords were inflictions of severity, and those were attended with no harm to the bodies of men. The same law pervades the miracles of the apostles. One miracle of wrath was worked by Peter and Paul; and we can see sufficient reasons why liars and hypocrites like Ananias and Sapphira, and impostors like Elymas, should be publicly punished, and made examples of. A passage in the life of Peter presents a parallel which is closer in some respects with this interview of Paul with Bar-Jesus. As Simon Magus, who had long time bewitched the Samaritans with his sorceries, was denounced by Peter as still in the gall of bitterness, etc., and solemnly told that his heart was not right in the sight of God; so Paul, conscious of his apostolic power, and under the power of immediate inspiration, rebuked Elymas as a child of that devil who is the father of lies, as a worker of deceit and mischief, etc. He proceeded to denounce an instantaneous judgment, and according to his prophetic word, the hand of the Lord struck the sorcerer, as it had once struck the apostle himself--the sight of the magician began to waver, and presently a darkness settled on it so thick that he ceased to behold the suns light. This blindness of the false prophet opened the eyes of the deputy. That which had been intended as an opposition to the gospel proved the means of its extension. We are ignorant of the degree of this extension in Cyprus. But we cannot doubt that when the proconsul was converted, his influence would make Christianity reputable; and that from this moment the Gentiles of the island as well as the Jews had the news of salvation brought home to them. (J. S. Howson, D. D.)
Seeking to turn men from the faith
Unprincipled white men have often been great stumbling blocks in the way of Indian evangelisation. An Englishman made his boast that he could induce the Indians again to drink; and providing himself with ardent spirits, he moved in his canoe over to the island where the Indians were encamped. Leaving all at the shore, he went up to the camp, and, inviting the Indians down, brought forth his bottle. Come, he said, we always good friends; we once more take a good drink in friendship. No, said Captain Paudaush, we drink no more of the fire waters. Oh, but you will drink with me; we always good friends; but while this son of Belial was urging them to drink, the Indians struck up, in the tune of Walsall, the hymn they had lately learned to sing--
O for a thousand tongues to sing
The great Redeemers praise!
And while the Indians were singing, this bacchanalian, defeated in his wicked device, and looking completely crestfallen, paddled away from the island, leaving the Indians to their temperance and their religious devotions!
An enemy off righteousness
Mr. Beecher once met Colonel Ingersoll, a great American atheist, and Colonel Ingersoll began to discourse on his atheistic views. Mr. Beecher for some time was silent, but, after a time, asked to be allowed to tell a story. On being requested to do so, he said, As I was walking down town today, I saw a poor man slowly and carefully picking his way through mud, in the endeavour to cross a street. He had just reached the middle of the filth when a big, burly ruffian, himself all bespattered, rushed up to him, jerked the crutches from under the unfortunate man, and left him sprawling and helpless in the pool of liquid dirt, which almost engulfed him. What a brute he was! said the colonel. What a brute he was! they all echoed. Yes, said the old man, rising from his chair, and brushing back his long white hair, yes, Colonel Ingersoll, and you are the man. The human soul is lame, but Christianity gives it crutches to enable it to pass the highway of life. It is your teaching that knocks these crutches from under it, and leaves it a helpless and rudderless wreck in the Slough of Despond. If robbing the human soul of its only support on this earth--religion--be your profession, why, ply it to your hearts content. It requires an architect to erect a building; an incendiary may reduce it to ashes.
Seeking to turn men from the truth
A boy was impressed in one of Mr. Moodys meetings. But his mother said he was good enough without religion, and threw her influence against Mr. Moodys efforts to win him to Christ. She succeeded, and some time after Mr. Moody found him in the county jail. How came you here? Does your mother know of it? No, sir, and pray dont tell her. I came in under an assumed name, and am going to Joliet State prison for four years. She thinks I am in the army. And Mr. Moody often heard her afterwards, mourning that her boy was killed.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv7–10 7. Was with the deputy. In the Revision, “Proconsul.”…
7. Was with the deputy. In the Revision, “Proconsul.” The Roman provinces at this time were divided into senatorial and imperial. The senatorial were ruled by a proconsul. We learn from other sources that Cyprus at this time was a senatorial province ruled by a proconsul. Sergius Paulus. Nothing more is known of him than is here related. A prudent man. An inquiring man. Hence he was anxious to hear Barnabas and Saul.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv9, 11 9. “O thou full of all hypocrisy and all…
9. “O thou full of all hypocrisy and all rascality, thou son of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease perverting the right ways of the Lord?”
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv9–10
Acts
TO THE REGIONS BEYOND
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WHY SAUL BECAME PAUL
Act 13:9.
Hitherto the Apostle has been known by the former of these names, henceforward he is known exclusively by the latter. Hitherto he has been second to his friend Barnabas, henceforward he is first. In an earlier verse of the chapter we read that ‘Barnabas and Saul’ were separated for their missionary work, and again, that it was ‘Barnabas and Saul’ for whom the governor of Cyprus sent, to hear the word of the Lord. But in a subsequent verse of the chapter we read that ‘Paul and his company loosed from Paphos.’
The change in the order of the names is significant, and the change in the names not less so. Why was it that at this period the Apostle took up this new designation? I think that the coincidence between his name and that of the governor of Cyprus, who believed at his preaching, Sergius Paulus, is too remarkable to be accidental. And though, no doubt, it was the custom for the Jews of that day, especially for those of them who lived in Gentile lands, to have, for convenience’ sake, two names, one Jewish and one Gentile-one for use amongst their brethren, and one for use amongst the heathen-still we have no distinct intimation that the Apostle bore a Gentile name before this moment. And the fact that the name which he bears now is the same as that of his first convert, seems to me to point the explanation.
I take it, then, that the assumption of the name of Paul instead of the name of Saul occurred at this point, stood in some relation to his missionary work, and was intended in some sense as a memorial of his first victory in the preaching of the Gospel.
I think that there are lessons to be derived from the substitution of one of these names for the other which may well occupy us for a few moments.
I. First of all, then, the new name expresses a new nature.
Jesus Christ gave the Apostle whom He called to Himself in the early days, a new name, in order to prophesy the change which, by the discipline of sorrow and the communication of the grace of God, should pass over Simon Barjona, making him into a Peter, a ‘Man of Rock.’ With characteristic independence, Saul chooses for himself a new name, which shall express the change that he feels has passed over his inmost being. True, he does not assume it at his conversion, but that is no reason why we should not believe that he assumes it because he is beginning to understand what it is that has happened to him at his conversion.
The fact that he changes his name as soon as he throws himself into public and active life, is but gathering into one picturesque symbol his great principle; ‘If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away and all things are become new.’
So, dear brethren, we may, from this incident before us, gather this one great lesson, that the central heart of Christianity is the possession of a new life, communicated to us through faith in that Son of God, Who is the Lord of the Spirit. Wheresoever there is a true faith, there is a new nature. Opinions may play upon the surface of a man’s soul, like moonbeams on the silver sea, without raising its temperature one degree or sending a single beam into its dark caverns. And that is the sort of Christianity that satisfies a great many of you-a Christianity of opinion, a Christianity of surface creed, a Christianity which at the best slightly modifies some of our outward actions, but leaves the whole inner man unchanged.
Paul’s Christianity meant a radical change in his whole nature. He went out of Jerusalem a persecutor, he came into Damascus a Christian. He rode out of Jerusalem hating, loathing, despising Jesus Christ; he groped his way into Damascus, broken, bruised, clinging contrite to His feet, and clasping His Cross as his only hope. He went out proud, self-reliant, pluming himself upon his many prerogatives, his blue blood, his pure descent, his Rabbinical knowledge, his Pharisaical training, his external religious earnestness, his rigid morality; he rode into Damascus blind in the eyes, but seeing in the soul, and discerning that all these things were, as he says in his strong, vehement way, ‘but dung’ in comparison with his winning Christ.
And his theory of conversion, which he preaches in all his Epistles, is but the generalisation of his own personal experience, which suddenly, and in a moment, smote his old self to shivers, and raised up a new life, with new tastes, views, tendencies, aspirations, with new allegiance to a new King. Such changes, so sudden, so revolutionary, cannot be expected often to take place amongst people who, like us, have been listening to Christian teaching all our lives. But unless there be this infusion of a new life into men’s spirits which shall make them love and long and aspire after new things that once they did not care for, I know not why we should speak of them as being Christians at all. The transition is described by Paul as ‘passing from death unto life.’ That cannot be a surface thing. A change which needs a new name must be a profound change. Has our Christianity revolutionised our nature in any such fashion? It is easy to be a Christian after the superficial fashion which passes muster with so many of us. A verbal acknowledgment of belief in truths which we never think about, a purely external performance of acts of worship, a subscription or two winged by no sympathy, and a fairly respectable life beneath the cloak of which all evil may burrow undetected-make the Christianity of thousands. Paul’s Christianity transformed him; does yours transform you? If it does not, are you quite sure that it is Christianity at all?
II. Then, again, we may take this change of name as being expressive of a life’s work.
Paul is a Roman name. He strips himself of his Jewish connections and relationships. His fellow-countrymen who lived amongst the Gentiles were, as I said at the beginning of these remarks, in the habit of doing the same thing; but they carried both their names; their Jewish for use amongst their own people, their Gentile one for use amongst Gentiles. Paul seems to have altogether disused his old name of Saul. It was almost equivalent to seceding from Judaism. It is like the acts of the renegades whom one sometimes hears of, who are found by travellers, dressed in turban and flowing robes, and bearing some Turkish name, or like some English sailor, lost to home and kindred, who deserts his ship in an island of the Pacific, and drops his English name for a barbarous title, in token that he has given up his faith and his nationality.
So Paul, contemplating for his life’s work preaching amongst the Gentiles, determines at the beginning, ‘I lay down all of which I used to be proud. If my Jewish descent and privileges stand in my way I cast them aside. “Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law, a Pharisee,”-all these I wrap together in one bundle, and toss them behind me that I may be the better able to help some to whom they would have hindered my access.’ A man with a heart will throw off his silken robes that his arm may be bared to rescue, and his feet free to run to succour.
So we may, from the change of the Apostle’s name, gather this lesson, never out of date, that the only way to help people is to go down to their level. If you want to bless men, you must identify yourself with them. It is no use standing on an eminence above them, and patronisingly talking down to them. You cannot scold, or hector, or lecture men into the possession and acceptance of religious truth if you take a position of superiority. As our Master has taught us, if we want to make blind beggars see we must take the blind beggars by the hand.
The spirit which led the Apostle to change the name of Saul, with its memories of the royal dignity which, in the person of its great wearer, had honoured his tribe, for a Roman name is the same which he formally announces as a deliberately adopted law of his life. ‘To them that are without law I became as without law . . . that I might gain them that are without law . . . I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.’
It is the very inmost principle of the Gospel. The principle that influenced the servant in this comparatively little matter, is the principle that influenced the Master in the mightiest of all events. ‘He who was in the form of God, and thought not equality with God a thing to be eagerly snatched at, made Himself of no reputation, and was found in fashion as a man and in form as a servant, and became obedient unto death.’ ‘For as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise took part of the same’; and the mystery of incarnation came to pass, because when the Divine would help men, the only way by which the Infinite love could reach its end was that the Divine should become man; identifying Himself with those whom He would help, and stooping to the level of the humanity that He would lift.
And as it is the very essence and heart of Christ’s work, so, my brother, it is the condition of all work that benefits our fellows. It applies all round. We must stoop if we would raise. We must put away gifts, culture, everything that distinguishes us, and come to the level of the men that we seek to help. Sympathy is the parent of all wise counsel, because it is the parent of all true understanding of our brethren’s wants. Sympathy is the only thing to which people will listen, sympathy is the only disposition correspondent to the message that we Christians are entrusted with. For a Christian man to carry the Gospel of Infinite condescension to his fellows in a spirit other than that of the Master and the Gospel which he speaks, is an anomaly and a contradiction.
And, therefore, let us all remember that a vast deal of so-called Christian work falls utterly dead and profitless, for no other reason than this, that the doers have forgotten that they must come to the level of the men whom they would help, before they can expect to bless them.
You remember the old story of the heroic missionary whose heart burned to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ amongst captives, and as there was no other way of reaching them, let himself be sold for a slave, and put out his hands to have the manacles fastened upon them. It is the law for all Christian service; become like men if you will help them,-’To the weak as weak, all things to all men, that we might by all means save some.’
And, my brother, there was no obligation on Paul’s part to do Christian work which does not lie on you.
III. Further, this change of name is a memorial of victory.
The name is that of Paul’s first convert. He takes it, as I suppose, because it seemed to him such a blessed thing that at the very moment when he began to sow, God helped him to reap. He had gone out to his work, no doubt, with much trembling, with weakness and fear. And lo! here, at once, the fields were white already to the harvest,
Great conquerors have been named from their victories; Africanus, Germanicus, Nelson of the Nile, Napier of Magdala, and the like. Paul names himself from the first victory that God gives him to win; and so, as it were, carries ever on his breast a memorial of the wonder that through him it had been given to preach, and that not without success, amongst the Gentiles ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ.’
That is to say, this man thought of it as his highest honour, and the thing best worthy to be remembered about his life, that God had helped him to help his brethren to know the common Master. Is that your idea of the best thing about a life? What would you, a professing Christian, like to have for an epitaph on your grave? ‘He was rich; he made a big business in Manchester’; ‘He was famous, he wrote books’; ‘He was happy and fortunate’; or, ‘He turned many to righteousness’? This man flung away his literary tastes, his home joys, and his personal ambition, and chose as that for which he would live, and by which he would fain be remembered, that he should bring dark hearts to the light in which he and they together walked.
His name, in its commemoration of his first success, would act as a stimulus to service and to hope. No doubt the Apostle, like the rest of us, had his times of indolence and languor, and his times of despondency when he seemed to have laboured in vain, and spent his strength for nought. He had but to say ‘Paul’ to find the antidote to both the one and the other, and in the remembrance of the past to find a stimulus for service for the future, and a stimulus for hope for the time to come. His first convert was to him the first drop that predicts the shower, the first primrose that prophesies the wealth of yellow blossoms and downy green leaves that will fill the woods in a day or two. The first convert ‘bears in his hand a glass which showeth many more.’ Look at the workmen in the streets trying to get up a piece of the roadway. How difficult it is to lever out the first paving stone from the compacted mass! But when once it has been withdrawn, the rest is comparatively easy. We can understand Paul’s triumph and joy over the first stone which he had worked out of the strongly cemented wall and barrier of heathenism; and his conviction that having thus made a breach, if it were but wide enough to let the end of his lever in, the fall of the whole was only a question of time. I suppose that if the old alchemists had turned but one grain of base metal into gold they might have turned tons, if only they had had the retorts and the appliances with which to do it. And so, what has brought one man’s soul into harmony with God, and given one man the true life, can do the same for all men. In the first fruits we may see the fields whitening to the harvest. Let us rejoice then, in any little work that God helps us to do, and be sure that if so great be the joy of the first fruits, great beyond speech will be the joy of the ingathering.
IV. And now last of all, this change of name is an index of the spirit of a life’s work.
‘Paul’ means ‘little’; ‘Saul’ means ‘desired.’ He abandons the name that prophesied of favour and honour, to adopt a name that bears upon its very front a profession of humility. His very name is the condensation into a word of his abiding conviction: ‘I am less than the least of all saints.’ Perhaps even there may he an allusion to his low stature, which may be pointed at in the sarcasm of his enemies that his letters were strong, though his bodily presence was ‘weak.’ If he was, as Renan calls him, ‘an ugly little Jew,’ the name has a double appropriateness.
But, at all events, it is an expression of the spirit in which he sought to do his work. The more lofty the consciousness of his vocation the more lowly will a true man’s estimate of himself be. The higher my thought of what God has given me grace to do, the more shall I feel weighed down by the consciousness of my unfitness to do it. And the more grateful my remembrance of what He has enabled me to do, the more shall I wonder that I have been enabled, and the more profoundly shall I feel that it is not my strength but His that has won the victories.
So, dear brethren, for all hope, for all success in our work, for all growth in Christian grace and character, this disposition of lowly self-abasement and recognised unworthiness and infirmity is absolutely indispensable. The mountain-tops that lift themselves to the stars are barren, and few springs find their rise there. It is in the lowly valleys that the flowers grow and the rivers run. And it is they who are humble and lowly in heart to whom God gives strength to serve Him, and the joy of accepted service.
I beseech you, then, learn your true life’s task. Learn how to do it by identifying yourselves with the humbler brethren whom you would help. Learn the spirit in which it must be done; the spirit of lowly self-abasement. And oh! above all, learn this, that unless you have the new life, the life of God in your hearts, you have no life at all.
Have you, my brother, that faith by which we receive into our spirits Christ’s own Spirit, to be our life? If you have, then you are a new creature, with a new name, perhaps but dimly visible and faintly audible, amidst the imperfections of earth, but sure to shine out on the pages of the Lamb’s Book of Life; and to be read ‘with tumults of acclaim’ before the angels of Heaven. ‘I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv7–12 See notes one verse 6
See notes one verse 6
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v7 proconsul (Roman).
deputy
proconsul (Roman).
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v8 The opposition of Elymas:
The opposition of Elymas:
v. 8. But Elymas, the sorcerer, (for so is his name by interpretation,) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
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v. 9. Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him
v. 10. and said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
v. 11. And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand.
v. 12. Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
Barnabas and Saul were making some progress with the proconsul, when they met with opposition from a very dangerous adversary. For this counselor of the proconsul, who had cleverly insinuated himself into the intimacy of his master, bearing the name Elymas, "the sage," as a sort of surname, used all his influence to foil the attempts of the missionaries for the conversion of Sergius Paulus, his purpose being to divert him from the faith. The governor probably showed a strong inclination to accept the truth of the Gospel, and the sorcerer knew that such an event spelled the ruin of himself, the loss of his position. In this emergency, Saul assumed the leadership, which till now he had yielded to Barnabas, and from this time forth Saul was the more prominent of the two. This Luke indicates by inserting here the name by which Saul was henceforth known, which marked his apostleship to the Gentile world. Paul here became subject to an extraordinary manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s influence, in whose power he attacked the magician in the very presence of the proconsul. Fixing his eyes upon the hypocritical Jew, he said to him: Thou son of the devil, full of deceit, guile, craft, and all wickedness. The sorcerer’s present opposition showed him to be the natural enemy of the messengers of God, and of all righteousness, which they were trying to spread. Would he not cease, Paul asked, would he not give up acting as one that perverted, that made it his habit to mix up and turn aside, the straight and correct ways of the Lord? And the punishment of the Lord followed. At the words of Paul the hand of the Lord was laid heavily upon Elymas, causing him to become stone-blind and unable even to distinguish the light of the sun for some time, until such a time as it would please God to restore his sight. And there was no delay in the coming of the curse. At once, at the same moment, a dark mist fell upon him; he groped about, calling on one and another of the frightened bystanders to lead him by the hand and show him the way out of the presence of Paul; he was obliged to have such assistance since his blindness was absolute. This exhibition of the power of God convinced the proconsul; he was astounded at the doctrine, overwhelmed by the teaching of the. Lord and about the Lord; he believed, faith in Jesus, the Savior, was engendered in his heart. Certain inscriptions which have been found in the last decades tend to show that Sergius Paulus was henceforth a firm believer in Christ, that he was enrolled with the Christians. Note: Even today it is the guile and craft of the devil that tends to hinder the conversion and salvation of men, the efficacy of the divine Word, by sending false prophets and errorists. These are full of guile and fraud and enemies of true righteousness. But Christ, the Lord of His Church, is stronger than Satan, and carries out His work for the salvation of souls. But the apostles of darkness are finally condemned to spiritual blindness and darkness, making it impossible for them to find the right way.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 11 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
While on the island of Paphos, Paul begins to talk to Elymas.
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General Information:
The words "him," "You," and "you" refer to the magician Elymas (also called Bar Jesus). (See: Acts 13:6-8)
Saul, who is also called Paul
"Saul" as his Jewish name, and "Paul" was his Roman name. Since he was speaking to a Roman official, he used his Roman name. AT: "Saul, who now called himself Paul" (See: Active or Passive)
stared at him intensely
"looked at him intensely"
You son of the devil
Paul is saying the man is acting like the devil. AT: "You are like the devil" or "You act like the devil" (See: Metonymy)
you are full of all kinds of deceit and wickedness
"you are always intent in causing others to believe what is not true using falsehood and always doing what is wrong"
wickedness
In this context it means to be lazy and not diligent in following God's law.
You are an enemy of every kind of righteousness
Paul is grouping Elymas with the devil. Just as the devil is an enemy of God and is against righteousness, so also was Elymas.
You will never stop twisting the straight paths of the Lord, will you?
Paul uses this question to rebuke Elymas for opposing God. AT: "You are always saying that the truth about the Lord God is false!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
the straight paths of the Lord
Here "straight paths" refer to the ways that are true. AT: "the true ways of the Lord" (See: Idiom)
translationWords
Paul
filled with the Holy Spirit
Satan
deceive
adversary
righteous
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9, 10, 12 13:7-8 The governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent…
13:7-8 The governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man, was attracted to the teaching of Barnabas and Saul. But Elymas (the sorcerer’s Greco-Roman name) recognized a challenge to his power and strongly opposed the message of Barnabas and Saul.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.