Acts 13:10

13:4-13 Satan is in a special manner busy with great men and men in power, to keep them from being religious, for their example will influence many. Saul is here for the first time called Paul, and never after Saul. Saul was his name as he was a Hebrew; Paul was his name as he was a citizen of Rome. Under the direct influence of the Holy Ghost, he gave Elymas his true character, but not in passion. A fulness of deceit and mischief together, make a man indeed a child of the devil. And those who are enemies to the doctrine of Jesus, are enemies to all righteousness; for in it all righteousness is fulfilled. The ways of the Lord Jesus are the only right ways to heaven and happiness. There are many who not only wander from these ways themselves, but set others against these ways. They commonly are so hardened, that they will not cease to do evil. The proconsul was astonished at the force of the doctrine upon his own heart and conscience, and at the power of God by which it was confirmed. The doctrine of Christ astonishes; and the more we know of it, the more reason we shall see to wonder at it. Those who put their hand to the plough and look back, are not fit for the kingdom of God. Those who are not prepared to face opposition, and to endure hardship, are not fitted for the work of the ministry.

Mischief (ῥᾳδιουργίας) Only here in New Testament. Originally, ease or facility in doing; hence readiness in turning the hand to anything, bad or good; and so recklessness, unscrupulousness, wickedness. A kindred word (ῥᾳδιούργημα, lewdness, Rev., villany) occurs at Acts 18:14. Right ways Or straight, possibly with an allusion to Elymas' crooked ways.

Mischief; radiourgia signifies a facility or readiness in doing mischief, and that such who are given to sorcery are easily drawn to commit any kind of sin whatsoever. Thou child of the devil; because he did his work who is the destroyer, in hindering what he could the salvation of Sergius Paulus and his family. To pervert the right ways of the Lord; to make the way of God crooked, which is straight; and rugged, when indeed it is smooth: that is, to lay what rubs he could to keep any from coming unto, or continuing in, the ways of God.

Acts 13:10 . Ὦ ) The interjection, O , properly coheres with the substantives, Son ( Child ) and enemy : but as these signify the severest rebuke, the Ætiology (reason assigned) is prefixed, full , etc.— δόλου , of subtilty ) Hereby he is stigmatised as a false prophet .— ῥᾳδιουργίας , craft [versutia]) Hereby he is stigmatised as a sorcerer .— υἱὲ διαβόλου , Song of Solomon of the devil ) This too is applicable to a sorcerer , and such a man as is not only himself bad, but also forbids others from becoming better.— ἐχθρὲ πάσης δικαιοσύνης , enemy of all righteousness ) This also applies to a false prophet : a true prophet teaches righteousness , and that in Christ.— οὐ παύσῃ , thou wilt not cease , or wilt thou not cease ) Now at least it had been time to have ceased from the wickedness which he had even heretofore practised. Not to cease is devilish . Many read this with an interrogation.— τὰς εὐθείας , the right ways) Rectitude and simplicity are characteristic of Divine doctrine.

{5} And said, O full of all subtilty and all {e} mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? (5) The sorcerer, who was stricken by Paul with a physical punishment (although extraordinarily), shows an example to lawful magistrates how they ought to punish those who wickedly and obstinately hinder the course of the Gospel. (e) He points out a fault of those who run eagerly and with great desire into all types of wickedness with the least bit of prompting from the world.

10. full of all subtlety—referring to his magic arts. and all malice—The word signifies "readiness for anything," knavish dexterity. thou child of the devil … enemy of all righteousness—These were not words of passion, for immediately before uttering them, it is said he was "filled with the Holy Ghost" [Chrysostom]. wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord—referring to his having to that hour made a trade of leading his fellow creatures astray.

Verse 10. - All guile and all villainy for all subtlety and all mischief , A.V.; son for child , A.V. The word ῤᾳδιουργία , reckless conduct, villainy, wickedness, is only found here in the New Testament. The kindred form ( ῤᾳδιούργημα ) occurs in Acts 18:14 . Thou son of the devil (comp. John 8:38, 44 ; 1 John 3:10 ). Elymas showed himself a child of the devil in his endeavors to resist the truth of the gospel, and substitute his own falsehoods and imposture. Compare the severity of Peter's language in rebuking Simon Magas ( Acts 8:20-23 ). Probably, too, he accused ( διέβαλεν ) Paul and Barnabas, and traduced their motives before the proconsul, when he saw his own influence being undermined, and his gains likely to be stopped. Acts 13:10

10 . enemy of all righteousness ] We may judge from this expression that St Paul recognized an earnest zeal for truth in the enquiries of the proconsul, and that his wrath against Elymas was not only for what he was doing at the present time, but for his long-continued leading astray of those who were desirous to know the ways of the Lord.

Acts 13:10 . Ῥᾳδιουργίας ] knavery, roguery . Polyb. xii. 10. 5, iv. 29. 4; Plut. Cat. m. 16. Comp. ῥᾳδιούργημα , Acts 18:14 . υἱὲ διαβόλου ] i.e. a man whose condition of mind proceeds from the influence of the devil (the arch-enemy of the kingdom of the Messiah). Comp. on John 8:44 . An indignant contrast to the name Barjesus . διαβόλου is treated as a proper name , therefore without the article; 1 Peter 5:8 ; Revelation 20:2 . πάσης δικαιοσύνης ] of all, that is right , Acts 10:35 . διαστρέφων τὰς ὁδοὺς κυρ . τ . εὐθείας ] Wilt thou not cease to pervert the straight (leading directly to the goal) ways of the Lord (to give them a perverted direction)? i.e. applying this general reproach to the present case: Wilt thou, by thy opposition to us, and by thy endeavour to turn the proconsul from the faith ( Acts 13:8 ), persist in so working that God’s measures ( Romans 11:33 ; Revelation 15:3 ), instead of attaining their aim according to the divine intention, may be frustrated? The straight way of God aimed here at the winning of Sergius for the salvation in Christ, by means of Barnabas and Paul; but Elymas set himself in opposition to this, and was engaged in diverting from its mark this straight way which God had entered on, so that the divinely-desired conversion of Sergius was to remain unrealized. De Wette takes it incorrectly: to set forth erroneously the ways in which men should walk before God.

On διαστρέφων , comp. in fact, Proverbs 10:10 ; Isaiah 59:8 ; Micah 3:9 ; and notice that the διαστρέφειν κ . τ . λ . was really that which the sorcerer strove to do , although without attaining the desired success. Observe, also, the thrice repeated emphatic παντός … πάσης … πάσης , and that Κυρίου is not to be referred to Christ, but to God (whom the son of the devil resists), as is proved from Acts 13:11 .

(10) Full of all subtilty and all mischief. —The Greek of the second noun is found here only in the New Testament. Its primary meaning expresses simply “ease in working;” but this passed through the several stages of “versatility,” “shiftiness,” and “trickery.” A kindred word is translated in Acts 18:14 as “lewdness.” Thou child of the devil.—There is, perhaps, an intentional contrast between the meaning of the name Bar-jesus (= son of the Lord who saves) and the character of the man, which led him to oppose righteousness in every form, and to turn “the straight paths of God’s making” into the crooked ones of man’s subtlety. There is a manifest reference to the words in which Isaiah describes the true preparation of the way of the Lord as consisting in making the crooked straight (Isaiah 40:4).

Acts TO THE REGIONS BEYONDActs 13:1 - Acts 13:13 . We stand in this passage at the beginning of a great step forward. Philip and Peter had each played a part in the gradual expansion of the church beyond the limits of Judaism; but it was from the church at Antioch that the messengers went forth who completed the process. Both its locality and its composition made that natural. I. The solemn designation of the missionaries is the first point in the narrative. The church at Antioch was not left without signs of Christ’s grace and presence. It had its band of ‘prophets and teachers.’ As might be expected, four of the five named are Hellenists,-that is, Jews born in Gentile lands, and speaking Gentile languages. Barnabas was a Cypriote, Simeon’s byname of Niger {‘Black’} was probably given because of his dark complexion, which was probably caused by his birth in warmer lands. He may have been a North African, as Lucius of Cyrene was. Saul was from Tarsus, and only Manaen remains to represent the pure Palestinian Jew. His had been a strange course, from being foster-brother of the Herod who killed John to becoming a teacher in the church at Antioch. Barnabas was the leader of the little group, and the younger Pharisee from Tarsus, who had all along been Barnabas’s protege , brought up the rear. The order observed in the list is a little window which shows a great deal. The first and last names all the world knows; the other three are never heard of again.