Acts 13:3-12 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.… The incident presents a true picture of the times. At that period impostors from the East, pretending to magical powers, had great influence over the Roman mind. The East, but recently thrown open, was a land of mystery to the western nations. Reports of the strange arts practised there, of the wonderful events of which it was the scene, excited almost fanatically the imagination both of the populace and the aristocracy of Rome. Syrian fortune tellers crowded the capital, and appeared in all the haunts of business and amusement. The strongest minds were not superior to their influence. Marius relied on a Jewish prophetess for regulating the progress of his campaigns. Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar sought information from Oriental astrology; Juvenal paints to us the Emperor Tiberius "sitting on the rock of Capri, with his flock of Chaldaeans round him." "The astrologers and sorcerers," says Tacitus, "are a class of men who will always be discarded, and always cherished." (H. B. Hackett, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.WEB: Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. |
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