Acts 13:3-12 And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.… The word is Magos, the same as that used for the" wise men," Matthew 2:1, but it is obviously used here in the bad sense which had begun to attach to it even in the days of Sophocles, who makes Edipus revile Tiresias under this name, as practising magic arts ("OEd. Rex.," 387), and which we have found in the case of Simon Magos, the sorcerer. The man bore two names, one Bar-Jesus, in its form a patronymic, the other Elymas (an Aramaic word, probably connected with the Arabic Ulema, or sage), a title describing his claims to wisdom and supernatural powers. We have already met with a character of this type in the sorcerer of Samaria. The lower class of Jews here, as in Acts 19:14, seem to have been specially addicted to such practices. They traded on the religious prestige of their race, and boasted, in addition to their sacred books, of spells and charms that had come down to them from Solomon. (Dean Plumptre.) 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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