Elymas the sorcerer
Sight taken for a time. Blind for a time. Acts 13:6-12.
What led up to it
Paul and Barnabas are on Cyprus on their first journey. The Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, wants to hear the word of God. His attendant, a sorcerer called Elymas, tries to turn him away from it.
What happens
Paul confronts Elymas and tells him he will be blind for a time. Mist and darkness come over him at once, and he gropes about looking for someone to lead him by the hand. The proconsul believes.
In their shoes
Paul gives Elymas exactly what Paul himself was once given: blindness for a time, and the need to be led by the hand. The same phrase is used of both men. The text does not say what became of Elymas or whether, like Paul, it changed him.
The place and the time
What the old books and the archaeologists can add. Each paragraph names its source.
Cyprus is an island about 140 miles long with two chief cities in Paul's day: Salamis at the east end, where he and Barnabas landed, and Paphos at the west end, where they met the proconsul. They crossed the whole island between the two.
Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entries "Cyprus" and "Paphos"; Acts 13:5-6.
Paphos was famous across the ancient world for the worship of Aphrodite, whose temple stood at the old town while the harbour and government were at the new town ten miles off. A Jewish sorcerer serving a Roman governor in a city of Aphrodite is the setting of this story.
Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entries "Paphos" and "Cyprus."
Smith's describes Sergius Paulus as an intelligent, truth-seeking man eager for information from every source within reach, which is why both a magician and two travelling preachers had his ear. It gives Elymas as an Arabic name meaning "wise man," the title the sorcerer Bar-Jesus went by.
Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entries "Sergius Paulus" and "Elymas."
The passage
Acts 13:6-12
6 They traveled through the whole island as far as Paphos, where they found a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus,
7 an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, a man of intelligence, summoned Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God.
8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.
9 Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked directly at Elymas
10 and said, “O child of the devil and enemy of all righteousness, you are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery! Will you never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
11 Now look, the hand of the Lord is against you, and for a time you will be blind and unable to see the light of the sun.” Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand.
12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.