I N D E X
75
Paphos does the inspired chronicler find reason to record details, so that we do not know whether any or all of the
fifteen other towns of considerable note (Pliny) were visited. Paphos, now called Baffa, was, at the time of the
apostles, a port, where were the seat of the Roman Deputy and the site of one of the more famous temples dedicated
to the worship of Venus. The Deputy is one named Sergius Paulus. Here it will be profitable to pause and see how
the record bears witness to the trustworthiness of Luke as an historian.
The critics used to maintain that Sergius Paulus must have been Pro-praetor, not Pro-consul (Deputy), as Luke
avers. There were many changes in the administration of Roman Government: at one time a country would be
Imperial; at another it would be a Senatorial province. Amid all the changes Luke never falters, his every statement
having been proved accurate. So here. Recently a coin has been dug up in Cyprus, bearing the inscription: `In the
Pro-consulship of Paulus'.
In 1912 Sir William Ramsay brought to light an inscription referring to Lucius Sergius Paulus, the younger,
whose father was a Roman official. Galen, a heathen physician, writing about 100 years after Acts 13, speaks of
one, Sergius Paulus, as well versed in philosophy, while Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, three times refers to
Sergius Paulus as a person interested in intelligent research, and as Pliny wrote about 20 years after the incident in
Acts 13, there is every likelihood that he refers to the same man. It may therefore have been that having wide
interests he could tolerate Elymas, and at the same time proffer an invitation to the preachers of the Word. In any
case, we can but rejoice that he heard, saw and believed, a marked contrast with those spoken of by Isaiah, whose
eyes were shut, whose ears were closed, and whose heart was hardened (see Acts 28:25-28).
At first it may cause surprise that so prudent a man as Sergius Paulus, should permit a sorcerer to be near his
person, but we must not introduce into ancient times modern attitudes. Even so, with all our boasted civilization, the
reader will discover a vast amount of superstition among all classes today. The horse-racing fraternity, whether they
gamble in pounds or pence, are proverbially superstitious. The newspapers find ready readers intent on knowing all
about their horoscopes and lucky days. Jewellers' shops exhibit a series of `lucky stones' suitably set in silver or
gold, and clairvoyants find among their clientele cute business men.
This sorcerer was a Jew who bore the name Bar-Jesus, but who assumed the title Elymas, which is, perhaps,
derived from the Arabic Elim, and Hebrew Elemoth, both meaning a wizard. Greek and Roman literature is full of
references to the credulity of this sceptical period. Rome greedily welcomed the Syrian fortune-tellers, and to adopt
the language of Juvenal, `The Orontes (the river upon which Antioch stood) itself flowed into the Tiber'.
`The Jewish beggar-women was the gipsy of the first century, shivering and crouching in the outskirts of the
city, and telling fortunes, as Ezekiel had said, of old "for handfuls of barley, and for pieces of bread"`
(Conybeare and Howson).
Pompey, Crassus and Cæsar sought the aid of oriental astrologers, and the great satirist, Juvenal, pictures the
Emperor Tiberius `sitting on the rock of Capri, with the flock of Chaldeans round him' (Juvenal x. 93).
Concerning the hold of these sorcerers upon the public, Tacitus, the great historian, says, with scathing sarcasm,
that they `will always be discarded and always cherished' (Tac. Hist. i. 22). Pliny tells us that at Paphos there were
two schools of soothsayers, one of which professed connection with Moses, Jannes and Jotapes, who were Jews, and
tauto recentior est Cypria, `a much more recent Cyprian one'. We have already mentioned that Pliny wrote of
Sergius Paulus, and there is a possibility that in the words quoted he refers to the school of Elymas the Sorcerer.
However that may be, there is no doubt that whether Elymas was officially connected with the Deputy, or whether
he was only a mere hanger-on, there would be a financial aspect of the association that would cause him to view
with jealousy, and oppose with ferocity, any new claimant for favour.
It is significant that Sergius Paulus called for Barnabas and Saul, not they for him. It will be remembered also
that it was the Gentiles who asked Paul to preach to them in Acts 13:42. Thus it will be seen that the time for direct
evangelizing of the Gentile irrespective of the Jew had not yet come.
The opposition of the sorcerer Bar-Jesus, and Paul's denunciation of him, is closely parallel with the experience
of Peter recorded in Acts 8. This is no accident. The parallels that are discernible in the Acts between Peter and
Paul would fill several pages of this book, and would make a contribution to our understanding of their specific