Bible Study Lesson for Acts 13:4-12: Barnabas and Paul on Cyprus

(Note: When I taught my Bible study on the Book of Acts I used a flannel map as a visual aid. In my lecture notes you will find reference to this flannel map. The primary commentary I used was Compton's Interactive Bible, a software CD; I sometimes refer to this as my Interactive Bible CD.)

Read Acts 13:4. A pattern we will see here is that with the early church they let the Holy Spirit direct them in where they should go. Up to this point they knew they were supposed to go out and preach the gospel, but now they are giving specifics: Go to Cyprus. Seleucia is the seaport for Antioch. It is about 16 miles west and 5 miles upstream from the mouth of the Orontes river. { Point out Seleucia on the flannel map and the island of Cyprus. }

Many Jews lived in Cyprus and the gospel had already been preached here. Read Acts 11:19.

Read Acts 13:5. Salamis is a city on the east coast of Cyprus. As was their pattern, Paul and Barnabas first preach the gospel in the synagogue. { Put Salamis symbol on flannel map } Here we see that, yes, John Mark traveled with them as a helper.

Read Acts 13:6-7. Paphos is at the western end of the island, about 100 miles from Salamis. { Point out Paphos on flannel map.} It was the headquarters of Roman rule on the island. Cyprus was a Roman senatorial province, so it had a proconsul to rule it. (In the past it was under the direct rule of the Roman emperor, but at this time it was under the rule of the Roman senate.}

The sorcerer's name is "Bar-Jesus" which means "son of Jesus"; Jesus is derived from the Greek for Joshua. This false prophet had apparently attached himself to the proconsul. The fact that the proconsul also sends for Barnabas and Saul to hear the word gives us the picture of a man interested in spiritual things.

For those of your familiar with the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the image I have of the sorcerer here is very much like the character Grima Wormtongue who whispers lies into King Theoden's ear. King Theoden is a good man, but he falls prey to Wormtongue (who serves the evil wizard Saraman.) Wormtongue has a tight hold on the king and doesn't want to lose his influence over him; Bar-Jesus, too, is jealous of losing his privileged place at the proconsul's side.

Read Acts 13:8. The name "Elymas" means "sorcerer" or "magician" or even "wise man." This man may have given himself this name out of self-promotion. Bar-Jesus knew and understood that if the proconsul became a Christian he would no longer need the services of a sorcerer.

Read Acts 13:9. Before we talk about what exactly Saul said, I wanted to point out that from this point on he is now called Paul, instead of Saul. Saul is a Hebrew name which means "asked of God." Paul is a Roman name and means "little." It is possible that his name changes here in part because he is moving into a time of ministry to the Gentiles, and therefore chooses to use his Roman name.

Read Acts 13:10-11. The Holy Spirit, through Paul, doesn't pull any punches: He calls Bar-Jesus a child of the devil, a liar, deceiver, enemy of everything good, and then he is struck blind! I believe his physical blindness is supposed to reflect his spiritual blindness. Note that the sorcerer was to be blind for only a time - it was not going to be a physical blindness. I can't help wondering at the Holy Spirit's leniency - He just as easily could have left Bar-Jesus permanently blinded or even struck him dead, but he chooses not to. We probably can't see it, but I think that the Holy Spirit was showing an amazing mercy: He humbles the man in a dramatic way before his patron, but it is only for a time. He is told the truth in stark black and white so he can't hide from what he really is. Most importantly Bar-Jesus is given the opportunity to repent. (Remember, Paul, too, was struck blind for three days; afterwards he accepted Christ and was baptized.)

We don't read anything more about him here in the Bible so we don't know what happened to him after the darkness lifted from his eyes.

Read Acts 13:12. Notice that two things are going on here to cause the proconsul to believe, the miracle of his pet sorcerer being struck blind and Paul's teaching of the Word of God. Interestingly my pastor talked about this just this Sunday: supernatural acts without the Word of God to support them are meaningless to people. God could have just struck Bar-Jesus blind, but that wouldn't have brought Sergius Paulus to a personal relationship with Christ. He had to know who Christ was first through Paul's teachings. As we will see in the next chapter supernatural acts without understanding only cause confusion. Read Acts 14:8-13. The people of Lystra had no understanding. { Put symbol for Sergius Paulus on the flannel map }

Sergius Paulus is not mentioned again in the Bible. We do have confirmation of the Bible's accuracy from secular sources. In 1877, an inscription was found near Paphos, bearing Sergius Paulus's name and title of proconsul. Ten years later, his name was also found on a memorial stone in Rome. The stone records that in AD 47 he was appointed as one of the keepers of the banks and channel of the river Tiber. He held this office when he returned to Rome after his three years as governor of Cyprus.

To be continued...

Sources
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version