See further,
Πάφου: Nea Paphos—the chief town and the place of residence of the Roman governor—some little distance from the old Paphos (Παλαίπαφος, Strabo) cele- brated for its Venustemple. The place still bears the name of Bajfa, Renan, St. Paul, p. 14; O. Holtzmann, Nextest, Zeitgeschichte, p. 101 ; C. and H., smaller edition, p. 125.--μάγον, cf. viii. ο: “sorcerer,” A. and Κ.Υ. margin, ο/. Matt. ii. 1, but word used here as among the Greeks and Romans in a bad sense. Wycl. has ‘‘ witch,” and this in its mas- culine form ‘“‘ wizard ”’ has been suggested as an appropriate rendering here. On the absurd attempt to show that the whole Narrative is merely introduced as a parallel to St. Peter’s encounter with Simon, chap. viii., see Ndsgen, p. 427; Zockler, in loco, and Salmon, Introduc- tion, p. 310. The parallel really amounts to this, that both Peter and Paul en- countered a person described under the same title, a magician—an encounter surely not improbable in the social cir- cumstances of the time (see below)! For other views see Holtzmann, who still holds that the narrative is influenced by viii. 14 ff. The word is entirely omitted by Jiingst, p. 120, without any authority whatever. Elymas, according
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ψευδοπροφήτην “louSatov ᾧ ὄνομα Βαρϊησοῦς, 7. ὃς ἦν σὺν τῷ
> s , , 3 ‘ ο. ἀνθυπάτῳ Lepytw Παύλω, ἀνδρὶ συνετῶ.
οὗτος προσκαλεσάµενος
Βαρνάβαν καὶ Σαῦλον,. ἐπεζήτησεν ἀκοῦσαι τὸν λόγον τοῦ Θεοῦ.
1 Σανλον, so in all auth. Blass says ‘‘even by Par.”—to distinguish him from Sergius Paulus—see above on νετ. 1; Blass, Ρ. ix., and Wendt (1899), p. 230, note.
to the narrative, says Jingst, was either a magician or a false prophet. But the proconsul is styled ἀνὴρ συνετός, and this could not have been consistent with his relation with a magician: Elymas was therefore a kind of Jewish confessor. But neither supposition does much to establish the wisdom of Sergius Paulus. —wWevdorpopytyy like Wevddpavris in classical writers, here only in Acts; and Luke vi. 26, by St. Luke. But frequently used elsewhere in N.T., and in the LXX, and several times in Didaché, xi. On the “Triple beat,’’ Magian, false prophet, Jew, see Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 415.— Βαρϊησοῦς, on the name see critical notes.
Ver. 7. ὃς ἦν σὺν τῷ ἀ., cf. Iv. 13. Nothing was more in accordance with what we know of the personnel of the strahge groups which often followed the Roman governors as comites, and it is quite possible that Sergius Paulus may have been keenly interested in the powers -or assumed powers of the Magian, and in gaining a knowledge of the strange religions which dominated the East. If -the Roman had been completely under the influence of the false prophet, it is difficult to believe that St. Luke would have described him as συνετός (a title in which Zéckler sees a distinction between -Sergius Paulus and another Roman, Felix, over whom a Jewish Magian gained such influence, Jos., Ant., xx., 7, 2), although magicians of all kinds found a welcome in unexpected quarters in Roman society, even at the hands of otherwise discerning and clear-sighted personages, as the pages of Roman writers from Horace to Lucian testify. It was not the first time in the world’s history that credulity and scepticism had gone hand in hand: Wetstein, 7» loco ; Farrar, St. Paul,i., pp. 351,352; Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 74 Π.--ἐπεζήτησεν; perhaps means, as in classical Greek, "ρα ques. tions to them”. The typical Roman is again marked by the fact that he was thus desirous to hear what the travellers would say, and it is also indicated that ‘he was not inclined to submit himself entirely to the Magian.—r@ ἀνθυπάτῳ: -“the proconsul,” R.V., “deputy,” A.V.
In the reign of James I. the Lord Lieu- tenant of Ireland was called “the de- puty” (cf. Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, 1., 2, 161). Under Augustus, B.C. 27, the Roman provinces had been divided into two classes: (1) imperial and (2) senatorial, the former being governed by proprztors or generals, and the latter by proconsuls. But as the first kind of government would often be required when a province was unruly, it frequently happened that the same province might be at one time classed under (1) and at another time under (2). Cyprus had been originally an imperial province, Strabo, xiv., but in 22 B.c. it had been transferred by Augustus to the Senate, and was accordingly, as Luke describes it, under a proconsul, Dio Cassius, liii., 12, liv., 4. Under Hadrian it appears to have been under a propretor; under Severus it was again under a proconsul. At Soloi, a town on the north coast of Cyprus, an inscription was discovered by General Cesnola, Cyprus, 1877, p. 425 (cf. Hogarth, Devia Cypria, 1889, p. 114), dated ἐπὶ Παύλου (ἀνθινπάτου, and the probable identification with Sergius Paulus is accepted by Lightfoot, Zéckler, Ramsay, Knabenbauer, etc.; see especi- ally amongst recent writers Zahn, Ein- leitung, ii., Excurs. ti., p. 632, for a similar view, and also for information as to date, and as to another and more recent inscription (1887), bearing upon the connnection of the Gens Sergia with Cyprus; see also McGiffert, Apos- tolic Age, p. 175, note, and Wendt, edition 1899.—ovver@: R.V., “"“α man of understanding,” cf. Matt. xi.25. A.V. and other E.V. translate ‘ prudent,’ Vulgate, prudens, but see Genevan Ver- sion on Matt., u.s.; frequent in LXX in various significations: σύνεσις, practical discernment, intelligence, so συνετός, one who can “ put things together” (συνιέ- ναι): σοφία, the wisdom of culture (Grimm-Thayer); on ‘ prudent,” see Humphry, Commentary on R.V., p. 28.