AP

Studies in Acts

Barnabas and Paul on Cyprus (Acts 13:4-12)

Verses 4-5: Notice again that it is the Holy Spirit who drives the actions in the book of The Acts of the Apostles. It should really be called The Acts of Jesus through the Work of the Holy Spirit. From Antioch, Paul and Barnabas went to the coastal town of Seleucia (25 km), from where they sailed to the island of Cyprus. They were accompanied by John Mark, the cousin of Barnabas, who was a “minister” or “servant.” Did he serve as a “minister of the Word”? He could tell a lot about the Lord Jesus, in part because Peter came regularly to the home of Mark’s mother (12:12-14). If necessary, he could supplement or illustrate the preaching of Paul and Barnabas very well.  

Barnabas was a Cypriot and no doubt keen to proclaim the Gospel to his fellow Cypriots. But they went as the Spirit directed them. Their first stop was Salamis, a large international commercial city of more than a half million inhabitants. Salamis had a large Jewish community with more than one synagogue, where they preached.

Even though Paul was specifically commissioned to evangelize the Gentiles, he always first preached the gospel to his fellow Jews, giving them the opportunity to belong to the new covenant people of God. Very often this was not appreciated by his listeners, but at least they could not say that they had not been told that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. Moreover, the ‘God-fearers’ who had attached themselves to the synagogues would likely be more receptive to the Gospel. Jews and God-fearing Gentiles were listeners who already knew the Law and the Prophets. The only thing required for them was the proclamation that the Lord Jesus had fulfilled the Scriptures.

Verses 6-8: Paphos was the seat of the provincial government. Luke correctly describes the governor as ‘pro-consul.’ After hearing about Paul and Barnabas, possibly from his ‘attendant’ Elymas bar-Jesus (son of Jesus), the pro-consul wanted to hear them speak the word of God. Luke tells us that he was an intelligent man. Once again Paul has the opportunity to preach Jesus “before the Gentiles and kings” (9:15). The pro-consul was the “king” of the island. Elymas, however, could see that his services as court magician would be superfluous if Sergius Paullus became a Christian, so he opposed them. He was a practitioner of all sorts of magic and quackery, practices that were strictly forbidden to Jews!  (Deuteronomy 18:14; see also Revelation 21:8 and 22:15).

“Luke calls him a false prophet, not in the sense that he foretold things that did not come to pass, but in the sense that he claimed falsely to be a medium of divine revelation” (F.F. Bruce). Elymas=sorcerer. He did his best to turn the pro-consul from the faith proclaimed by Paul and Barnabas. Here Satan was directing a frontal attack on the gospel, and this “prophet” was his instrument. Here as well, it was not just one sinner who was being diverted from the Saviour. The breakthrough of the gospel on the entire island of Cyprus was at stake. For if the powerful governor accepted the Lord Jesus, others would more easily follow in his steps.

Verses 9-11: Saul is here called Paul for the first time in Acts. As a Roman citizen, he must have had three names – praenomen, nomen gentile and cognomen – of which Paul was his Roman cognomen. Being from the tribe of Benjamin, he was named after Israel’s first king, Saul, from that tribe.

Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, identified Elymas for what he was, and declared him to be “a child of the devil (full of all kinds of deceit and trickery) and an enemy of everything that is right (perverting the right ways of the Lord).” Quite a judgement! The Master had also spoken this way (cf. John 8:44; 1 John 3:10). In the name of the Lord, he passed the sentence on Elymas: “Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun.” Wow! This was what had happened to Paul himself when he was persecuting the church.

What Paul said immediately came into effect: mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. The practitioner of the dark arts was enveloped in darkness. Most of the signs with which the Lord confirmed the joyful news during the apostolic period were benefits and thereby redemptive signs. But the blindness of Elymas was one of the few non-redemptive signs that he performed through his apostles (the others were the death of Ananias and Sapphira, and that of king Herod). Thereby God was seriously warning all the falsifiers and opponents of his gospel.

Verse 12: The pro-consul saw what had happened and this must have confirmed what Paul and Barnabas had taught about the Lord. His conversion made Cyprus the first country in the world to have a Christian ruler. From extra-biblical writings it is known that his daughter Sergia Paulla, and his grandson Gaius Caristanius Fronto were Christians, proving the inter-generational blessings of conversion. Barnabas was martyred by his fellow Jews in approximately AD 61 in his hometown of Salamis. This reminds us of Jesus’ saying, “A prophet is not without honour except in his own town and in his own home.” They stoned him. The tomb of Barnabas was discovered on Cyprus in AD 480.

Today the Greek Cypriots are primarily Eastern Orthodox Christians. Their church, the Church of Cyprus, is autocephalous (not under the authority of any patriarch); this privilege was granted to Archbishop Anthemius in AD 488 by the Byzantine emperor 

Zeno. There are also Catholics and Anglicans, as well as Muslims.

This initial work of Paul after his official commissioning was simultaneously characteristic for his entire subsequent ministry: he immediately stumbled upon Jewish opposition and upon their attempts to keep the Gentiles away from the Lord Jesus. They would never stop trying. The Lord supported him, however, and the gospel triumphed. Paul was the equal of Peter, who also opposed a magician (Acts 8:20–21). The Roman government was still favourably disposed and was even harbouring sympathetic interest in the gospel.

Questions:

How are we to respond to those who practise sorcery and witchcraft? Why is it, in an “age of science”, that so many find such darkness appealing?

Who speaks today with the same authority as the Apostle Paul?

How ought Christians to respond to present day Jewish unbelief? (see Romans 10:1-4)

– Alida Sewell