Acts 12:25-13:12
Dear RTB’ers,
Today we return to Acts. Thus far in Acts the focus has mostly been on the church in Jerusalem and the apostles’ ministry in neighboring cities. Now the focus becomes the church at Antioch, some 300 miles north of Jerusalem, about twice as far from Jerusalem as Damascus. There are two Antiochs mentioned in Acts, one in Syria (today’s Antioch) and one in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey – we will visit there tomorrow), so we can easily get confused if we don’t keep them straight.
We have not heard much about Saul since his visit to Jerusalem and his going back home to Tarsus (Acts 9:26-30). It’s now been about ten years since his conversion. We saw that Barnabas went to Tarsus to bring him back to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26) and that they have now been there for a year or so, including their trip to Jerusalem to bring famine relief to the disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 11:29, 12:25). Now, from this point forward most of the rest of Acts will be devoted to Saul.
But Saul, who was also called Paul… (v. 9) Here we have the first occurrence of Saul’s name being changed to Paul – and Paul never again being referred to as Saul. We also see a change from here on (except while in Jerusalem) of the listing of “Barnabas and Saul” changing to “Paul and Barnabas”.
You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy… (v. 10) I chuckle every time I read Paul’s description of Elymas. I’m sure Paul was referring to his deeds, not his actual person, but he has harsh words, nonetheless! Recall that Peter had met up with a magician/sorcerer named Simon back in chapter 8 and Peter had properly chastised him – much less harshly than Paul’s words to Elymas. And with Simon we saw some hint of repentance; we don’t see any of that with Elymas. He is struck blind and that’s where the text leaves him, being led about by the hand. But Sergius Paulus, the proconsul believed, and Elymas was his friend; maybe Elymas also turned to faith. We’ll never know!
Blessings!