Elymas the Sorcerer
Elymas, also called Bar-jesus, was a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet attached to the court of Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul of Cyprus at Paphos. When the proconsul - 'a prudent man' - summoned Barnabas and Saul to hear the word of God, Elymas actively withstood them, 'seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith,' his influence and livelihood at stake. Then, in the very verse where Saul is first called Paul, the apostle fixed his eyes on him: 'O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil... thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.' A mist and darkness fell on the sorcerer immediately, and he groped for someone to lead him by the hand - the same blindness Paul himself had once received on the Damascus road, but here as judgment rather than mercy. The astonished proconsul believed, the first recorded Roman official won to the faith.
Biography
- Occupation
- Sorcerer, false prophet
- Era
- New Testament
- Nationality
- Jewish
- Also Known As
- Bar-jesus
Did You Know?
The verse recording Elymas's blinding is the exact verse where Scripture first calls Saul 'Paul' - the apostle's Roman name debuts at his first Gentile conversion.
Elymas's other name, Bar-jesus, means 'son of Joshua' - an ironic name for a man opposing the message of Jesus.
Paul's sentence on him - blindness 'for a season' - mirrored Paul's own three days of blindness on the Damascus road, leaving open the door of mercy Paul himself had walked through.
Key Chapters
Key Passages
Paul Blinds Elymas at Paphos
Acts 13:6-12
The first confrontation of the first missionary journey: a sorcerer struck blind, a proconsul converted, and Saul emerging under his new name, Paul.
6nd when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus: