So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to
Seleu'cia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus. When they had arrived at
Sal'amis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And
they had John to assist them. When they had gone through the whole island as
far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named
Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence,
who summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But El'ymas
the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) withstood them, seeking to
turn away the proconsul from the faith. But Saul, who is also called Paul,
filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "You son of
the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy,
will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord? And now,
behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind and unable to
see the sun for a time." Immediately mist and darkness fell upon him and
he went about seeking people to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul
believed, when he saw what had occurred, for he was astonished at the teaching
of the Lord.
In a Nutshell
Barnabas took Mark and Saul back to his home in Cyprus and the work continued. Paul stopped a Jewish sorcerer in his tracks.
Questions
Why would Luke switch from "Saul" to "Paul" at this point in his story?
Have a look at the map. Consider Antioch and the region of Cilicia. Seleucia is the port city for Antioch. I wonder. Was this the region where Saul practised preaching when, having been converted, the apostles sent him home to Tarsus?
There are few things that require comment in this passage. The first concerns John Mark, Barnabas' nephew. He travelled with Saul and Barnabas as their assistant. It's not clear exactly what he did. Maybe he was with them under the care of Barnabas. After all, it seems he had been an eye-witness of Jesus and maybe it was for his safety that he was under the care of his uncle the Levitical priest. It's only my supposition, but he may have been in the care of his uncle as long as Herod Antipas was alive. Remember, there was a close bond between Peter and Mark. It was at his mother's house that Peter came when the angel freed him from prison.
The second matter concerns Luke's change from Saul to Paul. A Roman citizen had three names for public use. His praenomen was his first name. His nomen gentile was his family name. His cognomen was an additional name. Luke seems to be telling us that he from now on will use Saul's cognomen. This was Paulos - was it chosen by his family to rhyme with Saul'us his Jewish name? In straight forward terms Luke tells us that the Pharisee God had chosen to take the good news to the Gentiles was also a Roman citizen. By converting him on the road to Damascus, God had begun to build a "Christian bridge" between Jew and Roman.
With John Mark and Barnabas, God was busy bringing Jews and Cypriots together. Luke reminds his readers that ethnic differences, national background, are merely enrichments of God's purposes for the earth. They are no barrier to the fulfilment of His purposes. All the earth will hear and God will be honoured in His Son the Saviour of all people from all nations.
The three travelled to Cyprus, covering the entire island. Their "outreach" involved using the synagogue as a base for reaching Jews in the various communities, and reaching out to non-Jews living on the island as well.
Luke has already mentioned Cyprus a couple of times already in this book. The first was when he told us about Joseph the generous Levite from Cyprus who donated the proceeds from the sale of his land (4:36). The apostles had nick-named him Barnabas or Uncle Encouragement. This was immediately after Pentecost when their synagogue was being set up in Jerusalem, and before the execution of Stephen. In another place, Luke tells us that with the ruthless crack-down on Hellenistic believers, some fled to Tyre and Sidon, others to Antioch and still others went to Cyprus (11:19). They passed on the good news about Jesus as they went. It seems there was some affinity between Cyrene in Egypt and Cyprus; we have good reason to believe that Barnabas the Levite knew Simon the one who carried Jesus' cross. Mark, noted this fact in his gospel. So did Luke (23:26).
As a landowner, Barnabas knew his island. He probably also knew this Jewish sorcerer. Being Jewish had not stopped him from the evil practise and Barnabas would know the Levitical code: the penalty for sorcery was death (Leviticus 20:27). On this occasion it was Paul who was the great encouragement to Barnabas. Luke tells us that the worship of the God of Israel had been compromised in that island's synagogues, but there is more. The Roman Proconsul had come to believe in Jesus. Sergius Paulus had been under the spell of the Jewish magician but after Paul withstood him face to face, his reliance upon this deviant was broken. It was no contest. What astounded the Proconsul was the teaching of the Lord. Paul taught him about Jesus which had the effect of putting everything into perspective. What had been out of whack was put right. Sergius now knew himself to be a servant of God Almighty, a believer in Jesus Christ just like Paul his fellow citizen.