Acts 8:11

Observe here, 1. How long a time this vile sorcerer, by God’s permission, and Stan’s power, wrought these lying wonders among the pepole: He had of a long time bewitched them with sorceries, Act 8:11. Deceivers are not always suddenly detected, and drossy hypocrites are not presently discovered; but the vizor will drop off sooner or later.

Observe, 2. That where the true knowledge of God comes, and the clear light of the gospel shines, there gross impieties and impostures, there cheats and delusions will be found out, detested and abhorred: When they believed Philip’s preaching, they were baptized, both men and women. Where the light shines, Satan falls as lightning; magic vanishes. This Dragon cannot stand before the ark of God: When the people of Ephesus received the gospel; they soom made a bonfire of their magic books, Act 19:19.

Observe, 3. The success of the gospel preached by Philip ; the people believed, and were baptized, both men and women.

Mark , 1. Believed, and then baptized; these were adult, or grown persons, not infants, and they were heathenish idolators, strangers to the covenant; and therefore must believe the gospel, and profess their faith in Christ, before their baptism. Baptism is not to be administered to any that are out of the visible church, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obedience to him.

Mark , 2. The persons baptized were women as well as men; When they believed Philip, they were baptized both men and women. Women under the gospel are capable of the seal of the covenant as well as men. Under the law they were not; then they were circumcised in the men: Now they are baptized for themselves: They were baptized both men and women.

Observe, 4. A great and sudden change wrought in Simon himself, by the preaching of Philip; He believed also, and was baptized: Behold, the sorcerer is become a professor a believer, a baptized person. The gospel preached may have a common operation upon a soul, where it never produced inward sanctification. All that are by the gospel proselyted are not savingly converted. All are not good fish that are inclosed in the gospel’s net; but some fish, some trash. As there will be wheat and tares on the same field, chaff and corn on the same floor; so will there be some saints and some sinners in the purest earthly church.

Observe, lastly, Upon a bare profession of faith, Simon Magus is baptized.

Learn thence, That outward profession justly gains admission into the Christian congregation, and gives a person right to external ordinances; De occultis nonjudicat ecclesia. "The church’s judgment is a judgment of charity, not of certainty;" of the outward, not of the inward man; of the life, not of the heart. The faith of Simon Magus was no other than a temporary, historical, yea, hypocritical faith: however, Philip baptizes him upon his making profession of it. An heart hypocrite is no hypocrite (in foro ecclesia) in the sight of the church, though most abominable in the sight of God. Simeon the unsound professor was more edious in the sight of God then Simon the sorcerer.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 8:11. Προσεῖχον, they paid attention) The verb is repeated from the preceding verse.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 8:11 . ἱκανῷ χρόνῳ : dative for accusative, cf. Act 13:20 , and perhaps Luk 8:29 , Rom 16:25 the usage is not classical, Blass, Grammatik , p. 118, but see also Winer-Moulton, xxxi. 9 a . St. Luke alone uses ἱκανός with χρόνος , both in his Gospel and in Acts (Vogel, Klostermann). μαγείαις : only here in N.T., not found in LXX or Apocryphal books, but used in Theophrastus and Plutarch, also in Josephus. It is found in a striking passage in St. Ignatius ( Ephes. , xix., 3) in reference to the shining forth of the star at the Incarnation, ὅθεν ἐλύετο πᾶσα μαγεία καὶ τᾶς δεσμός , and it is also mentioned, Didache 1 , v., 1, amongst the things comprised under “the way of death,” and so in Act 2:1 we read οὐ μαγεύσεις οὐ φαρμακεύσεις . ἐξεστακέναι , see above on Act 8:9 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. When he saith that they were astonied, from the least to the greatest. For seeing all men, of what estate soever they were, were deluded, what entrance could the gospel have, especially since it was no mean seducing? for all their senses were besotted. And besides that we see thereby how mighty the truth is, there is also set before us an example of constancy in Philip, who, though he saw no way, yet doth he set hand to the Lord’s work with a valiant courage, waiting for the success which God should give. And thus must we do, we must valiantly attempt whatsoever the Lord commandeth, even when our endeavors seem to be vain. Furthermore, whereas Satan did bewitch the Samaritans, let us know that it is the common punishment of infidelity. All men are not bewitched, indeed, with the jugglings of enchanters, neither are there Simons everywhere, which can so seduce and deceive; but my meaning is, that it is no wonder, if Satan do mock men diversely in the dark; for they are subject to all errors whosoever are not governed by the Spirit of God. Furthermore, when Luke saith that they were all seduced one with another, we are taught that neither wit, neither all that reason and wisdom which we have, are sufficient to avoid the craftiness of Satan withal. And surely we see in what foolish and doting errors they were entangled, who were counted in the world wiser than others.

The great power of God. Therefore Satan abused the name of God to deceive, which is the most pestilent kind of deceiving, so far is it from being any excuse. It hath been said before, that Simon did take to himself the name of the principal power of God, that he might suppress and surpass whatsoever was elsewhere divine, as the sun darkeneth all the stars with his light. This was wicked and ungodly profaning of the name of God. But we read of nothing which was done here, which is not done as yet daily; for men are bent to nothing more than to translate that to Satan which is proper to God. They pretend religion; but what did this pretense help the Samaritans? Therefore it goeth well with us when God setteth forth to us his power in Christ, and declareth therewith that we must not seek the same anywhere else, and doth discover the sleights and juggling casts of Satan, which we must avoid, to the end he may keep us still in himself.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) And to him they had regard.—The Greek word is the same as in the “gave heed” of the previous verse. The “long time” during which the evil fascination had been exercised, reckoning backwards from the date which we have now reached (A.D. 34), might carry us to a period prior to our Lord’s visit to Sychar, in A.D. 30. It is scarcely probable, however, that it was in active operation at that time. And it is likely enough that, finding the people still influenced by the impressions which that visit had left, he wrought on their excited feelings for his own purpose.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. And to him they had regard] Read, And they gave heed to him. This is an instance of that fondness for change of expression which is so marked a feature of the A. V. The word in the original is exactly the same as in the preceding verse.

of long time he had bewitched [amazed] them with sorceries] His birthplace was in Samaria, and it is most probable that he had lived there a great part of his life. Tradition (Clement. Hom. ii. 22) makes him to have been educated in Alexandria, but he is also said to have been a pupil of Dositheus a Gnostic teacher in Samaria, so that he had probably been but a short time away from his native country.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But when they believed Philip,.... Though they had been carried away so long with this deceiver, and had been so much attached unto him, and held in admiration of him; yet when Philip came and preached Christ unto them, such was the power that attended his ministry, and such the efficacy of divine grace that was exerted, that they not only gave heed unto him, but believed what he said:

preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God; concerning the kingdom of the Messiah, the Gospel dispensation, the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel; and concerning the kingdom of grace, which is spiritual and internal, and which lies not in external things, as meat and drink, but in righteousness, peace, and joy; and concerning the kingdom of glory, the meetness for it, which lies in regenerating grace, and the right unto it, which is the righteousness of Christ:

and the name of Jesus Christ; concerning the person of Christ, as the Son of God: and the offices of Christ, as prophet, priest, and King; and the virtue of his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, for pardon, justification, and atonement: the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions read this clause, "in the name of Jesus Christ": and connect it with the following words,

they were baptized, both men and women: that is, when, they heard Philip preach the Gospel, and believed in Christ, the sum and substance of it, and made a profession of faith, they were of each sex, both men and women, baptized by immersion, in the name of Jesus Christ.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

11 And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

Ver. 11. He had bewitched them with sorcery] It happened in the year of grace 434, that a certain seducer, who called himself Moses, persuaded the Jews in Crete that he was sent from heaven with commission to repossess them of the Promised Land. Him therefore they gladly followed (a great sort of them) with their wives and children to the seaside; where he bade them to cast themselves after him from a steep rock into the sea. This they did, and there perished many of them; and many more had done, but that (by a providence) sundry were caught up by Christian fishermen there present at that time, and carried safe to land. These, after they were recovered, carried notice to their fellows, how fearfully they had been deluded by the devil, who had impersonated Moses; and various of them, moved by their late calamity, became Christians. In the year 759, certain Persian magicians persuaded themselves and many others, that if they sold all they had and cast themselves naked from the town wall, they should fly up to heaven immediately; perierunt hac insania permulti, saith the historian. Many perished by believing this senseless lie. (Funccius in Chronol.)

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He had bewitched them with his sorceries,[1] or magic: he had put them out of their wits, turned their heads, charmed them, stupefied them. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Dementasset, Greek: exestakenai autous. So ver. 13. Stupens admirabatur, the same word, Greek: existato.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

They had regard; they acquiesced in what he said, and yielded obedience unto it; not only attending to his words with their ears, but with their hearts: so true is that which our Saviour says, Joh 5:43, If any man come in his own name, him will ye receive. These Samaritans shall rise up in judgment against most men, who do not thus regard what was said by Christ, and such as he hath sent.

Bewitched them; made them as out of their wits; they were not themselves, and could not act their reason.

With sorceries; such wonders as by the permission of God, and Satan’s power, he did.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They gave heed to him for to him they had regard, A.V; amazed for bewitched, A.V.; his sorceries for sorceries, A.V.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

See notes on verse 6

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. ἱκανῷ χρόνῳ, for a long time. For the dative similarly used of a space of time, see Act 13:20. Simon’s birthplace was in Samaria, and it is most probable that he had lived there a great part of his life. Tradition (Clement. Hom. II. 22) makes him to have been educated in Alexandria, but he is also said to have been a pupil of Dositheus, a Gnostic teacher in Samaria, so that he had probably been but a short time away from his native country.

ταῖς μαγείαις, with sorceries. μαγεῖαι are mentioned in the ‘Teaching of the Twelve Apostles’ (§ 5) among those works which belong to the ‘way of death’; and οὐ μαγεύσεις is one of the prohibitions (§ 2) contained in the second commandment of the ‘Teaching.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11.] ἐξεστακέναι can hardly be as E. V., transitive, “he had bewitched them:” there appears to be no example of the perfect being thus used.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Bewitched. Amazed, as ver. 9

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.