Acts 8:24

Act 8:24. Then answered Simon — Alarmed by the solemn admonition given him; and said — To the apostles; Pray ye to the Lord for me — If you indeed conceive my case to be so bad, extend your charity so far as to make your supplications to the Lord on my account; that none of these things, which ye have spoken, come upon me — He probably inferred, from what Peter had said, that some token of God’s wrath would soon fall upon him, which he thus dreaded and deprecated. But there is reason to fear that this pretence of conviction and humiliation was used chiefly to prevent Peter and John from disgracing him among the body of Christians: for it is reasonable to suppose this conversation passed in private between them: and, perhaps, Simon might have some hope, that, if the secret were kept, he might reduce the people, when Peter was gone, to their former subjection to him, notwithstanding their conversion to Christianity.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:24 Simon recognized the need for Peter to intercede in prayer for him, but it is not clear that he repented and turned from his wickedness. His main concern was apparently to avoid the terrible consequences that Peter predicted when his wicked motives were exposed.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act 8:24. Δεήθητε, pray ye) Peter had said, Pray GOD. But Simon says, Pray ye. Therefore he felt the power of the apostolic reproof. No one ought to depend merely on the prayers of others: Heb 13:18.—ὄπως, that) He confesses his fear of the punishment, not horror of the guilt. However, on account of this declaration, he seems not to have been immediately rejected by the Church.—ὧν εἰρήκατε, which ye have spoken) Here the history of Simon Magus is broken off, of which the remaining facts at the time that Luke wrote were well known, and are partly recorded in Church History in our days. The Scripture deems it sufficient to have marked the commencements: it has left the rest to the times and to the last judgment.

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

Act_8:24. Ὑμεῖς] whose prayer must be more effectual. On δεήθ. with πρός, comp. Psa_64:1.

ὅπως μηδὲν κ.τ.λ.] poenae metum, non culpae horrorem fatetur, Bengel. A humiliation has begun in Simon, but it refers to the apostolic threat of punishment, the realization of which he wishes to avert, not to the ground of this threat, which lay in his own heart and could only be removed by a corresponding repentance. Hence, also, his conversion (which even Calvin conjectures to have taken place; comp. Ebrard) does not ensue. It would, as a brilliant victory of the apostolic word, not have been omitted; and in fact the ecclesiastical traditions concerning the stedfastly continued conflict of Simon with the Jewish-apostolic gospel, in spite of all the strange and contradictory fables mixed up with it down to his overthrow by Peter at Rome, testify against the occurrence of that conversion at all.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 8:24 . Δεήθητε : the verse is often taken (as by Meyer and others) as a further proof of the hollowness of Simon’s belief, and his ignorance of the way of true repentance he will not pray for himself, and he only asks for deliverance from fear of the penalty and not from hatred of the sin (so Bengel). But on the other hand Wendt, in criticising Meyer, objects to this further condemnation of Simon as not expressed in the text. So far as the petition for the Apostles’ prayers is concerned, it is of course possible that it may have been prompted by the belief that such prayers would be more efficacious than his own (so Blass, Wendt, see also conclusion of the story in ); he does not ask them to pray instead of himself but ὑπέρ , on his behalf. ἐπέλθῃ : not used by the other Evangelists, but three times in St. Luke’s Gospel and four times in Acts, with ἐπί and accusative both in Gospel (Luk 1:35 . cf. Luk 21:35 ) and Acts.

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

Pray ye to the Lord for me--Peter had urged him to pray for himself: he asks those wonder-working men to do it for him; having no confidence in the prayer of faith, but thinking that those men possessed some peculiar interest with heaven.

that none of these things dome upon me--not that the thought of his wicked heart might be forgiven him, but only that the evils threatened might be averted from him. While this throws great light on Peter's view of his melancholy case, it shows that Christianity, as something divine, still retained its hold of him. (Tradition represents him as turning out a great heresiarch, mingling Oriental or Grecian philosophy with some elements of Christianity.)

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 24. Pray ye to the Lord for me] The words of Peter certainly made a deep impression on Simon's mind; and he must have had a high opinion of the apostle's sanctity and influence with God, when he thus commended himself to their prayers. And we may hope well of his repentance and salvation, if the reading of the Codex Bezae, and the margin of the later Syriac may be relied on: Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none (τουτων των κακων) OF ALL THOSE EVILS which ye have spoken (μοι) TO ME, may come upon me: (ος πολλα κλαιων ου διελιμπανεν) WHO WEPT GREATLY, and DID NOT CEASE. That is, he was an incessant penitent. However favourably this or any other MS. may speak of Simon, he is generally supposed to have "grown worse and worse, opposing the apostles and the Christian doctrine, and deceiving many cities and provinces by magical operations; till being at Rome, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, he boasted that he could fly, and when exhibiting before the emperor and the senate, St. Peter and St. Paul being present, who knew that his flying was occasioned by magic, prayed to God that the people might be undeceived, and that his power might fail; in consequence of which he came tumbling down, and died soon after of his bruises." This account comes in a most questionable shape, and has no evidence which can challenge our assent. To me, it and the rest of the things spoken of Simon the sorcerer appear utterly unworthy of credit. Calmet makes a general collection of what is to be found in Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian; Eusebius, Theodoret, Augustine, and others, on the subject of Simon Magus; and to him, if the reader think it worth the pains, he may refer. The substance of these accounts is given above, and in Clarke's note on "Ac 8:9"; and to say the least of them they are all very dubious. The tale of his having an altar erected to him at Rome, with the inscription, Simoni sancto deo, "To the holy god Simon," has been founded on an utter mistake, and has been long ago sufficiently confuted. See the inscriptions in Gruter, vol. i. p. 96, inscript. No. 5, 6, 7.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

24. Simon answered. Hereby we gather that he did not so take that which Peter had threatened unto him, but that he did consider that his salvation was sought. And though Peter alone spake, yet he attributeth the speech unto all by reason of the consent. Now ariseth a question what we ought to think of Simon. The Scripture carrieth us no farther, save only unto a conjecture. Whereas he yieldeth when he is reproved, and being touched with the feeling of his sin, feareth the judgment of God; and that done, flieth unto the mercy of God, and commendeth himself to the prayers of the Church; these are assuredly no small signs of repentance; therefore we may conjecture that he repented. And yet the old writers affirm with one consent, that he was a great enemy to Peter afterward, and that he disputed with him by the space of three days at Rome. The disputation is also extant in writing under the name of Clement, but it hath in it such filthy dotings, that it is a wonder that Christian ears can abide to hear them. Again, Augustine, writing to Januarius, saith, that there were divers and false rumors spread abroad in Rome in his time concerning that matter. Wherefore, nothing is more safe than bidding adieu to uncertain opinions, simply to embrace that which is set down in the Scriptures. That which we read elsewhere of Simon may justly be suspected for many causes.

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.

(24) Pray ye to the Lord for me.—There is something eminently characteristic in the sorcerer’s words. (1) His conscience reads “between the lines” of St. Peter’s address what was not actually found there. That “if perhaps” is to him as the knell of doom. (2) He prays not for deliverance from “the bond of iniquity,” but only from the vague terror of a future penalty. (3) He turns, not, as Peter had bidden him, to the Lord who was ready to forgive, but to a human mediator. Peter must pray for him who has not faith to pray for himself.

At this point Simon disappears from the history of the Acts, and this seems accordingly the right place for stating briefly the later traditions as to his history. In those traditions he occupies a far more prominent position than in St. Luke’s narrative, and becomes, as it has been said, the “hero of the romance of heresy,” as given in the Homilies and Recognitions of the Pseudo-Clement. Born at Gittom, in Samaria (Justin, Apol. i. 26), he received his education at Alexandria, and picked up the language of a mystic Gnosticism from Dositheus (Hom. ii. c. 22; Constt. Apost. vi. 8). He had for a short time been a disciple of the Baptist (Hom. c. 23). He murdered a boy that the soul of his victim might become his familiar spirit, and give him insight into the future (Hom. ii. c. 26; Recogn. ii. 9). He carried about with him a woman of great beauty, of the name of Luna or Helena, whom he represented as a kind of incarnation of the Wisdom or Thought of God (Justin, Apol. i. 6; Hom. ii. c. 25; Euseb. Hist. ii. 13). He identified himself with the promised Paraclete and the Christ, and took the name of “He who stands,” as indicating divine power (Recogn. ii. 7). He boasted that he could turn himself and others into the form of brute beasts; that he could cause statues to speak (Hom. iv. c. 4; Recogn. ii. 9, iii. 6). His life was one of ostentatious luxury. He was accompanied by the two sons of the Syro-Phœnician woman of Mar_7:26 (Hom. i. 19). After the episode related in the Acts, he went down to Cæsarea, and Peter was then sent thither by James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, to confront and hold a disputation with him on various points of doctrine. From Cæsarea he made his way to Tyre and Tripolis, and thence to Rome, and was there worshipped by his followers, so that an altar was seen there by Justin with an inscription, “SIMONI DEO SANCTO” (Apol. i. 56). Peter followed him, and in the reign of Claudius the two met, once more face to face, in the imperial city. According to one legend, he offered to prove his divinity by flying in the air. trusting that the demons whom he employed would support him; but, through the power of the prayers of Peter, he fell down, and had his bones broken, and then committed suicide (Constt. Apost. ii. 14; 6:9). Another represents him as buried alive at his own request, in order that he might show his power by rising on the third day from the dead, and so meeting his death (Irenæus, Adv. Hær. vi. 20).

In the midst of all this chaos of fantastic fables, we have, perhaps, one grain of fact in Justin’s assertion that he had seen the altar above referred to. An altar was discovered at Rome in 1574, on the island in the Tiber, with the inscription “SEMONI SANCO DEO FIDIO.” Archæologists, however, agree in thinking that this was dedicated to the Sabine Hercules, who was known as SEMO SANCUS, and it has been thought by many writers that Justin may have seen this or some like altar, and, in his ignorance of Italian mythology, have imagined that it was consecrated to the Sorcerer of Samaria. His statement is repeated by Tertullian (Apol. c. 13) and Irenæus (i. 20). Of the three names in the inscription, Semo (probably connected with Semen as the God of Harvest, or as Semihomo) appears by itself in the Hymn of the Fratres Arvales, and in connection with Sancus and Fidius (probably connected with Fides, and so employed in the formula of asseveration, medius fidius) in Ovid, Fast. vi. 213; Livy, viii. 20; 32:1.

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

24. that none of these [the] things which ye have spoken come upon me] Simon shews by the character of his petition that he is not moved by a true spirit of repentance. He utters no word of sorrow for the evil of his thought, but only petitions that he may suffer no punishment. Yet we can see that he had not taken the expression of St Peter in Act_8:20 as a curse invoked upon him by the Apostle, but only as a declaration of the anger of God, and of the certainty of a penalty upon wilful continuance in such sin. His entreaty may be compared with that oft-repeated petition of Pharaoh to Moses (Exo_8:8; Exo_8:28; Exo_9:28; Exo_10:17) “Intreat the Lord for me,” extorted by fear and followed by no change of conduct.

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.

And they, when they had testified, &c. That is, Simeon (or Peter) and John, as the Syriac version expresses it; when they had bore their testimony to, and by it confirmed the Gospel as preached by Philip, and had established the young converts in it, and against the errors of Simon Magus:

and preached the word of the Lord; or of "God", as read the Alexandrian copy, and the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions; when they had preached the Gospel in the city of Samaria, the same as Philip had preached before; whereby it appeared, that there was an harmony and agreement between them:

returned to Jerusalem; to the rest of the apostles there, to give them an account, how they found things at Samaria; what they had done, and what they had met with: and upon their return, whilst on their journey, they stopped at several places, which lay in their way;

and preached the Gospel in many villages of the Samaritans; their first commission in Mat 10:5 being now cancelled, and a new one given them to preach the Gospel to every creature; and being appointed witnesses for Christ in Samaria, as well as in Jerusalem and Judea; Act 1:8.

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

24 Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.

Ver. 24. Pray for me] Some from these words conclude his effectual conversion. He trembleth at God’s justice, and imploreth his mercy. Haec certe non minima sunt poenitentiae signa, saith judicious Calvin; these were no small signs of sound repentance.

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.

Pray ye ... - Here remark:

(1) That Simon was directed to pray for himself Act 8:22, but he had no disposition to do it, but was willing to ask others to do it for him. Sinners will often ask others to pray for them, when they are too proud, or too much in love with sin, to pray for themselves.

(2) The main thing that Peter wished to impress on him was a sense of his sin. Simon did not regard this, but looked only to the punishment. He was terrified and alarmed; he sought to avoid future “punishment,” but he had no alarm about his “sins.” So it is often with sinners. So it was with Pharaoh Exo 8:28, Exo 8:32, and with Jeroboam 1Ki 13:6. Sinners often quiet their own consciences by asking ministers and Christian friends to pray for them, while “they” still purpose to persevere in iniquity. If people expect to be saved, they must pray “for themselves”; and pray not chiefly to be freed from “punishment,” but from the “sin which deserves hell.” This is all that we hear of Simon in the New Testament; and the probability is, that, like many other sinners, he did not pray for himself, but continued to live in the gall of bitterness, and died in the bond of iniquity. The testimony of antiquity is decided on that point. See the notes on Act 8:9.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Pray ... for me. Instead of following the advice of St. Peter, he begs them to pray, not that God would touch his heart, and give him repentance; but that the evils might not fall upon him. In this he is a true model of false penitents, who hate not the sin, but fear the punishment, which is the consequence of it. He afterwards left the East, and went to Rome, under the reign of Claudius. Sts. Justin, Irenæus, and others say, the senate adored him as a divinity. Having undertaken to fly in the air, in the presence of the emperor and senate, when he had raised himself to a certain height, he was brought down by the prayers of Sts. Peter and Paul, and died a few days after, of the wounds he received by the fall. (Calmet) --- See also Eusebius, Theod., St. Augustine, &c.

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).

Simon Magus was convinced that he was indeed such as the apostles had spoken him to be; and knowing them to be powerful with God, he desires this of them. He feigns himself to be a true penitent, being terrified with the threatening of St. Peter, Act 8:20, and probably fearing the punishment of Ananias and Sapphira might befall him, which it is likely he had heard of.

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

And Simon answered for then answered Simon, A.V.; for me to the Lord for to the Lord for me, A.V.; the for these, A.V. Pray ye, etc.; addressed to both Peter and John, who were acting together, and whose prayers had been seen to be effectual (ver. 15) in procuring the gift of the Holy Ghost. In like manner, Pharaoh, under the influence of terror at God"s judgments, had asked again and again for the prayers of Moses and. (Exo_8:8, 28 9:27, 28 10:16, 17, etc.) But in neither ease was this an evidence of true conversion of heart.

Vers. 24, 25. The impostor unmasked.

I THE MISSION OF PETER AND JOHN. Samaria there is an emphasis on this word had received the Word of God. There was something significant in this conversion. The gospel was already proving itself a power to reconcile and break down distinctions long rooted and deeply felt. So important an occasion called for the services of the two leading apostles, Peter and John. These go down and pray for the new converts, that they may receive the Holy Ghost. Power and purity, the joy and freedom of the Christian life, are associated with this baptism; as repentance or a preparatory change of life was associated with that of John the Baptist. It is difficult to understand how such gifts as those we associate with spiritual religion could be conveyed by the physical act of imposition of hands. Nor are we required to believe that the imposition of hands was in any way causally related to the spiritual result, or even instrumentally. It was an external association, an apparent not a real connection, such as might well deceive the unspiritual observer.

II THE SELF-DECEPTION OF THE UNSPIRITUAL MAN. Simon perceives the solemn act of laying on of hands; he perceives that something follows a spiritual power in the converts, and he mistakenly infers that the apostles are magicians, who can bestow at their pleasure supernatural gifts. What man can bestow may be bought from man Had the apostles been like Tetzel, the friar who went about in Luther"s time selling indulgences, it would have been natural to offer them, and for them to receive payment for the communication of the power. But spiritual things are spiritually discerned; and "the carnal mind understands not the things of the Spirit of Gee" When the heart has not been awakened, when the man has not been born into the kingdom of God, there is constantly the danger of confounding things that differ. Money cannot buy thought, nor feeling, nor inward power; though it can buy action and the imitation of reality, but not reality itself. Simon confounds the outward phenomena of the Spirit with the essence and meaning.

III THE UNSPIRITUAL MAN"S ERROR EXPOSED.

1. The sin of Simon is that of the money-loving man. His faith is in it; he believes that it "answers all things," not only in reference to this world, but in reference to the kingdom of God. He is the type of a class. There are those who secretly believe they can patronize the ministers of Christ, and purchase for themselves an interest in the kingdom of God. The power of wealth so subtly mingles with all Christian work, and profusely used may so readily acquire for its possessor the reputation of sanctity. But the immortal antipathy of the spirit of the gospel, as the free energy of the holy God in men"s souls, casts off in one word of the apostle these vile counterfeits, which ever obtain currency side by side with it in the world. The apostle whose word has been in the very act of healing, "Silver and gold have I none," exclaims, "Thy money perish with thee!

2. A bosom sin will separate a man from the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within. It is a spiritual state and a spiritual system of motives. He has no part or lot in it who does not see that it aims at the fulfillment of our life by the subjugation of the lower motives and the instatement of the higher in the rightful empire of the soul. Simon"s heart was not "straight" before God. He was trying to juggle with him who searches the heart; to keep the lower passions in full action, if possible, under the mask of piety. His is the type of perhaps the deadliest sin that Christianity has occasioned in the world. As the shadow follows the sun, so does hypocrisy follow close on the heels of genuine piety. Insincerity is the sin of sins. What filth is in the bodily habit, that untruth is in the soul. The man is aware of his sin. It is no blindness of passion, but the deliberate admission of a habitual lie to the feelings and the thoughts. It is a poison or gall infusing its influence into the whole life of the mind. It is a bondage, and no liberty is possible under the tyranny of inward falsehood. Thus is the character of the impostor exposed by the pure light of the truth. He is seen to pretend a faith of which his heart knows nothing; he regards the gifts of the Holy Spirit as the means of base gain; and he knows no higher motive to repentance than slavish fear of punishment. The spirit of the gospel is illustrated in St. Peter by the strong contrast. It sternly points out man"s sins and tracks them to their source in the heart; chastises the sinner, but at the same time holds out the duty of repentance and the hope of forgiveness to the worst. J.

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

24. From this verse we see that the Holy Spirit had not utterly forsaken Simon; but that he becomes penitent under the straight and terrible warning of Peter, so that he actually calls on him to pray for him that he might be reclaimed. Here the curtain falls, hiding forever the continued vision of an open door to reclamation to be followed by entire sanctification amid the wonderful privileges of that glorious revival, now augmented by the ministry of Peter and John, having come from Jerusalem and joined the heroic young evangelist in his arduous labors. Ecclesiastical history, corroborated by secular, gives us a legend, by some doubted, certifying that poor Simon was never reclaimed, but went on from bad to worse, becoming the founder of one of the first heresies of the Apostolic age, thus returning to Satan’s ministry, in which Philip found him, and there spending the remnant of his days.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

24. The conclusion of the conversation between Peter and Simon leaves us in doubt as to the final fate of the latter. Peter had exhorted him to repent, and pray to God for pardon. (24) " Then Simon answered and said, Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. " This response indicates very clearly that the scathing speech of Peter had a good effect. It doubtless awoke Simon to a clearer perception of his own character, filled him with more becoming awe of the Holy Spirit, and aroused some fear of the terrible consequences of his sin. As the curtain of history here falls upon him, he disappears in a more promising state of feeling, but without leaving us fully assured that he recovered from the dominion of his unholy passions. Many things are said of his subsequent career, in ancient and modern commentaries, but nothing that is sufficiently authenticated to deserve our serious attention.

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.

General Information:

Here the word "you" refers to Peter and John.

so that nothing you have said may happen to me

This can be stated another way. AT: "the things you have said ... may not happen to me"

so that nothing you have said may happen to me

This refers to Peter's rebuke about Simon's silver perishing along with him.

translationWords

pray

lord

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

24. ὅπως μηδὲν ἐπέλθῃ κ.τ.λ., that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. Simon shews from the character of his petition that he is not moved by a true spirit of repentance. He utters no word of sorrow for the evil of his thought, but only petitions that he may suffer no punishment. Yet we can see that he had not taken the expression of St Peter in Act 8:20 as a curse invoked upon him by the Apostle, but only as a declaration of the anger of God and of the certainty of a penalty upon the wilful continuance in such sin. His entreaty may be compared with that oft-repeated petition of Pharaoh to Moses (Exo 8:8; Exo 8:28; Exo 9:28; Exo 10:17), ‘Intreat the Lord for me,’ extorted by fear and followed by no change of conduct.

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.

24.] Simon speaks here much as Pharaoh, Exod. (8:28; 9:28) 10:17,—who yet hardened his heart afterwards (Stier). It is observable also that he wishes merely for the averting of the punishment. The words ὅπως μηδὲν ἐπέλθῃ ἐπʼ ἐμὲ ὧν εἰρήκατε seem remarkably to set forth the mere terror of the carnal man, without any idea of the ἐμέ becoming another man in thoughts and aims.

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