Bible Strands
Acts 13:8
But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Elymas opposes Barnabas and Saul when they stand before the proconsul Sergius Paulus at Paphos. This confrontation occurs immediately after the proconsul summons the missionaries to hear the word of God.
The words — The Greek ἀνθίστατο (anthistato) literally means "was opposing," describing Elymas’s direct resistance to the apostles. His name Ἐλὺμας (Elumas) is explicitly identified as meaning "magician."
The thread — This pattern of spiritual opposition mirrors the resistance described in 2 Timothy 3:8, where false teachers oppose the truth, and echoes the earlier introduction of the same figure in Acts 13:6. It also aligns with the warning about those who cause harm to believers, as noted in 2 Timothy 4:14.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that proclaiming the gospel encounters active, named resistance aimed at corrupting faith. It requires a clear-eyed assessment of spiritual conflict without minimizing the opponent’s intent to divert leadership from the truth.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith.
Cross-references
- 2 Timothy 3:8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and disqualified from the faith.
- Acts 13:6 They traveled through the whole island as far as Paphos, where they found a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus,
- 2 Timothy 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.
- Acts 9:36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which is translated as Dorcas), who was always occupied with works of kindness and charity.
- Acts 13:12 When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.
- Exodus 7:11 But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts.
- 1 Kings 22:24 Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah went up, struck Micaiah in the face, and demanded, “Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go when He departed from me to speak with you?”
- Jeremiah 28:1 In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, near the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people:
- Jeremiah 28:10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.
- Jeremiah 29:24 You are to tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite that