Love potions and curses were available for purchase in places like Ephesus, fortune-tellers were in the marketplace to help you make decisions, and people bought charms and spells to protect them against evil spirits. While moderns think of magic as a “trick” or an “illusion,” the ancients understood magic as a way of dealing with reality. Magic was an attempt to manipulate spirits and force them to act in ways religion did not (Keener: 2:1500). Why is there an interest in magic in the book of Acts? One reason is the ancient world was obsessed with magic.

Paul will be opposed by Elymas, a Philippian slave girl is possessed by “the spirit of python” so that she acts as an oracle, and the Sons of Sceva attempt to cast out demons and are beaten, resulting in the burning of magical scrolls by some Ephesian Christians (Keener 2:1499). This is the first of several confrontations with magicians Luke describes in Acts. Simon, however, attempts to make himself something great, while Philip acts only “in the name of Jesus” (8:12,16). Both amaze the Samaritans, Simon with magic (8:9, 11) and Philip with miracles (8:13). Simon is a “great power” (8:10) and Philip preforms “great powers” (8:13). Keener points out a number of comparisons between Philip and Simon. Luke does not tell us what is motivation might have been, but there is a connection between magic and money in other contexts in Acts (13:6-8, 16:18-19, 19:14-19), so it is possible that Simon was functioning as a miracle worker in order to make money. In Simon’s case, he seems to have been able to perform a number of miracles by which he was able to gain a following among the Samaritans. This appears to be what Simon is, since he is amazing people for a long time in the Samaritan town. A Magus could be a respectable class of scientific advisers to leaders, but often they were quacks and charlatans. While it is impossible to confirm anything he says, Luke describes him here as a man who had functioned as a first century magician who used these skills to draw people to himself. Justin Martyr describes Simon as a source of a great deal of heresy in the early church. He goes into the region of Samaria and has great success as an evangelist.Īmong those who believe is a man named Simon, who is described as a magician (verses 9-13). Like Stephen, he appears to have been a leader among the Hellenists.

Philip, introduced in Acts 6 as a deacon, now functions as an evangelist in Samaria. After the execution of Stephen, Luke tells us that a great persecution broke out in Jerusalem, presumably led by Saul and other Hellenistic Jews from the synagogue of the Freedmen.

Simon the sorcerer bible activities