The life and work of St. Paul

CYPRUS. 199
of the synagogue. But the position of soothsayer to s Roman Proconsul
even though it conld only last a year 1 was too distinguished and too lucrative
to abandon without a struggle. Elymas met the Apostles in open controversy,
and spared neither argument nor insult in his endeavour to persuade Sergius
of the absurdity of the new faith. Instantly Saul and this is the moment
seized by the historian to tell us that he was also called by the name of Paul,
which henceforth he exclusively uses came to the front to bear the full force
of the sorcerer's opposition. A less convinced or a less courageous man might
well have shrunk from individual collision with a personage who evidently
occupied a position of high consideration in the immediate household of the
noble Roman. But to a spirit like St. Paul's, while there could be infinite
compassion for ignorance, infinite sympathy with infirmity, infinite tenderness
towards penitence, there could, on the other hand, be no compromise with im-
posture, no tolerance for cupidity, no truce with Canaan. He stood up, as it
were, in a flame of fire, his soul burning with inspired indignation, against a
man whose cowardice, greed, and worthlessness he saw and wished to expose.
Fixing on the false prophet and sorcerer that earnest gaze which was perhaps
rendered more conspicuous by his imperfect sight, 2 he exclaimed, " O full of
all gnile and all villainy, thou son of the devil, 3 thou foe of all righteousness,
cease, wilt thou, thy perversion of the Lord's straight paths." And then,
perceiving the terror produced on the mind of the unmasked hypocrite by this
bold and blighting invective, he suddenly added, " And now, see, the Lord's
hand is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a time." 4
The denunciation instantly took effect ; the sorcerer felt in a moment that his
impostures were annihilated, that he stood in the presence of an avenging
justice. A mist swam before his eyes, followed by total darkness, and
groping with outstretched hands he guide
began to seek for some one to lead and
him.
Nor was it strange that a display of spiritual power so startling and so
irresistible should produce a strong conviction on the mind of the Proconsul. 6
How far his consequent belief was deep-seated or otherwise wa have no evidence
which would enable us to judge. But the silence of St. Luke would seem to
indicate that he was not baptised, and we can hardly look on him as a deep and
lifelong convert, since otherwise we should, in the rarity of great men in the
Christian community, have as certainly heard of him in their records as we
1 Dion Cassius tells us that them senatorial appointments were rmji al (UiL13).
n^purei
s Cf. Acts xriii. 1.
8
Possibly in allusion to his name Bar-Jesus as though he had said, " called the son
of the salvation of Jehovah, but really the son of the devil, and the enemy of all
righteousness." For io/3dAot of. John viii. 44. The reading of the Peshito Ba/r-Skfirna,
" son of a wound " or "son of a name," is hard to account for, unless it be by euphemism
(Castell, Lex Syr. s. v.).
4 Acts xiii. 11, axpi /taipov, literally, " until an opportunity," or, as we "
should say, foi
the present." "Sciebat Apostolus, sui memor exempli, de tenebris oculorum, mentis
"
posse resurgere ad luoem ; Bede, following the hint of St. Chrysostom that ov noXa^ww
V TO pnua oAA' ciricrrpciocroti
* Aot3ii.l2.