Acts 8:9 - Exposition

Simon by name for called Simon, A.V.; the city for the same city, A.V.; amazed for bewitched, A.V. (here and in Acts 8:13 ). Amazed. In Luke 24:22 the same word ( ἐξίστημι ) is rendered "made us astonished" in the A.V.; and in Acts 2:7 , Acts 2:12 , and elsewhere, in an intransitive sense, "were amazed." It has also the meaning of "being out of one's mind," or "beside one's self" ( Mark 3:21 ; 2 Corinthians 5:13 ), but never that of "bewitching" or "being bewitched." As regards Simon , commonly surnamed Magus, from his magic arts, it is doubtful whether he is the same Simon as is mentioned by Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,'20. 7.2) as being employed by Felix the Procurator of Judaea, in the reign of Claudius ( Acts 23:25 ), to bewitch Drusfila into forsaking her husband, King Azizus, and marrying him, which she did ( Acts 24:24 ). The doubt arises from Josephus stating that Simon to be a Cypriot ( κύπριον γένος ) , whereas Justin Martyr says of Simon Magus that he was ἀπὸ κώμης λεγομένης γίττων , a native of Gitton, or Githon, a village of Samaria. It has been thought that Gitton may be a mistake of Justin's for Citium, in Cyprus. The after history of Simon Magus is full of fable. He is spoken of by Irenaeus and other early writers as the inventor or founder of heresy.