Acts 13:7 - Exposition

The proconsul for the deputy of the country, A.V.; a man of understanding for a prudent man, A.V.; the same for who, A.V.; unto him for for, A.V.; sought for desired, A.V. The proconsul ( ἀνθύπατος ) ; here and Acts 13:8 , Acts 13:12 . This is an instance of Luke's great accuracy. Cyprus had become a proconsular province in the reign of Claudius, having previously been one of the emperor's provinces governed by a propraetor, or legatus. £ A man of understanding ( ἀνδρὶ συνετῷ ). συνετός is a rare word in the New Testament, and is always translated in the A.V. "prudent" (see Matthew 11:25 ; Luke 10:21 ; 1 Corinthians 1:19 ). It is common in the LXX ., where it represents the Hebrew words ניבִםֵ נוֹבןָ ליכִּשְׂםַ , and מכָחָ , all signifying "intelligence," "skill," "knowledge," and the like. The substantive σύνεσις has the same scope (see Luke 2:47 ; Ephesians 3:4 ; Colossians 1:9 , etc.); ἀνὴρ συνετός , therefore, means something more than " a prudent man." It means a man of knowledge and superior intelligence and understanding. And such was Sergius Paulus, a noble Roman, who is twice named by Pliny in the list of authors placed at the commencement of his work as the authorities from whom he derived the matter contained in the several books. It is not a little remarkable that the two books, lib. it. and lib. 18., for which Sergius Paulus is quoted are just those which contain accounts of the heavenly bodies, and prognostications from the sun and moon and stars, from thunder, from the clouds, and such like things, which doubtless formed the staple of Elymas's science; so that there can be little doubt that Sergius Paulus had Elymas with him, that he might learn from him such matters as might be useful for the hook which he was writing. There is also a curious passage in lib. 30. cap. 1. of the 'Hist. Nat.', in which Pliny, after enumerating the most famous teachers of magic, Zoroaster, Orthanes, Pythagoras, and others, adds, "There is also another school of magic which springs from Moses and Jannes, who were Jews, but many thousand years later than Zoroaster; so much more recent is the school of Cyprus;" showing that he knew of a school of magic art at Cyprus taught by Jews, and leading us to infer that he had acquired this knowledge either from the pen or the mouth of Sergius Paulus. Anyhow, a remarkable confirmation of St. Luke's narrative. Another Sergius Paulus, who might be a son or grandson of the proconsul, is highly commended by Galen for his eminent philosophical attainments. One L. Sergius Paulus was consul suffectus in A.D. 94, another in A.D. 168. Renan thinks they may have been descendants of the Sergius Paulus in the text.