Acts 13:10 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Acts 13:10
And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
to distort · verb — present active participle, nominative singular masculine
right
εὐθείας;eutheias
G2117
straight · adjective — accusative plural feminine
ways
ὁδοὺςhodous
G3598
a road · noun — accusative plural feminine
Lord
κυρίουkuriou
G2962
supreme in authority · noun — genitive singular masculine, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,…
Matthew 13:38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that…
Hosea 14:9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall w…
Galatians 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Luke 11:52 Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered…
1 John 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he mi…
Acts 8:20-23 But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 13:4-13
In these verses we have,
I. A general account of the coming of Barnabas and Saul to the famous island of Cyprus; and perhaps thitherward they steered their course because Barnabas was a native of that country (Act 4:36), and he was willing they should have the first-fruits of his labours, pursuant to his new commission. Observe, 1. Their being sent forth by the Holy Ghost was the great thing that encouraged them in this undertaking, Act 13:4. If the Holy Ghost send them forth, he will go along with them, strengthen them, carry them on in their work, and give them success; and then they fear no colours, but can cheerfully venture upon a stormy sea from Antioch, which was now to them a quiet h…
full of all subtlety--referring to his magic arts.
and all malice--The word signifies "readiness for anything," knavish dexterity.
thou child of the devil . . . enemy of all righteousness--These were not words of passion, for immediately before uttering them, it is said he was "filled with the Holy Ghost" [CHRYSOSTOM].
wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord--referring to his having to that hour made a trade of leading his fellow creatures astray.
Adam Clarke on Acts 13:10
O full of all subtilty - Δολου, Deceit, pretending to supernatural powers without possessing any, and having only cunning and deceit as their substitutes.
And - mischief - Ῥᾳδιουργιας, from ῥᾳδιος, easy, and εργον, a work; one who is ready at his work; a word which excellently well defines a juggler, one who is expert at sleight of hand; though it is often employed to signify an abandoned and accomplished villain.
Child of the devil - Υἱε διαβολου, Son of the devil, possessing his nature; filled with his cunning; and, in consequence, practising deceit.
Enemy of all righteousness - Εχθρεπασης δικαιοσυνης; Opposed in thy heart to all that is just, true, and good.
Wilt thou not cease to pe…
"Filled with the Holy Ghost, looked upon him, and said, O full of all guile and all villany, thou child of the devil:" and observe, this is not abuse, but accusation: for so ought forward, impudent people to be rebuked "thou enemy of all righteousness;" here he lays bare what was in the thoughts of the man, while under pretext of saving he was ruining the proconsul: "wilt thou not cease," he says, "to pervert the ways of the Lord?" (He says it) both confidently, It is not with us thou art warring, nor art thou fighting (with us), but "the ways of the Lord" thou art perverting, and with praise (of these, he adds) "the right" ways.
Observe, how he said nothing to the sorcerer, until he gave him an occasion: but they only "preached the word of the Lord." Since (though Elymas) saw the rest attending to them, he looked only to this one object, that the proconsul might not be won over. Why did not (Paul) perform some other miracle? Because there was none equal to this, the taking the enemy captive. And observe, he first impeaches, and then punishes, him. He shows how justly the man deserved to suffer, by his saying, "O full of all deceit": ("full of all,") he says: nothing wanting to the full measure: and he well says, of all "deceit," for the man was playing the part of a hypocrite.-"Child of the devil," because he was doing his work: "enemy of all righteousness," since this (which they preached) was the whole of righteousness (though at the same time): I suppose in these words he reproves his manner of life. His words were not prompted by anger, and to show this, the writer premises, "filled with the Holy Ghost," that is, with His operation.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Cyprus — One of the largest islands of the Mediterranean, about 148 miles long and 40 broad. It is distant about 60 miles from the Syrian coast. It was the “Chittim” of the Old Testament (Num. 24:24). The…
Sergius Paulus — A “prudent man” (R.V., “man of understanding”), the deputy (R.V., “proconsul”) of Cyprus (Acts 13:6-13). He became a convert to Christianity under Paul, who visited this island on his first mission…
Afflictions · Sin visited with — Sin visited with
Afflictions And Adversities · .Sinners corrected by — .Sinners corrected by
Cyprus · Visited by Barnabas and Saul — Visited by Barnabas and Saul
Devil, The · The wicked: Are the children of — The wicked: Are the children of
Elymas · A false prophet, punished with blindness — A false prophet, punished with blindness
Paphos · Paul blinds a — Paul blinds a
Righteousness · The wicked: Are enemies of — The wicked: Are enemies of
Sergius Paulus · A Roman — A Roman
Synagogue · The Scriptures were read and expoun — The Scriptures were read and expoun
Titles And Names Of The Wicked · Children of the devil — Children of the devil
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
on Acts 13:10
And said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief,.... Which may have regard both to his general character as a sorcerer, and a false prophet; in acting up to which he used much deceit and cunning among the people, and did much mischief to them; to which there was a promptness and readiness in him, as the word used signifies; and also to the sophistry he used, and the mischief he endeavoured to do in seeking to turn the deputy from the faith. The minds of carnal men are vain and empty, and destitute of all that is good, and full of all that is evil: their character is,
filled with all unrighteousness, Romans 1:29. They have many of them a great deal of wit, but it is wicked wit, and they em…
Acts 13:4-12
4. Therefore, when they were sent forth by the Holy Ghost, they went to Seleucia, and thence they sailed into Cyprus. 5. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they had John, also for their minister. 6. And when they had passed over the island unto Paphos, they found a certain false prophet, a Jew, named Bar-jesus, 7. Who was with Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, a wise wan; who, when he had called Barnabas and Paul, sought to hear the word of God. 8. And Elymas, the sorcerer, (for so is his name expounded,) resisted them, seeking to turn away the proconsul from the faith. 9. And Saul, which was also called Paul, being full…
Paul, who became the chief spokesman, rebuked the sorcerer’s fraudulent claims, exposed his deceit, and pronounced divine judgment (cp. 8:20-24). The sorcerer was instantly struck blind, a condition that lasted for some time, giving a strong demonstration of the truthfulness and superiority of the apostolic message over the bogus claims of the sorcerer.
