Opposed to the Gospel at the Gate: Bar-Jesus

Bar-Jesus is another name for a Jewish influencer on Cypress: Elymas the magician.

Acts 13:

• Luke chronicles THIS history of the first mission of the Church at Antioch published sometime around A.D. 60-62.
• Many Christians may already have read John Mark’s Gospel written during the A.D. 50’s just a few years after this first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas.
• Luke’s account records events of A.D. 47.

When they arrived at Cypress

Cypress is Greek, NOT Roman

(And certainly not Jewish)

What the tourist visiting Cypress should know:

Cyprus was allowed a large amount of autonomy remaining mainly Greek in culture while adopting and adapting Roman customs. No Roman colonies were settled on the island. 

• The island is prone to earthquakes, several in the centuries prior to this missionary journey
  • including one as recently as A.D. 16.
• Cypress had been an Egyptian (King Ptolemy) part of Roman Cilicia
  • a gift of Julius Caesar to Cleopatra
• After Caesar Augustus defeated Marc Antony and Cleopatra, Rome made it a senatorial province
  • separate from Cilicia with Nea Paphos as its capitol

5. And when they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they also had John as their helper.

NOTE TWO POINTS HERE:

1. .. they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews
2. Luke introduces John Mark as a helper to Barnabas and Saul.

As you can see from the map of cities on Cypress at the time, this mission team would have traveled on land several times to preach the Gospel in synagogues of these Greco-Roman cities on Cypress. Not only was distance a factor in their travel but also mountains which rose to steep heights above the island. This took some time and not just a few days.

In addition to noting last time that Cypress was mostly Greek and Phoenician with a few Jews, previously I pointed out that their ‘additional passenger,’ John, is the same John with earlier connections to Peter’s preaching and miracles.

Luke notes that his fellow Gospel writer [John Mark] also begins this mission trip in A.D. 47.

6 And when they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus…

We'll introduce ourselves to this new character Bar-Jesus who they encounter on this mission shortly, but first let's take a quick look at Paphos.

• New Paphos (Nea Paphos), NW of old Paphos by 7.5 miles has a natural harbor and was built by Augustus of Rome for commerce and governing its Provence of Cypress.

• Old Paphos was a centre for Aphrodite’s cult. Aphrodite’s mythical birthplace was on the island.
• .. the grove and altar of Aphrodite at Paphos are mentioned in the Odyssey (700 BC).
• Archaeology established that Cypriots venerated a fertility goddess in a cult that combined Aegean and eastern mainland aspects before the arrival of the mainland Greeks.
  • Source: Wikipedia

Aphrodite of Cyprus

• Every spring a festival was held here in honor of the goddess Aphrodite – source

• Phoenician merchants from Kition [Cyprus] who gained permission to found at Athens [Greece] a shrine of Aphrodite, whom they presumably looked upon as their ancestral deity Astarte – Aphrodite. READ MORE BELOW:

333 B.C., it was Phoenician merchants from Kition [Cyprus] who gained permission to found at Athens [Greece] a shrine of Aphrodite, whom they presumably looked upon as their ancestral deity Astarte – Aphrodite.
Worshiped with incense, altars and dove sacrifices, which are also offered to Ishtar-Astarte. She is a warrior goddess, and Archaic xoana of an armed Aphrodite are also documented in Greece: Sparta and Argos.
Altogether she had been adopted by the Greeks at an early date, and eventually found her way to Mount Olympus as the the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation. The Greek Aphrodite diverges from her predecessor as
the aspect of feminine, pre- maternal beauty
seems to be more important for Aphrodite then the power of nature and fertility.
Sung in myth and legend, she is a divinity whose cult was maintained on the island for centuries, even while Christianity was spreading.
Thus Ishtar, who was known as the bloodthirsty goddess of war, over centuries in Cyprus became the goddess of love, the mother goddess, who has been replaced by the Holy Virgin Mary today. – source

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Bar-Jesus

I have introduced you to just some of the idolatry and false worship prevalent in the culture of Cypress. And as a reminder, both Roman and Greek (Hellenist) cultures worshiped MANY pagan gods. False worship, however, is NOT limited to gentile cultures and here Paul and Barnabas will go head-to-head with the spiritual wickedness of a FALSE Jewish worshiper known as Bar-Jesus.

As Luke tells it [in Acts 13:]

.. they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. – Acts of the Apostles 13:6b-8, Le)gacy Standard Bible

1. The Roman proconsul [governor], Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. (Their gospel precedes them, even after proclaiming it primarily to Jews in their synagogues. The Roman Governor wants to hear the word of God – the One God who by His Holy Spirit has sent Joseph of Cypress back home with the Good News!)
2. The gate-keeper for Sergius Paulus happens to be a Jew, known as Bar-Jesus with both political and mystical power.
3. Bar-Jesus is a false prophet! He is known as Elymas the magician (an evil, most un-Jewish occupation of the occult enemies of the One God.) AND, of course, he OPPOSES men of God and seeks to keep the Governor following HIS false faith.

Βαριησοῦ – son of Joshua; μάγος – a magician (Do you recall Simon Magus who wanted Peter’s power?); ψευδοπροφήτης – a pseudoprophētēs or one who, acting the part of a divinely inspired prophet, utters falsehoods under the name of divine prophecies. (Even now the teachings of a later pseudoprophetes taints the insidious faith of many here and throughout the world.)

It’s a contest of Good News of Jesus Christ versus more false teaching from the evil one.

In this first mention of Luke that Saul is also known as Paul in the Greco-Roman world we discover that by the Holy Spirit that the Apostle of the Gentiles is up to it.

Paul stands in the contest as Elijah had with the false prophets of Baal.

Bar-Jesus tries to turn the Missionaries away

The influential position of Bar-Jesus with the Governor Sergius Paulos reminds me of the very Jewish setting when King Ahasuerus magnified Haman when Esther was queen. 

The battle, however, is not by the power of the evangelist but by the unseen power of the Holy Spirit fighting against the evil we cannot see.

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But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, and said:

I like the contemporary pointedness of the paraphrased 'Message' of Eugene Peterson here, which you will find HERE.

ACTS 13:7-11 The governor invited Barnabas and Saul in, wanting to hear God’s Word firsthand from them.

But Dr. Know-It-All (that’s the wizard’s name in plain English) stirred up a ruckus, trying to divert the governor from becoming a believer. But Saul (or Paul), full of the Holy Spirit and looking him straight in the eye, said,

“You bag of wind, you parody of a devil—why, you stay up nights inventing schemes to cheat people out of God. But now you’ve come up against God himself, and your game is up. You’re about to go blind—no sunlight for you for a good long stretch.”

He was plunged immediately into a shadowy mist and stumbled around, begging people to take his hand and show him the way. – ACTS 13:7-11, The Message

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A Contemporary Caution

We return now briefly to a different scene, a contemporary look back at this encounter in Acts through the eyes and experiences of its first century readers of the Church.

• In ~ the year of our Lord [A.D.] 60:

A reading from a letter of Paul, our beloved Apostle and brother who broke bread with us for two years, written from his cell in Rome:

TO: the Church at Ephesus

For brevity's sake I must forge ahead to Paul's argument relevant to our contest with Bar-Jesus in Paphos.

References below: Ephesians 6:10 in Greek; and two OT Scriptures in Hebrew which would have familiar to Elymas from Isaiah 40:3 & Exodus 9:3 [both linked to English translations].

6:10 τοῦ λοιποῦ ἐνδυναμοῦσθε ἐν κυρίῳ καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ

Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against [lit.] blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12 LSB

Idolatry, Charlatans & Faith

Read about Ananias & Saphira below from earlier in Acts.

https://talkofjesus.com/thats-not-fair-possessions-and-community/

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Men and women of blood and flesh like Bar-Jesus and many other false prophets have no power over the Apostle, a disciple or a believer in the Spirit of God and Christ Jesus!

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• RETURNING now to Paphos about twelve years earlier in ~ A.D. 47

ACTS of the Apostles 13:

Paul, having just been filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, and said,

“You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

40:3 קוֹל קוֹרֵא בַּמִּדְבָּר פַּנּוּ דֶּרֶךְ יְהוָה יַשְּׁרוּ בָּעֲרָבָה מְסִלָּה לֵאלֹהֵֽינוּ׃

“Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time.”

9:3 הִנֵּה יַד־יְהוָה הוֹיָה בְּמִקְנְךָ אֲשֶׁר בַּשָּׂדֶה בַּסּוּסִים בַּֽחֲמֹרִים בַּגְּמַלִּים בַּבָּקָר וּבַצֹּאן דֶּבֶר כָּבֵד מְאֹֽד׃

And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.

True visions and True Power

Saul himself had witness such power. The Apostle had seen the power and light of the vision of Christ’s disciple Stephen.

AND Saul himself was blinded on a road to Damascus years earlier by the risen Lord Jesus who anointed the Apostle to this very calling.

Bar-Jesus would have known the same prophesies such as that of Isaiah Paul quotes.

And this Jewish false prophet would know well from Exodus of the LORD’s hand on Pharaoh when he was warned by Moses.

The Power of the Holy Spirit through Paul in Paphos is as powerful as in Peter in Jerusalem.

Yet the same power of the Holy Spirit also led ordinary disciples and prophets of the church in Antioch to initiate this first mission of the Lord Jesus Christ into all the world to proclaim the Gospel.

Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. – Acts of the Apostles on Mission 13:12, Legacy Standard Bible

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ACTS of the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, to be continued…