In our western society we give them the title “magician” but really they are optical illusionists. Was Simon a magician, or an illusionist? Or something else? We don’t know, what we know is what the Bible tells us. He was a fraud who chose to use his gifts to serve himself and exploit others. In the end, Simon revealed who he really was. That key difference is what separates teachers of the gospel of Jesus from teachers of the gospel of self. However, he was never preaching the gospel or using his gifts for the glory of God. He had power and reputation among the Samaritans. It warns us of those whose motivation is not centered in Scripture or the work of the Holy Spirit. The Simon is our warning against preachers of this theology. Jakes) and as their careers progressed they realized that the promise of a better life on its own was not as appealing as a life where both your earthly and eternal destinies are provided for. Many of these preachers began their careers as motivational speakers (see T.D. This is quite similar to many prosperity gospel preachers. Of course, Simon did not truly understand the power of the Holy Spirit or its purposes. So Simon had two options: Find a new job, or learn how to do “magic” like Phillip. Simon knew that the miracles that Phillip did would be bad for his business. When Simon saw Phillip’s “magic” he knew it was real, not just a trick. Simon’s magic was not real magic, it was just a charade. The magic performed by Simon in Acts 8 reminds me of the prosperity gospels that we so frequently hear about in our culture. How does the story of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts 8 function as a warning against magic? Or was the story intended to explain to Christians the source of the disciples’ power? Perhaps this is a good passage to think about application: Luke meant for his readers to understand something about the practice of magic in the first century, but how do we draw application to modern, western cultures where magic is not practiced? Is this a story which would be more quickly applied in an African environment than an American college campus? If Philip the Evangelist did miracles, it would be very easy to confuse them with magical practices. Love potions and curses were available for purchase in places like Ephesus, fortune-tellers were in the marketplace to help you make decisions, and people bought charms and spells to protect them against evil spirits. While moderns think of magic as a “trick” or an “illusion,” the ancients understood magic as a way of dealing with reality. Magic was an attempt to manipulate spirits and force them to act in ways religion did not (Keener: 2:1500). Why is there an interest in magic in the book of Acts? One reason is the ancient world was obsessed with magic. Paul will be opposed by Elymas, a Philippian slave girl is possessed by “the spirit of python” so that she acts as an oracle, and the Sons of Sceva attempt to cast out demons and are beaten, resulting in the burning of magical scrolls by some Ephesian Christians (Keener 2:1499). This is the first of several confrontations with magicians Luke describes in Acts. Simon, however, attempts to make himself something great, while Philip acts only “in the name of Jesus” (8:12,16). Both amaze the Samaritans, Simon with magic (8:9, 11) and Philip with miracles (8:13). Simon is a “great power” (8:10) and Philip preforms “great powers” (8:13). Keener points out a number of comparisons between Philip and Simon. Luke does not tell us what is motivation might have been, but there is a connection between magic and money in other contexts in Acts (13:6-8, 16:18-19, 19:14-19), so it is possible that Simon was functioning as a miracle worker in order to make money. In Simon’s case, he seems to have been able to perform a number of miracles by which he was able to gain a following among the Samaritans. This appears to be what Simon is, since he is amazing people for a long time in the Samaritan town. A Magus could be a respectable class of scientific advisers to leaders, but often they were quacks and charlatans. While it is impossible to confirm anything he says, Luke describes him here as a man who had functioned as a first century magician who used these skills to draw people to himself. Justin Martyr describes Simon as a source of a great deal of heresy in the early church. He goes into the region of Samaria and has great success as an evangelist.Īmong those who believe is a man named Simon, who is described as a magician (verses 9-13). Like Stephen, he appears to have been a leader among the Hellenists. Philip, introduced in Acts 6 as a deacon, now functions as an evangelist in Samaria. After the execution of Stephen, Luke tells us that a great persecution broke out in Jerusalem, presumably led by Saul and other Hellenistic Jews from the synagogue of the Freedmen.
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