Acts 8:9

9 Now a certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great.

Acts 8:9 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 8:9

But there was a certain man called Simon
Who, as Justin Martyr F6 says, was a Samaritan, and of a village called Gitton; and so a Jewish writer F7 calls him Simeon, (ynwrmvh) , "the Samaritan", a wizard: here is a

but
upon this new church, the success of the Gospel in this place, and the joy that was there; a man of great wickedness and sophistry plays the hypocrite, feigns himself a believer, and gets in among them; (See Gill on Acts 5:1),

which beforetime in the same city used sorcery;
who before Philip came thither, practised magic arts; wherefore he is commonly called "Simon Magus", for he was a magician, who had learned diabolical arts, and used enchantments and divinations, as Balaam and the magicians of Egypt did:

and bewitched the people of Samaria;
or rather astonished them, with the strange feats he performed; which were so unheard of and unaccountable, that they were thrown into an ecstasy and rapture; and were as it were out of themselves, through wonder and admiration, at the amazing things that were done by him:

giving out that himself was some great one;
a divine person, or an extraordinary prophet, and it may be the Messiah; since the Samaritans expected the Messiah, as appears from ( John 4:25 ) and which the Syriac version seems to incline to, which renders the words thus, "and he said, I am that great one"; that great person, whom Moses spake of as the seed of the "woman", under the name of Shiloh, and the character of a prophet.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 Apolog. 2. p. 69.
F7 Juchasin, fol. 242. 2.

Acts 8:9 In-Context

7 for unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, came out of many who were possessed; and many others who were paralyzed or lame were cured.
8 So there was great joy in that city.
9 Now a certain man named Simon had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he was someone great.
10 All of them, from the least to the greatest, listened to him eagerly, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called Great."
11 And they listened eagerly to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.