Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 13]
{Fastened his eyes} (\atenisas\). As already in Lu 4:20; 22:56;
Ac 3:4,12; 6:15; 10:4.
13:10 {Of all guile} (\pantos dolou\). From \del•\, to catch with
bait, old word, already seen in Mt 26:4; Mr 7:22; 14:1. Paul
denounces Elymas as a trickster. {All villainy} (\p•s•s
rh•idiourgias\). Late compound from \rh•idiourgos\ (\rh•idios\,
easy, facile, \ergon\, deed, one who does a thing adroitly and
with ease). So levity in Xenophon and unscrupulousness in
Polybius, Plutarch, and the papyri. Only here in the N.T., though
the kindred word \rh•idiourg•ma\ occurs in Ac 18:14. With
deadly accuracy Paul pictured this slick rascal. {Thou son of the
devil} (\huie diabolou\). Damning phrase like that used by Jesus
of the Pharisees in Joh 8:44, a slanderer like the \diabolos\.
This use of son (\huios\) for characteristic occurs in Ac 3:25;
4:36, a common Hebrew idiom, and may be used purposely by Paul
in contrast with the name Barjesus (son of Jesus) that Elymas
bore (13:6). {Enemy of all righteousness} (\echthre p•s•s
dikaiosun•s\). Personal enemy to all justice, sums up all the
rest. Note triple use of "all" (\pantos, p•s•s, p•s•s\), total
depravity in every sense. {Wilt thou not cease?} (\ou paus•i\).
An impatient rhetorical question, almost volitive in force
(Robertson, _Grammar_, p. 874). Note \ou\, not \m•\, {To pervert}
(\diastreph•n\). Present active participle describing the actual
work of Elymas as a perverter or distorter (see verse 8). More
exactly, Wilt thou not cease perverting? {The right ways of the
Lord} (\tas hodous tou kuriou tas eutheias\). The ways of the
Lord the straight ones as opposed to the crooked ways of men
(Isa 40:4; 42:16; Lu 3:5). The task of John the Baptist as of
all prophets and preachers is to make crooked paths straight and
to get men to walk in them. This false prophet was making even
the Lord's straight ways crooked. Elymas has many successors.
13:11 {Upon thee} (\epi se\). The use of \epi\ with the
accusative is rich and varied, the precise shade of meaning
depending on the content. The "hand of the Lord" might be kindly
(Ac 11:21) or hostile (Heb 10:31), but when God's hand
touches one's life (Job 19:21) it may be in judgment as here
with Elymas. He has not humbled himself under the mighty hand of
God (1Pe 5:6). {Not seeing} (\m• blep•n\). Repeating with
negative participle the negative idea in "blind" (\tuphlos\). "It
was a judicial infliction; blindness for blindness, darkness
without for wilful darkness within" (Furneaux). He was an example
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