Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 13]
of the blind leading the blind that was to cease and Sergius
Paulus was to be led into the light. The blindness was to be "for
a season" (\achri kairou\, Lu 4:13), if it should please God to
restore his sight. Paul apparently recalls his own blindness as
he entered Damascus. {A mist} (\achlus\). Especially a dimness of
the eyes, old poetic word and late prose, in LXX, only here in
N.T. Galen uses it of the opacity of the eye caused by a wound.
{He went about seeking some one to lead him by the hand}
(\periag•n ez•tei cheirag•gous\). A rather free rendering.
Literally, "going about (\periag•n\, present active participle of
\periag•\) he was seeking (\ez•tei\, imperfect active of \z•te•\)
guides (\cheirag•gous\, from \cheir\, hand, and \ag•gos\, guide,
from \ag•\, one who leads by the hand)." The very verb
\cheirag•ge•\, to lead by the hand, Luke uses of Paul in 9:8,
as he entered Damascus.
13:12 {Believed} (\episteusen\). Ingressive aorist active
indicative. Renan considers it impossible that a Roman proconsul
could be converted by a miracle. But it was the teaching about
the Lord (\tou kuriou\, objective genitive) by which he was
astonished (\ekpl•ssomenos\, present passive participle of
\ekpl•ss•\, see on ¯Mt 7:28) or struck out as well as by the
miracle. The blindness came "immediately" (\paraehr•ma\) upon the
judgment pronounced by Paul. It is possible that Sergius Paulus
was converted to Christ without openly identifying himself with
the Christians as his baptism is not mentioned as in the case of
Cornelius. But, even if he was baptized, he need not have been
deposed from his proconsulship as Furneaux and Rackham argue
because his office called for "official patronage of idolatrous
worship." But that could have been merely perfunctory as it
probably was already. He had been a disciple of the Jewish
magician, Elymas Barjesus, without losing his position. Imperial
persecution against Christianity had not yet begun. Furneaux even
suggests that the conversion of a proconsul to Christianity at
this stage would have called for mention by the Roman and Greek
historians. There is the name Sergia Paullina in a Christian
cemetery in Rome which shows that one of his family was a
Christian later. One will believe what he wills about Sergius
Paulus, but I do not see that Luke leaves him in the category of
Simon Magus who "believed" (8:13) for revenue only.
13:13 {Paul and his company} (\hoi peri Paulon\). Neat Greek
idiom as in Plato, Cratylus 440 C \hoi peri Herakleiton\. On this
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