Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. Realizing that his motive was wrong, Peter strongly corrected Simon the Sorcerer, saying, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God. It was common for magicians to purchase tricks from one another, so Simon may have viewed the Apostles as religious “magicians” or hucksters and was trying to purchase their “trick.”ħ. Perhaps he saw this as an opportunity to make more money or enhance his own reputation. Sadly, Simon’s request was based upon impure motives. Seeing that people received the Holy Spirit through “the laying on of the Apostles’ hands,” Simon offered them money if they would give him power to give people the Holy Spirit.Ħ. Since the people Philip baptized had not yet had hands laid on them for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, Peter and John came from Jerusalem to perform this important part of baptism.ĥ. He “was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs which were done” through the power of God. Simon was among those who believed and was also baptized. When people “believed Philip as he preached the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized.”Ĥ. Simon the Sorcerer’s status was apparently threatened when Philip entered the city and preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
The Samaritans viewed angels as “powers.”ģ.
Simon the Sorcerer may have claimed to be a revealing angel from God, or this could have been the origin of the gnostic doctrine of emanations or various spirit beings “emanating” from the Godhead. Simon the Sorcerer had “bewitched” the people of Samaria “with his sorceries for a long time.” The people of that city mistakenly assumed that he was “the great power of God.”Ģ. Simon the sorcerer appeared in the wake of the newly established church in Samaria. This practice is specifically forbidden by God. It is a means of working magic with the assistance of the devil or evil spirits. Simon the sorcerer is commonly called Simon the sorcerer or magus. TUESDAY 15TH MAY, 2018 MORNING PRAYER DEVOTION
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