Miracle or Magic

Twenty-second Tuesday after Pentecost

Today we return to our Acts Bible Study. Please read Acts 8:4-25.

 

There are two Philips in the NT, Philip the Apostle, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus, and the Philip who was one of the seven Hellenists chosen to serve in Acts 6:5. The Philip of Acts 8 is the latter. Scholars refer to him as Philip the Evangelist. 

 

The other main character in our text today is Simon the Magician, a.k.a. Simon Magis. Our first question is, what is magic and how is it different from miracle. Luke clearly makes a distinction. Some modern scholars think the two are essentially the same. Morton Smith, for example, wrote a book called Jesus the Matician, which makes this case. I should note that magic in the ancient world is different from magic tricks, which modern magicians do. Ancient magic is the invocation of spirits to execute healings, demon exorcisms, miracles, curses, and occasionally tricks. The apostles go very lightly on curses and tricks but do healings, exorcisms, and miracles. The major difference is that the apostles invoke the Holy Spirit; whereas; the magicians, invoke all sorts of spirits, including evil ones. The apostles also preach Jesus and the Kingdom of God. The magicians are not preachers.The apostles also baptize new believers and form new communities of Christians. Magicians are more into individual performance. They don't amass followers. 

Although both Philip and our Acts author, Luke, understand the difference, Simon apparently does not. He sees Philip as having superior magic skills, which he, Simon, would like to appropriate. Meanwhile, Peter and John were baptizing new believers in Samaria, who were then, after Peter and John laid on hands, receiving the Holy Spirit in visible and joyful ways. Simon apparently had not used laying on of hands in his magic before. He thought it would be a good new trick to have in his magic repertoire. Simon offered Peter and John money to give him their ability. Peter rebuked Simon with words that were pretty close to but not exactly a curse. He offered Simon a chance to repent. Simon then begs Peter to pray for him. 

We hear no more of Simon in Acts. Later Christian writers will claim him as the founder of Gnosticism, and the second century Acts of Peter will show a later confrontation with him. The church fathers tended to see him entirely negatively, but Acts leaves the impression that he was truly penitent.

Your new word for the day (some of you already know this word) is simony. Simony became a word in the late Middle Ages for buying a church position, such as bishop, from an archbishop or cardinal or pope. It became an all too common practice. It was one of the practices that led Martin Luther to initiate the Protestant Reformation.

There is another aspect of this text that I will focus on in our next Bible study--the relationship between the Holy Spirit, baptism, laying on of hands, and ecstatic manifestations of receiving the Holy Spirit. 

Faithfully,

Christian