Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 13:10

"and said, O full of all guile and all villany, thou son of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?" — Acts 13:10 (ASV)

O full of all subtilty and mischief. The word subtilty denotes deceit and fraud, implying that he was practicing an imposition and knew it. The word translated mischief, radiourgiav, properly denotes facility of acting, and then sleight of hand—sly, cunning arts by which one imposes on another and deceives him with fraudulent intent. It is not used elsewhere in the New Testament.

The art of Elymas probably consisted in sleight of hand, legerdemain, or trick, aided by skill in the abstruse sciences, by which the ignorant might easily be imposed upon.

Child of the devil. Being under his influence, practicing his arts, and promoting his designs by deceit and imposture, so that the devil may be called your father.

Satan is here represented as the author of deceit, and the father of lies.

Enemy of all righteousness. Practicing deceit and iniquity, and thus opposed to righteousness and honesty. A man who lives by wickedness will, of course, be the foe of every form of integrity. A man who lives by fraud will be opposed to the truth; one who panders to the vices of men will hate the rules of chastity and purity; a manufacturer or seller of distilled spirits will be the enemy of temperance societies.

Wilt thou not cease to pervert. In what way Elymas had opposed Paul and Barnabas is not known. It was probably by misrepresenting their doctrines, by portraying them as apostate Jews, and thus by retarding or hindering the progress of the gospel. The expression “wilt thou not cease” implies that he had been diligently engaged in this, probably from the beginning of their work in the city.

The right ways of the Lord. These are the straight paths, or doctrines, of the Christian religion, in opposition to the crooked and perverse arts of deceivers and impostors. Straight paths denote integrity, sincerity, and truth (Jeremiah 31:9; Hebrews 12:13). (Compare to Isaiah 40:3-4, Isaiah 42:16, and Luke 3:5).

Crooked ways denote the ways of the sinner, the deceiver, and the impostor (Deuteronomy 32:5; Psalms 125:5; Proverbs 2:15; Isaiah 59:8; Philippians 2:15).