Elymas

Who is Elymas?

Elymas, also known as Bar-Jesus, was a Jewish magician who appears in the New Testament in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 13.

Acts of the Apostles calls him a magus, which the King James Bible here translates as "sorcerer". He is represented as opposing Paul of Tarsus, who is called at this point for the first time with his Roman name, and Barnabas in the city of Paphos on Cyprus, when Sergius Paulus, the Roman Proconsul, wishes to hear Paul and Barnabas speak about Jesus. Because of this opposition, Paul states that God has decided to make him temporarily blind. A cloud of darkness immediately begins blocking his sight; after this Sergius Paulus is converted to Christianity.