8:5-13 As far as the gospel prevails, evil spirits are dislodged, particularly unclean spirits. All inclinations to the lusts of the flesh which war against the soul are such. Distempers are here named, the most difficult to be cured by the course of nature, and most expressive of the disease of sin. Pride, ambition, and desire after grandeur have always caused abundance of mischief, both to the world and to the church. The people said of Simon, This man is the great power of God. See how ignorant and thoughtless people mistake. But how strong is the power of Divine grace, by which they were brought to Christ, who is Truth itself! The people not only gave heed to what Philip said, but were fully convinced that it was of God, and not of men, and gave up themselves to be directed thereby. Even bad men, and those whose hearts still go after covetousness, may come before God as his people come, and for a time continue with them. And many wonder at the proofs of Divine truths, who never experience their power. The gospel preached may have a common operation upon a soul, where it never produced inward holiness. All are not savingly converted who profess to believe the gospel.

Verse 10. - That power of God which is called Great for the great power of God, A.V. and T.R. That power of God, etc. The revised text inserts καλουμένη before μεγάλη. Origen says of Simon that his disciples, the Simoniaus, called him "The Power of God." ('Contra Cels.,' lib. 5:62, where see Delarue's note). According to Tertullian ('De Anima'), he gave himself out as the supreme Father, with other blasphemies. According to St. Jerome on Matthew 24:5, he speaks of himself in different writings as the Word of God, as the Paraclete, the Almighty, the Fullness of God.

To whom they all gave heed,.... Were not only attentive to the strange things he did, and to the wonderful things he gave out concerning himself; but they believed what he said and did as real things, and were obedient to him: and that

from the least to the greatest; which does not so much respect age, though the Ethiopic version renders it, "from the younger of them to the eldest of them", as state and condition; persons of every rank and quality, high and low, rich and poor, magistrates and subjects, from the meanest to the greatest of them; and so the Syriac version renders it, "both great", or "noble, and mean"; he drew the attention, and commanded the regard, both of princes and peasants, of the learned and unlearned, of the great men, and of the common people, who one and all wondered at him, and applauded him:

saying, this man is the great power of God; or as the Alexandrian copy and some others, and the Vulgate Latin version read, "this is the power of God which is called great"; they took him for the supreme Deity, or as Justin Martyr (h) expresses it, they accounted him the first, or chief God, or they looked upon him to be the Messiah, "the great power of God": as the Syriac version renders it; and who should be great, and called the Son of the Highest, Luke 1:32.

(h) Ut supra. (Apolg. 2. p. 69.)

10. To whom all gave heed … because of long time he had bewitched them—This, coupled with the rapidity with which they deserted him and attached themselves to Philip, shows the ripeness of Samaria for some religious change.

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