Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 8:21
Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
21. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter (or word)] By the word “lot” the thought is carried back to the election of Matthias (Act 1:26). In that case the choice had been left to the “Lord who knows the hearts of all men,” but Simon’s character is patent to all; “his heart was not right with God.” If the literal rendering, “in this word,” be adopted, the reference is to Act 8:14, where it is said, “Samaria had received the word of God.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Neither part – You have no portion of the grace of God; that is, you are destitute of it altogether. This word commonly denotes the part of an inheritance which falls to one when it is divided.
Nor lot – This word means properly a portion which falls to one when an estate, or when spoil in war is divided into portions, according to the number of those who are to be partakers, and the part of each one is determined by lot. The two words denote emphatically that he was in no sense a partaker of the favor of God.
In this matter – Greek: in this word; that is, thing. That which is referred to here is the religion of Christ. Simon was not a Christian. It is remarkable that Peter judged him so soon, and when he had seen but one act of his. But it was an act which satisfied him that he was a stranger to religion. One act may sometimes bring out the whole character; it may evince the governing motives; it may show traits of character utterly inconsistent with true religion; and then it is as certain a criterion as any long series of acts.
Thy heart – Your affections, or governing motives; your principle of conduct. Comp, 2Ki 10:15. You love gold and popularity, and not the gospel for what it is. There is no evidence here that Peter saw this in a miraculous manner, or by any supernatural influence. It was apparent and plain that Simon was not influenced by the pure, disinterested motives of the gospel, but by the love of power and of the world.
In the sight of God – That is, God sees or judges that your heart is not sincere and pure. No external profession is acceptable without the heart. Reader, is your heart right with God? Are your motives pure; and does God see there the exercise of holy, sincere, and benevolent affections toward him? God knows the motives; and with unerring certainty he will judge, and with unerring justice he will fix our doom according to the affections of the heart.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 21. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter] Thou hast no part among the faithful, and no lot in this ministry. That the word , which we translate lot, is to be understood as implying a spiritual portion, office, c., see proved in the note on Nu 26:55.
Thy heart is not right] It is not through motives of purity, benevolence, or love to the souls of men, that thou desirest to be enabled to confer the Holy Ghost it is through pride, vain glory, and love of money: thou wouldest now give a little money that thou mightest, by thy new gift, gain much.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Neither part nor lot in this matter; no inheritance or share in such a thing as this, to wit, either in the receiving or conferring the Holy Ghost; or in that eternal life which we preach; thou hast no part in it, neither art thou fit to be a minister of it.
Thy heart is not right in the sight of God: the apostle had the gift of discerning of spirits, which is mentioned 1Co 12:10; which might cause the execration in the foregoing verse, and in divers other places of Scripture, 2Ti 4:14.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. Thou hast neither part nor lot .. . thy heart is not fight, &c.This is the fidelity of aminister of Christ to one deceiving himself in a very awful manner.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter,…. Or business of the gift of the Holy Ghost; signifying, that as he had not the grace of the Spirit of God implanted in him, so he should not have any of the gifts of the Spirit bestowed on him; and much less a power of communicating them to others, through laying on of hands: or “in this word”; the word of the Gospel, preached by the apostles; and in any of the blessings published in it, as the forgiveness of sins, a justifying righteousness, and eternal life; and so the Syraic version renders it, “in this faith”; neither in the grace of faith, nor in the doctrine of faith: it seems to answer to a way of speaking frequently used among the Jews, that such and such persons, , “have no part or lot”, in the world to come i. The Ethiopic version reads, “because of this thy word”; because for his money, he had desired to have a power of bestowing the Holy Ghost on persons, through the imposition of his hands; which showed he had no share in the grace of God, and would have no part in eternal life, thus living and dying:
for thy heart is not right in the sight of God; he had not a clean heart, nor a right spirit created in him; he had not true principles of grace wrought in him; his heart was full of covetousness, ambition, and hypocrisy; he had no good designs, ends, and aims, in what he said and did; in his profession of faith, in his baptism, in his attendance on Philip’s ministry, and in his request for the above power, of conferring the Holy Ghost: his view was not the spread and confirmation of the Gospel, or the enlargement of the kingdom and interest of Christ, and the glory of God, but his own applause and worldly interest; and therefore, however he might be thought of by men, to be a good and disinterested man, he was otherwise in the sight of God, who is the searcher of the heart, and the trier of the reins of the children of men.
i Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Lot (). Same idea as “part” (), only as a figure.
Matter (). Literally, word or subject (as in Luke 1:4; Acts 15:6), the power of communicating the Holy Spirit. This use of is in the ancient Greek.
Straight (). Quotation from Ps 78:37. Originally a mathematically straight line as in Ac 9:11, then moral rectitude as here.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Part nor lot. Lot expresses the same idea as part, but figuratively. Matter [] . The matter of which we are talking : the subject of discourse, as Luk 1:4; Act 14:6.
Right [] . Lit., straight.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Thou hast neither part nor lot,” (ouk estin soi maris oude kleros) “There is (exists) to you neither a part or parcel, no part at all in the gift of the Holy Spirit, or any manifestation of it, 1Co 12:1-7.
2) “In this matter:(en to logo touto) “In this gift matter,” in this particular matter of gifts thru laying on of the hands, Act 19:6; 1Co 12:7-11. He coveted personal gain, worldly gain, rather than salvation, so that the love of the Father was not in him, 1Jn 2:15-17.
3) “For thy heart is not right,” (he gar karsia sou ouk estin eutheia) “For your heart (center of affections) is not right;” He had not with, or in his heart “believed unto righteousness,” Rom 10:9-10. He did not have the Holy Spirit, therefore could not receive any gift manifestation of the Spirit, Rom 8:9; 1Co 12:7-8; 1Co 12:11.
4) “In the sight of God,” (enanti tou theou) “Before or in the presence of God,” Mat 15:18-19; Pro 6:14; Jer 17:9; Mar 7:21-23. It appears to have been the desire, intent, and motive of Simon to purchase the gift of the Holy Spirit manifestations from Peter and John for the purpose of deceit, larceny, and covetous personal, monetary gain from the people who had looked to him as a god, Act 8:9-11; 1Ti 6:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
21. Thou hast no part. Some do frame this sentence otherwise, that Simon is not partaker of grace, because he setteth a price thereof. But the other reading which we have followed is more usual, to wit, that that reason be joined to the former member. And surely it is better to knit the two sentences together, thus, Thy money perish with thee, because thou thinkest that the inestimable gift of the Spirit can be bought with money. Whereas the old interpreter had put, in this word; Erasmus translated it more fitly, in this business; for Peter’s meaning is, that that sacrilegious person hath nothing to do in all that administration, who doth wickedly profane the same.
Furthermore both the Papists, and also the old divines, have disputed much concerning simony; but that which the Papists call simony doth not agree with Simon’s fact. Simon would have bought the grace of the Spirit with money; the Papists apply the crime of simony unto their idle revenues; and yet I speak not this that I may extenuate those horrible sins which reign at this day in Popery, in buying and selling spiritual promotions. Now, this wickedness is filthy enough of itself, in that they hold such a mart in the Church of God. And in the mean season, we must note the true definition of simony, to wit, that it is a wicked buying and selling of the gifts of the Spirit, or some other such like thing, whilst that a man abuseth them unto ambition or other corruptions. Though I confess that all those imitate Simon who strive to attain unto the government of the Church by unlawful means; which thing we see committed at this day without shame, as if it were lawful; and we can scarce find one priest in all Popery which is not manifestly a simoniacal person in this respect; because none can put up his head amongst them, (522) but he must creep in by indirect means. Although we must confess, (which thing even children see, to our great shame,) that this vice is too common even amongst the false professors of the gospel.
But let us remember, first, to the end we may be free from the infection of Simon, that the gifts of the Spirit are not gotten with money, but that they are given of the free and mere goodness of God, and that for the edifying of the Church; that is, that every man may study to help his brethren according to the measure of his ability; that every man may bestow (523) that about the common good of the Church which he hath received; and that the excellency of no man may hinder, but that Christ may excel all. Notwithstanding, it may seem a marvelous matter, that Peter excludeth Simon from being a partaker of the Spirit, as concerning special gifts; because his heart is not right before God. For the wickedness of Judas did not let him from having the gifts of the Spirit in great measure; neither had the gifts of the Spirit been so corrupted amongst the Corinthians, if their heart had been right in the sight of God. Therefore that reason which Peter allegeth seemeth insufficient; because many men excel oftentimes in the gifts of the Spirit, who have an unclean heart. But, first of all, there followeth no absurdity, if God give such graces to men which are unworthy thereof. Secondly, Peter prescribeth no general rule in this place, but because the Church alone is for the most part made partaker of the gifts of the Spirit, he pronounceth that Simon, who is a stranger to Christ, is unworthy to have the same graces given him, (which are bestowed upon the faithful,) as if he were one of God’s household. Moreover, he had blasphemed those gifts whereof he is deprived.
(522) “ Quando nullus illuc emergere potest,” since no man can rise there.
(523) “ Modeste conferat,” may modesty bestow.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) Neither part nor lot.A like, though not an identical, combination of the two words meets us in Col. 1:12. On the latter, see Notes on Act. 1:17; Act. 1:25. It is, perhaps, used here in its secondary sense. Simon had no inheritance in the spiritual gifts nor in the spiritual offices of the Church. The power attached to the apostleship was not a thing for traffic.
Thy heart is not right in the sight of God.Straight or right is used, as in Mat. 3:3, Mar. 1:3, for straightforward, not in the secondary sense of being as it ought to be. The word is not of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, but, like so many of the spoken words of St. Peter, meets us again as coming from his pen (2Pe. 2:15).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Act 8:21. Thou hast neither part nor lot, &c. “Assure yourself, that you have no claim to the least share or inheritance in the privileges and blessings of this dispensation of the Spirit, and in Christ and heavenly glory: for how specious soever your professions of faith may be, it hereby appears, with undeniable evidence, that your heart is hypocritical and perverse.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God.
Ver. 21. Thou hast neither part nor lot ] Neque pars, neque sors, no manner of interest in this faith, much less in this sacred office of preaching, and laying hands upon others. ( Dictio proverbialis. ) The Jews boast, that in Portugal and Spain they have millions of their race to whom they give complete dispensation to counterfeit Christianity, even to the degree of priesthood; and that none are discovered but some hot spirits, whose zeal cannot temporize. Are not these perfect Simoniacs?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
21. ] synonymous: the first lit., the second fig. (see ref.), but not without reference perhaps to the of the kingdom of God, the . , 1Pe 1:4 .
. .] The matter now spoken of , ‘to which I now allude.’
] Hardly, ‘ right before God ,’ E. V., but thy heart is not right , sincere, single-meaning, in God’s presence , ‘as God sees it:’ i.e., ‘seen as it really is, by God, is not in earnest in its seeking after the gospel, but seeks it with unworthy ends in view.’
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 8:21 . , cf. Deu 12:2 ; Deu 14:27 ; Deu 14:29 ; Deu 18:1 , Isa 57:6 , and instances in Wetstein, see on Act 1:17 . : both A. and R.V. “in this matter,” i.e. , in the power of communicating the Holy Spirit, but Grotius, Neander, Hackett, Blass, Rendall and others refer it to the Gospel, i.e. , the word of God which the Apostles preached, and in the blessings of which the Apostles had a share. is frequently used in classical Greek of that de quo agitur (see instances in Wendt). Grimm, sub v. , compares the use of the noun in classical Greek, like , the thing spoken of, the subject or matter of the , Herod., i., 21, etc. , cf. LXX, Psa 7:10 , Psa 10:3 , Psa 35:10 , Psa 72:1 , 77:37, etc., where the adjective is used, as often in classical Greek, of moral uprightness ( cf. in LXX, and Psalms of Solomon , Act 2:15 , ), so also in Act 13:10 , where the word is used by St. Paul on a similar occasion in rebuking Elymas; only found once in the Epistles, where it is again used by St. Peter, 2Pe 2:15 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Acts
SIMON THE SORCERER
Act 8:21
The era of the birth of Christianity was one of fermenting opinion and decaying faith. Then, as now, men’s minds were seething and unsettled, and that unrest which is the precursor of great changes in intellectual and spiritual habitudes affected the civilised world. Such a period is ever one of predisposition to superstition. The one true bond which unites God and man being obscured, and to the consciousness of many snapped, men’s minds become the prey of visionary terrors. Demand creates supply, and the magician and miracle-worker, the possessor of mysterious ways into the Unknown, is never far off at such a time. Partly deceived and partly deceiving, he is as sure a sign of the lack of profound religious conviction and of the presence of unsatisfied religious aspirations in men’s souls, as the stormy petrel or the floating seaweed is of a tempest on the seas.
So we find the early preachers of Christianity coming into frequent contact with pretenders to magical powers. Sadly enough, they were mostly Jews, who prostituted their clearer knowledge to personal ends, and having tacked on to it some theosophic rubbish which they had learned from Alexandria, or mysticism which had filtered to them from the East, or magic arts from Phrygia, went forth, the only missionaries that Judaism sent out, to bewilder and torture men’s minds. What a fall from Israel’s destination, and what a lesson for the stewards of the ‘oracles of God’!
Of such a sort were Elymas, the sorcerer whom Paul found squatting at the ear of the Roman Governor of Cyprus; the magicians at Ephesus; the vagabond Jews exorcists, who with profitable eclecticism, as they thought, tried to add the name of Jesus as one more spell to their conjurations; and, finally, this Simon the sorcerer. Established in Samaria, he had been juggling and conjuring and seeing visions, and professing to be a great mysterious personality, and had more than permitted the half-heathen Samaritans, who seem to have had more religious susceptibility and less religious knowledge than the Jews, and so were a prepared field for all such pretenders, to think of him as in some sense an incarnation of God, and perhaps to set him up as a rival or caricature of Him who in the neighbouring Judaea was being spoken of as the power of God, God manifest in the flesh.
To the city thus moved comes no Apostle, but a Christian man who begins to preach, and by miracles and teaching draws many souls to Christ.
The story of Simon Magus in his attitude to the Gospel is a very striking and instructive one. It presents for our purpose now mainly three points to which I proceed to refer.
I. An instance of a wholly unreal, because inoperative, faith.
What was it which made his faith thus unreal?
It rested wholly on the miracles and signs; he ‘wondered’ when he saw them. Of course, miracles were meant to lead to faith; but if they did not lead on to a deeper sense of one’s own evil and need, and so to a spiritual apprehension, then they were of no use.
The very beginning of the story points to the one bond that unites to God, as being the sense of need and the acceptance with heart and will of the testimony of Jesus Christ. Such a disposition is shown in the Samaritans, who make a contrast with Simon in that they believed Philip preaching , while Simon believed him working miracles . The true place of miracles is to attract attention, to prepare to listen to the word. They are only introductory. A faith may be founded on them, but, on the other hand, the impressions which they produce may be evanescent. How subordinate then, their place at the most! And the one thing which avails is a living contact of heart and soul with Jesus Christ.
Again, Simon’s belief was purely an affair of the understanding. We are not to suppose, I think, that he merely believed in Philip as a miracle-worker; he must have had some notion about Philip’s Master, and we know that it was belief in Jesus as the Christ that qualified in the Apostolic age for baptism. So it is reasonable to suppose that he had so much of head knowledge. But it was only head knowledge. There was in it no penitence, no self-abandonment, no fruit in holy desires; or in other words, there was no heart. It was credence, but not trust.
Now it does not matter how much or how little you know about Jesus Christ. It does not matter how you have come to that knowledge. It does not matter though you have received Christian ordinances as Simon had. If your faith is not a living power, leading to love and self-surrender, it is really nought. And here, on its earliest conflict with heathen magic, the gospel proclaims by the mouth of the Apostle what is true as to all formalists and nominal Christians: ‘Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right.’ One thing only unites to God-a faith which cleanses the heart, a faith which lays hold on Christ with will and conscience, a faith which, resting on penitent acknowledgment of sin, trusts wholly to His great mercy.
II. An instance of the constant tendency to corrupt Christianity with heathen superstition.
The offer to buy has been taken as his great sin. Surely it was but the outcome of a greater. It was not only what he offered, but what he desired, that was wrong. He wanted that on ‘whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.’ That preposterous wish was quite as bad as, and was the root of, his absurd offer to bribe Peter. Bribe Peter, indeed! Some of Peter’s successors would have been amenable to such considerations, but not the horny-handed fisherman who had once said, ‘Silver and gold have I none.’
Peter’s answer, especially the words of my text, puts the Christian principle in sharp antagonism to the heathen one.
Simon regards what is sacred and spiritual purely as part of his stock-in-trade, contributing to his prestige. He offers to buy it. And the foundation of all his errors is that he regards spiritual gifts as capable of being received and exercised apart altogether from moral qualifications. He does not think at all of what is involved in the very name, ‘the Holy Ghost.’
Now, on the other hand, Peter’s answer lays down broadly and sharply the opposite truth, the Christian principle that a heart right in the sight of God is the indispensable qualification for all possession of spiritual power, or of any of the blessings which Jesus gives.
How the heart is made right, and what constitutes righteousness is another matter. That leads to the doctrine of repentance and faith.
The one thing that makes such participation impossible is being and continuing in ‘the gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity.’ Or, to put it into more modern words, all the blessings of the Gospel are a gift of God, and are bestowed only on moral conditions. Faith which leads to love and personal submission to the will of God makes a man a Christian. Therefore, outward ordinances are only of use as they help a man to that personal act.
Therefore, no other man or body of men can do it for us, or come between us and God.
And in confirmation, notice how Peter here speaks of forgiveness. His words do not sound as if he thought that he held the power of absolution, but he tells Simon to go to God who alone can forgive, and refers Simon’s fate to God’s mercy.
These tendencies, which Simon expresses so baldly, are in us all, and are continually reappearing. How far much of what calls itself Christianity has drifted from Peter’s principle laid down here, that moral and spiritual qualifications are the only ones which avail for securing ‘part or lot in the matter’ of Christ’s gifts received for, and bestowed on, men! How much which really rests on the opposite principle, that these gifts can be imparted by men who are supposed to possess them, apart altogether from the state of heart of the would-be recipient, we see around us to-day! Simony is said to be the securing ecclesiastical promotion by purchase. But it is much rather the belief that ‘the gift of God can be purchased with’ anything but personal faith in Jesus, the Giver and the Gift. The effects of it are patent among us. Ceremonies usurp the place of faith. A priesthood is exalted. The universal Christian prerogative of individual access to God is obscured. Christianity is turned into a kind of magic.
III. An instance of the worthlessness of partial convictions.
How useless are convictions which go no deeper down than Simon’s did!
What became of him we do not know. But there are old ecclesiastical traditions about him which represent him as a bitter enemy in future of the Apostle. And Josephus has a story of a Simon who played a degrading part between Felix and Drusilla, and who is thought by some to have been he. But in any case, we have no reason to believe that he ever followed Peter’s counsel or prayed to God for forgiveness. So he stands for us as one more tragic example of a man, once ‘not far from the kingdom of God’ and drifting ever further away from it, because, at the fateful moment, he would not enter in. It is hard to bring such a man as near again as he once was. Let us learn that the one key which opens the treasury of God’s blessings, stored for us all in Jesus, is our own personal faith, and let us beware of shutting our ears and our hearts against the merciful rebukes that convict us of ‘this our wickedness,’ and point us to the ‘Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,’ and therefore our sin.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
neither = not. Greek. ou.
lot. Greek. kleros. Compare Act 1:17, Act 1:25, Act 1:26.
matter = reckoning, or account. Greek. logos. App-121.
not. Greek. ou, as above.
in the sight of = in the eyes of. Greek. enopion. But the texts read enanti, before.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
21. ] synonymous: the first lit., the second fig. (see ref.), but not without reference perhaps to the of the kingdom of God, the . , 1Pe 1:4.
. .] The matter now spoken of,-to which I now allude.
] Hardly, right before God, E. V., but thy heart is not right,-sincere, single-meaning,-in Gods presence, as God sees it: i.e., seen as it really is, by God, is not in earnest in its seeking after the gospel, but seeks it with unworthy ends in view.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 8:21. , ) thou hast no part by purchase, nor lot freely or gratuitously. and are also joined, Deu 18:1; Isa 57:6, with which comp. Psa 16:5.- , in this word) in this matter, of which thou hast spoken. The purity of religion admits of no foreign (adulterated) admixture with it.-, for) In a minister and partaker of the Gospel the heart ought to be right. The heart is the citadel of good and of bad.- , is not right) that is, is very much distorted. [Rectitude of heart does not admit the mixture of spiritual intentions with temporal.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
hast: Jos 22:25, Eze 14:3, Rev 20:6, Rev 22:19
for: 2Ch 25:2, Psa 36:1, Psa 78:36, Psa 78:37, Hab 2:4, Mat 6:22-24, Joh 21:17, Heb 4:13, Rev 2:23
Reciprocal: Lev 13:8 – General 2Sa 22:45 – submit themselves Ezr 4:3 – Ye have nothing Neh 2:20 – ye have no Isa 32:6 – and his heart Isa 55:7 – his thoughts Mat 6:21 – there Mat 13:21 – root Mat 15:8 – but Luk 2:35 – that Luk 6:42 – hypocrite Luk 11:39 – but Act 5:4 – why Act 8:13 – believed Act 8:37 – If 1Ti 6:4 – He 2Ti 3:8 – men Heb 10:22 – a true Jam 2:14 – though
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
Act 8:21. Part means a share of something that is “assigned” to one, and lot denotes something won or “obtained by lot.” There is not a great deal of difference I between the two words in question, but the use of them together makes a statement that is more emphatic, and rules out both measures of the Holy Ghost. That which the apostles only could possess would not have been given Simon even if he had not been corrupt in heart. But that condition prevented him from receiving even the measure that other disciples were promised to receive.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 8:21. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter. More accurately rendered in this wordthat is to say, one whose heart is given up, as is yours, to covetousness and greed of gain, has no share in the word or doctrine which we teach, the doctrine which teaches the way and manner of the inward and outward gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Thy heart is not right. Is not sincere, as God sees it.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 20
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
8:21 Thou hast neither part nor lot in this {e} matter: for thy heart is not {f} right in the sight of God.
(e) In this doctrine which I preach.
(f) Is not upright indeed and without the concealing of hypocritical motives.