Who Was Bar Jesus (Acts 13,6-12)? (1) According to Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas found in Paphos on Cyprus ‘a certain man who was a magos, a false prophet, and a Jew, whose name was Bar Jesus’ (andra tina; magon yeudoprofhvthn ∆Ioudaion wJ/ [ v ' onoma Barihsou). This man was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, [ ' whom Luke calls ‘an intelligent (sunetov") man’ (13,6-7). Fitzmyer believes the description of Bar Jesus ‘borders on the fantastic’ (2), and scholarship in general has tended to see him in very negative terms. He is depicted as being as far removed from the straight paths of the Lord as any pagan magician or any Jewish opponent to the Christian Way. Haenchen, typically, understands this episode as demonstrating “the superiority of Christianity over magic” (3). However, I will suggest that the point of this episode is not a struggle between Christianity and paganism, but a struggle either within a synagogue community to which some Christians belonged or within the Christian movement itself. At issue between Paul and Bar Jesus were the contradictory understandings of righteousness and the way of God. I propose that it was not his magical practices, but his position on these issues that made him, from Luke’s perspective, a threatening opponent of the faith(4). (1) I wish to thank my colleague, Professor Michael Lattke (University of Queensland), and the Rev. Drs Stephen Haar and John Strelan, for their helpful comments on various drafts of this article. (2) J. FITZMYER, The Acts of the Apostles. A new translation with introduction and commentary (New York 1998) 501. (3) E. HAENCHEN, The Acts of the Apostles (Oxford 1971) 398. Dunn says the episode illustrates ‘the recognition by one who prized magical powers that he stood before one possessed of greater powers’ (J.G.D. DUNN, Jesus and the Spirit. A study of the religious and charismatic experience of Jesus and the first Christians as reflected in the New Testament [Grand Rapids, MI 1975] 166). (4) It could be argued that Bar Jesus in fact was won over to Paul’s side. The similarities noticed by scholars between Paul’s conversion and what happens to Bar Jesus might support this reading. Both are depicted as opponents of the way of God, both are confronted with an unassailable word, both are rendered blind for a short time, both are led by the hand. See S. GARRETT, The Demise of the Devil. Magic and the demonic in Luke’s writings (Minneapolis 1989) 84.