other · 46 · Paphos
Sergius Paulus, the proconsul, was a man of intelligence and sent for Barnabas and Saul to hear the word of God; his attendant magician, Bar-Jesus, called Elymas, worked against it. What follows is the only judgment miracle Paul performs: you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy — the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind for a time. Mist and darkness fell on him and he went about seeking someone to lead him by the hand, which is a detail with an obvious echo of the Damascus road. Two quiet things happen in the same passage and are easy to miss. Luke writes 'Saul, who was also called Paul' here and never uses Saul again. And the order of the names reverses: it has been Barnabas and Saul throughout, and from here it is Paul and his company. A first-century inscription from Cyprus names a proconsul Paulus, which fits and is not proof — the same shape of evidence as the Erastus pavement, and treated the same way.
To reach the proconsul of Cyprus, against a court magician who wanted him kept away.
The first named Roman convert — and, in the same verse, a change of name and a change of who leads.