⁵When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper. ⁶When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus, ⁷who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

Barnabas and Saul partnered in a mission tour around the northeastern Mediterranean regions. They brought along Barnabas’ cousin John, who also went by the name Mark (Acts 12:12), as a helper and who joined up with the team after the Jerusalem benevolence project (Acts 12:25). The partnership follows the pattern of Jesus sending His disciples out in pairs (Luke 10:1), and up to this point, Barnabas was the senior partner, apparently mentoring Paul (Acts 9:27, 11:25–26) and being mentioned first when Luke refers to both. But his prominence lasted only until Saul moved into the primary focus. Luke does not explicitly state what John Mark’s role as a helper entailed, but in the ancient world, traveling emissaries often had their coterie, or attendants, to help with the mundane issues of life and travel, such as finding housing and food. Additionally, traveling in numbers provided safety from bandits who plagued individual travelers in the ancient world.

Luke does not state whether they knew their ultimate itinerary, but their first stop was on the island of Cyprus, at the seaport at Salamis on the eastern side. Barnabas would have been quite familiar with the island, having been born there (Acts 4:36). They wasted no time in preaching the gospel. This was not just a way-stop to somewhere else, but an opportunity to travel through the island, ending up in the western city of Paphos, some 115-142 miles away, depending on the route taken. Some commentators suggest the city could have had a population of 150,000, predominantly Gentile, but as Luke noted, there were a number of Jewish synagogues.

Of all that Luke could have recorded about their time on Cyprus, he includes only the incident with a magician. Even though he was apparently not an eyewitness of the incident, he records a remarkable amount of historical detail, characteristic of his writings. A magician in the ancient world was a practitioner of the black arts, the occult. He was Jewish but identified as a false prophet. He was an associate of a Roman official, a proconsul. This partnership stands in contrast to Barnabas and Saul. Apparently, the preaching of the Word had created such a stir that it caught the attention of the Cyprian pair, and they wanted to hear the message themselves.

Lord, may my gospel message be so clear that others will want to hear it.