Acts 8:18,19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And when Simon The magician, spoken of before; saw With astonishment; that through laying on of the apostles' hands On the heads of many individuals, lately converted to the Christian faith; the Holy Ghost was given In his extraordinary operations; he offered them money And hence the procuring any ministerial function, or ecclesiastical benefice, by money, is termed Simony: saying, Give me also this power Let me prevail with you, by this reward, to confer on me the power which I have seen you exercise with so much ease. It seems Simon imagined, if by the imposition of his hands he could confer such gifts as Peter and John conferred, it would turn considerably to his honour and advantage; and especially if he could, by this means, communicate to whom he would the knowledge of languages, which they had never been at the trouble of learning in a natural way. “Simon,” says Henry, “did not desire the apostles to lay their hands on him, that he might receive the Holy Ghost himself, for he did not foresee that any thing was to be got by that; but that they would convey to him a power to bestow the gift upon others; he was ambitious to have the honour of an apostle, but not at all solicitous to have the spirit or disposition of a Christian: he was more desirous to gain honour to himself than to do good to others. Now in making this motion, 1st, He put a great affront upon the apostles, as if they were mercenary men, who would do any thing for money. 2d, He put a great affront upon Christianity, as if the miracles that were wrought in confirmation of it were done by magic arts, only of a different nature from those which he himself had practised formerly.” Indeed, as Dr. Whitby observes, “The sin of Simon struck at the very foundation of the Christian faith; supposing that the apostles, and other Christians, did their miracles by some higher art of magic than that which he had learned, and so that they, by the same art, could teach others to do the same works for any other end.” “3d, He showed that, like Balaam, he aimed at the rewards of divination; for he would not have bid money for this power, if he had not hoped to get money by Act 2:4 th, He showed that he had a very high conceit of himself, and that his heart had never been truly humbled.”