Full of all subtilty and all mischief. — The Greek of the second noun is found here only in the New Testament. Its primary meaning expresses simply “ease in working;” but this passed through the several stages of “versatility,” “shiftiness,” and “trickery.” A kindred word is translated in Acts 18:14 as “lewdness.”
Thou child of the devil. — There is, perhaps, an intentional contrast between the meaning of the name Bar-jesus (= son of the Lord who saves) and the character of the man, which led him to oppose righteousness in every form, and to turn “the straight paths of God’s making” into the crooked ones of man’s subtlety. There is a manifest reference to the words in which Isaiah describes the true preparation of the way of the Lord as consisting in making the crooked straight (Isaiah 40:4).