‘And when they had gone through the whole island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer (magos), a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understanding.'
They travelled from town to town throughout Cyprus, proclaiming the Good News, until at last they came to Paphos. There they discovered a man named Bar-Jesus (‘Son of Jesus'), presumably because his father's name was Jesus (Hebrew: Joshua), a common Hebraic Greek name. He was a magos and a false prophet, and acted as religious adviser to the pro-consul Sergius Paulus.
‘Magos' could simply indicate a man of wisdom who was a seeker after truth (like the magi who sought the infant Jesus), but it could also include charlatans, consulters of the occult, and those who claimed supernatural powers. Bar-jesus appears to have been one of these latter. There is the possibility that he had taken the name because of the fame of Jesus, seeking to indicate his connection with the famous wonder-worker. This would explain Saul's vehement, ‘(not son of Jesus but) son of the Devil.'
Bar-jesus was a Jew, but not an orthodox one, for he was mixed up in the occult and practised ‘wonder-working'. His being a ‘false prophet' presumably refers to his deviation from the Mosaic law (compare Deuteronomy 13:1-5). While a Jew he was not true to the teaching of Moses. In many ways he was like Simon the sorcerer before his conversion (Acts 8:9), except that Bar-jesus compounded it by being of Jewish extraction. Compare also Acts 19:13-14. Renegade Jews appear to have been regularly connected with the occult, possibly because they were seen by Gentiles as belonging to a mysterious and ancient religion, and it was financially profitable.
The parallel with Simon may well be deliberate. Once Jewish territory is left behind such men will regularly be met with, and Luke wants us to know that Christ can easily cope with them, and even turn them to His will.
Bar-jesus had used his background and ‘gifts' in order to worm his way into the confidence of the pro-consul, the governor of Cyprus. Cyprus was a senatorial province and would therefore have a pro-consul. The name of a pro-consul named Paulus have been discovered on a North Cypriot inscription. It was (and is) not unusual for prominent men to seek such aid. It provided somewhere to turn in a crisis.
‘A man of understanding.' In other words, one ready and willing to listen to those who claimed to bring the truth.