Saying: Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I shall lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said to him:
λεγων δοτε καμοι την εξουσιαν ταυτην ινα ω εαν επιθω τας χειρας λαμβανη πνευμα αγιον
6 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Thus Simon, on the contrary, ought to have asked to receive the Holy Spirit himself. But, having no care for Him for himself, he asks to have the power to communicate Him to others. Even the seven deacons did not receive Him in such a way as to communicate Him to others. Yet he wished to become more renowned than Philip, though he was among his disciples.
He did not say, “Give me also communion of the Holy Spirit,” but “authority,” so that he might sell to others what cannot be sold, something he himself did not possess.
Since Philip, being a deacon, did not have authority for ordination so as to impart the Holy Spirit to the baptized, Simon, having neither a right heart nor a right thought, was possessed by greed and avarice. Not at all abandoning his evil intention, he brought money to the Apostle Peter, so that Peter would give him authority to communicate the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. He calculated that he could impart Him to many, even for a small payment, and by communicating the Spirit to others gather much money and become rich.
Meanwhile the report of the success of the preaching of the Gospel in Samaria reached Jerusalem. The apostles sent Peter and John there to confirm the newly converted in the faith. When they arrived, they brought down upon all the believers the abundant gift of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.
This last event aroused extreme envy in Simon Magus. According to his pagan way of thinking, he began offering the apostles money, so that they would give him also the authority to bring down the gifts of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.
In answer to this criminal simony, as all attempts to obtain the grace of the priesthood by purchase came to be called, the apostle Peter addressed Simon with a stern rebuke. It affected the magician so deeply that he began asking the apostles to pray for him.
"But when Simon saw," and so forth: the reception of the Holy Spirit by the believing Samaritans, through the apostles' prayer and the laying on of hands, was accompanied by visible signs. They could be observed, as Simon observed them.
Perhaps these were special expressions of spiritual rapture. Perhaps something occurred like what happened with the apostles and the believers on the day of Pentecost. In any case, it was something visible and easily noticed (Chrysostom).
Seeing this, Simon brought money to the apostles and asked them to give him the authority to bring down the Holy Spirit upon others.
The question whether Simon had first received the Holy Spirit together with the others who were baptized and received the Spirit must, of course, be answered negatively.
His reception of the Holy Spirit would have made such an act impossible for him. The narrative itself presents the matter as though he had only seen that, through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit descended.
He himself had not yet received Him.
Probably the laying on of hands upon each person for the descent of the Holy Spirit required no little time and was performed in a definite order, by turns.
Simon saw the action of the Holy Spirit upon others. Then, without waiting his turn and before being counted worthy of the laying on of hands himself, he offered money to the apostles with his request.
It is noteworthy that he asks not only to receive the Spirit himself. He asks to have the authority to bring Him down upon others through the laying on of hands.
Perhaps he made this a condition of his consent to the first.
In this act and request, the true character of the magician treacherously revealed itself. So did the true character of his faith in Philip's preaching and of his amazement at Philip's miracles.
Obviously, with complete egoism, he regarded the most spiritual and most holy thing only as a means of perfecting, so to speak, and elevating his magical trade.
He wished to attain still greater honor than he had enjoyed from the people. He considered it entirely possible to acquire this by means of money.
Thus he viewed the actions of the Spirit, whose inward perception he had not been counted worthy to receive, only from the external standpoint of striking phenomena.
He viewed the apostles as bearers and possessors of another and higher magical power, unknown to him, whose possession he, as a goetes, desired for himself.
Thus his faith was impure, his amazement impure, his desire impure, and his means impure.
"He believed not for the sake of faith, but so that he too might work miracles. How did he think to work miracles? He himself deceived, and also subdued the possessed.
"Therefore he thought that the apostles, like himself, used some sort of art. For this reason he gave money. Again, for the same reason, in order not to lose this gift, he remained constantly with Philip" (Theophylact).
Moreover, in offering money to the apostles, he revealed himself as a man who in his former activity had himself been guided by similar motives and interests, wholly impure.
This case vividly transports us into the milieu of such people at that time. They appeared in great numbers and drew away the superstitious masses by charlatan means purchased with money from similar charlatans.
How pure and holy, in contrast with this, were the manner of action, aims, and aspirations of the preachers of Christianity.
"The sickness had been in Simon for a long time. Therefore he was not freed from it even at baptism. How then did they baptize him? In the same way that Christ chose Judas" (Chrysostom).
The imparting of the Holy Spirit to the believing Samaritans shows that chrismation appeared later, when, because of the great multiplication of believers, the apostles could no longer personally lay hands on everyone. This change is spoken of in many places in the apostolic writings.
The sacred and mystical laying on of the apostles' hands upon each of the believers certainly required no little time. Those who were counted worthy of the mystery visibly manifested in many ways their reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Simon, not waiting for his turn and seeing the evident transformation of the believers, brought money to the apostles. He asked that they give him also the gift of imparting the Holy Spirit to others. It is evident that he understood the gifts of the Holy Spirit as new mystical actions, previously unknown to him. They seemed like the secrets he had perhaps more than once bought with money, like all such craftsmen in the arts of sorcery and magic.
Together with his failure to understand the essence of Christianity in general, and its mystical actions in particular, Simon nevertheless made it clear that the Christian mystical laying on of hands was worth money. It had not been easy for him to accept baptism as an expression of submitting himself, together with his imaginary great power. Now he was ready to submit to the apostles and even pay money, if only he might become their equal.
It is clear that he esteemed them very highly and valued himself lowly, that is, according to his truly purchasable worth. But the apostles showed themselves still higher than Simon had judged them.
Thus the wisdom of sorcery, which had so recently ruled over the Samaritans, was humbled, put to shame, and overthrown by itself in the person of its most famous representative, Simon Magus. He left to the Church the name of the dreadful sin of simony. It is close to Judas's betrayal of Christ and consists in buying the priesthood with money.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 15 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS