For I see thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity.
εις γαρ χολην πικριας και συνδεσμον αδικιας ορω σε οντα
7 Church Fathers comment on this verse
These are expressions of strong anger. Yet he does not punish him, so that faith may not arise from necessity, and so that it may not seem a harsh thing. He also leaves room for repentance. Or perhaps the rebuke was enough for his correction. It was enough to reveal what was in his heart, so that he might confess that he had been exposed.
According to the fable of the heretics, it was useless to say to Simon, "Repent," because he was created so evil. They say that man, being evil by nature, is incapable of changing by will. But it was not in vain that it was said: "Repent therefore," because he too had free will, "and pray to God, if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you."
Peter spoke this to Simon as though no condescension would have been shown him, even if he had wept and repented. But this manner of expression was customary also among the prophets. In particular, Peter foresaw that Simon would not turn to repentance. Therefore he says, "if perhaps it may be forgiven you."
For Simon said, "Pray to the Lord for me," not because he had repented and turned, but merely for propriety's sake. Otherwise, where is the lamentation? Where is the remorse and confession of sins?
"For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." These are words full of wrath. But Peter does not punish him, lest his faith afterward appear to have been forced by necessity and fear, and lest this action appear cruel.
The Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove in order to teach those who wished to receive Him to be simple. For one who preserves malice in his heart, though he seems baptized, is not freed from the bonds of his unrighteousness. Rather, though cleansed for a moment at the hour of baptism, he was soon crushed by a demon seven times more merciless. Therefore one who has not taken care to be freed from the mind of the raven strives in vain to acquire the grace of the Spirit.
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.
“I see that you are filled,” and so forth: I see that you are in bitter enmity toward the spirit of Christianity, as though in gall, and in unrighteousness, as though in bonds. Bitter gall recalls poison and venomousness, since antiquity located the poison of a serpent in its gall. The unrighteousness by which Simon’s heart is not right holds him as if in chains. Both traits point to Simon’s sorrowful and dangerous moral state.
In urging Simon to repent, the apostle Peter nevertheless does not express firm hope for the forgiveness of his sin. This is because of its great seriousness, and especially because he foresaw Simon's incapacity for repentance. He expressed this to Simon by saying that he still remained full of deadly poison hidden in gall, as people thought of the poison of snakes.
The chief matter was that false ideas about himself and about the apostles bound him like chains. Therefore, while consoling Simon and directing him toward repentance, the apostle said to him: "Perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you."
It is evident that this thought points to the depth of what Simon had conceived. It was not a fleeting and quickly passing feeling in him, to buy the grace of apostleship with money. It was, so to speak, a reflection of his whole worldview. This made his understanding of Christianity grievous, as though everything in it could be bought with money, even the gift of ordination.
According to Saint John Chrysostom, "The sickness had been in Simon for a long time, and therefore he is not freed from it even at baptism. How, then, did they baptize him? In the same way that Christ chose Judas." From this it follows that baptism does not act by grace upon the unworthy, and that Simon's sin is like that of Judas.
Immediately the magician of whom we are speaking, whose spiritual eyes had as it were been struck by the divine light that had wonderfully shone earlier in Judea, when the apostle Peter exposed all his abominations, set out on a distant journey overseas. He fled from east to west, thinking that only there could he live as he wished.
In Rome he received the greatest assistance from the power established there. In a short time he so prospered in his affairs that the inhabitants honored him with a statue as a god. But his good fortune did not last long.
Immediately after him, in the same reign of Claudius, the all-good and man-loving Providence brought to Rome the same combatant against this corrupter of men, the courageous and great apostle Peter. Because of his courage he is called first among the rest of the apostles.
As a noble commander of God, clothed in divine armor, he brought from the east to the inhabitants of the west the precious treasure of spiritual light. He brought the very light and word that saves the soul, the preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 10 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS