Cyprus brings proclamation and confrontation

Cyprus hears the word, and a sorcerer is blinded for resisting a seeking proconsul

Being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, they depart unto Seleucia, sail to Cyprus, and preach the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews at Salamis, with John as their minister. They go through the isle unto Paphos and find a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name is Barjesus, with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who calls for Barnabas and Saul and desires to hear the word of God. Elymas the sorcerer withstands them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, sets his eyes on him and says he is full of all subtilty and all mischief, a child of the devil, an enemy of all righteousness, who will not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord. The Lord's hand is upon him; he shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. Immediately there falls on him a mist and a darkness. He goes about seeking some to lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he sees what is done, believes, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.

The story distinguishes a particular Jewish opponent from Judaism, and a Roman official from empire as a whole. Synagogue preaching on the island is still the team's first work. Temporary blindness mirrors Saul's own halted sight; it does not license imitative curses, and it is not an argument against medical care. The proconsul's astonishment is at the doctrine, not only at the sign.