Acts 8:23

For I see that you are bitterly envious ¹  and in bondage to sin.”

De 29:18-20; De 32:32,33; Job 20:14; Ps 116:16; Pr 5:22; Isa 28:22; Jer 4:18; Jer 9:15; La 3:5,19; Joh 8:34; Ro 6:17-22; Tit 3:3; Heb 12:15; 2Pe 2:4,19

¹ tn Grk “in the gall of bitterness,” an idiom meaning to be particularly envious or resentful of someone. In this case Simon was jealous of the apostles’ power to bestow the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and wanted that power for himself. The literal phrase does not convey this to the modern reader, and in fact some modern translations have simply rendered the phrase as involving bitterness, which misses the point of the envy on Simon’s part. See L&N 88.166. The OT images come from Deut 29:17-18 and Isa 58:6.