Sergius Paulus

Mentioned only once, at Acts 13:6-12, Sergius Paulus was the proconsul of Cyprus during Paul's and Barnabas's first missionary journey. He had summoned Paul and Barnabas to him "because he wanted to hear the word of God," but was curtailed the magic of a sorcerer called Elymas. Paul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, however, made him blind for a time for his perversion. Seeing this, the proconsul was immediately converted to the truth of the gospel.

Sergius Paulus must have impressed Paul and Barnabas because he is noted as being "an intelligent man" (v7b). Jerome once advanced the theory that, because he was Paul's first convert, Paul decided to change his name from Saul to Paul in honour of the proconsul. There is nothing to merit such a speculation—Farrar calls the idea "an element of vulgarity impossible to St. Paul,"—and the theory has long since fallen out of favour.

Sergius Paulus's story is told in Acts 13:4-12 (NIV):

The two of them [Barnabas and Paul], sent on their way by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and sailed from there to Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues. John was with them as their helper. 6 They traveled through the whole island until they came to Paphos. There they met a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet named Bar-Jesus, who was an attendant of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus. The proconsul, an intelligent man, sent for Barnabas and Saul because he wanted to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind for a time, not even able to see the light of the sun." Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.