Acts 8:23

For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity The preposition inmakes a great difficulty in this verse. The word in the original means intoor for. The construction has been compared with that of the Hebrew preposition ל = forafter the verb "to be" in passages such as Ezekiel 37:22, "I will make them one nation," literally, "untoone nation." But instances of this construction are not common enough in the O.T. for an imitation of it in the N. T. to be probable. It seems better therefore not to take "gall of bitterness" and "bond of iniquity" as thus in apposition with the subject of the sentence, but rather to regard the preposition as used with the sense of motion towards a place or state and subsequent rest there. So it is found in Luke 11:7, "My children are with me in (εἰς) bed," where the meaning is "They have come into and are remaining in bed." For the expression "gall of bitterness," cp. Deuteronomy 29:18, where those who serve false gods are spoken of as "a root that beareth gall and wormwood." See also the "root of bitterness," Hebrews 12:15. The second expression is found as "bands of wickedness" (Isaiah 58:6). The whole sentence would thus imply that Simon had gone from one evil to another till he had reached and was remaining in a stage which deserved the reprobation spoken against idolatry in the O.T., and had allowed evil to make him its prisoner.