Acts 8:9

But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great,

1. Simon the Sorcerer -

2. Sorcery - Simon used magic, tricks, deception, slight of hand to make a living. Often sorcery involved the mixing of potions and the use of incantations to apply blessings or curses on people. Remember the song, "Love Potion Number 9"? Some forms of sorcery were what we would call witchcraft. Albert Barnes says, "The ancient "Magi" had their rise in Persia, and were at first addicted to the study of philosophy, astronomy, medicine, etc. This name came afterward to signify those who made use of the knowledge of these arts for the purpose of imposing on mankind - astrologers, soothsayers, necromancers, fortune-tellers, etc. Such persons pretended to predict future events by the positions of the stars, and to cure diseases by incantations, etc." Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:6 clearly forbid involvement with such things.

3. Astonished - He astounded, amazed, and caused them to be beside themselves.

4. Claiming - If he had left it as magic to amaze people as entertainment, there would have nothing wrong with his profession. But he claimed to be someone with special powers from God. He was claiming to have powers from God.