Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
Pray ye to the Lord for me - The words of Peter certainly made a deep impression on Simon's mind; and he must have had a high opinion of the apostle's sanctity and influence with God, when he thus commended himself to their prayers. And we may hope well of his repentance and salvation, if the reading of the Codex Bezae, and the margin of the later Syriac may be relied on: Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none (τουτων των κακων) Of All Those Evils which ye have spoken (μοι) To Me, may come upon me: (ὁς πολλα κλαιων ου διελιμπανεν) Who Wept Greatly, and Did Not Cease. That is, he was an incessant penitent. However favourably this or any other MS. may speak of Simon, he is generally supposed to have "grown worse and worse, opposing the apostles and the Christian doctrine, and deceiving many cities and provinces by magical operations; till being at Rome, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, he boasted that he could fly, and when exhibiting before the emperor and the senate, St. Peter and St. Paul being present, who knew that his flying was occasioned by magic, prayed to God that the people might be undeceived, and that his power might fail; in consequence of which he came tumbling down, and died soon after of his bruises." This account comes in a most questionable shape, and has no evidence which can challenge our assent. To me, it and the rest of the things spoken of Simon the sorcerer appear utterly unworthy of credit. Calmet makes a general collection of what is to be found in Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian; Eusebius, Theodoret, Augustine, and others, on the subject of Simon Magus; and to him, if the reader think it worth the pains, he may refer. The substance of these accounts is given above, and in the note on Act 8:9; and to say the least of them they are all very dubious. The tale of his having an altar erected to him at Rome, with the inscription, Simoni sancto deo, "To the holy god Simon," has been founded on an utter mistake, and has been long ago sufficiently confuted. See the inscriptions in Gruter, vol. i. p. 96, inscript. No. 5, 6, 7.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
Pray ye to the Lord for me--Peter had urged him to pray for himself: he asks those wonder-working men to do it for him; having no confidence in the prayer of faith, but thinking that those men possessed some peculiar interest with heaven.
that none of these things dome upon me--not that the thought of his wicked heart might be forgiven him, but only that the evils threatened might be averted from him. While this throws great light on Peter's view of his melancholy case, it shows that Christianity, as something divine, still retained its hold of him. (Tradition represents him as turning out a great heresiarch, mingling Oriental or Grecian philosophy with some elements of Christianity.)
John Gill Bible Commentary
And they, when they had testified, &c. That is, Simeon (or Peter) and John, as the Syriac version expresses it; when they had bore their testimony to, and by it confirmed the Gospel as preached by Philip, and had established the young converts in it, and against the errors of Simon Magus:
and preached the word of the Lord; or of "God", as read the Alexandrian copy, and the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions; when they had preached the Gospel in the city of Samaria, the same as Philip had preached before; whereby it appeared, that there was an harmony and agreement between them:
returned to Jerusalem; to the rest of the apostles there, to give them an account, how they found things at Samaria; what they had done, and what they had met with: and upon their return, whilst on their journey, they stopped at several places, which lay in their way;
and preached the Gospel in many villages of the Samaritans; their first commission in Mat 10:5 being now cancelled, and a new one given them to preach the Gospel to every creature; and being appointed witnesses for Christ in Samaria, as well as in Jerusalem and Judea; Act 1:8.
Tyndale Open Study Notes
8:24 Simon recognized the need for Peter to intercede in prayer for him, but it is not clear that he repented and turned from his wickedness. His main concern was apparently to avoid the terrible consequences that Peter predicted when his wicked motives were exposed.