The Aramaic name Bariésous means 'son of Jesus (Joshua).' It is the name of a Jewish false prophet and sorcerer on the island of Cyprus who is also called Elymas (Acts 13:6-12). When Paul and Barnabas arrived on Cyprus on their first missionary journey, Bar-Jesus opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul Sergius Paulus away from the faith. Paul rebuked him in the Spirit and he was struck temporarily blind.
The confrontation with Bar-Jesus on Cyprus is deeply ironic: a man named 'son of Jesus' was acting as a tool of the enemy, opposing the gospel. Paul's Spirit-empowered rebuke — 'you are a child of the devil' — exposes the danger of bearing a religious name while living in opposition to God. The proconsul Sergius Paulus believed when he saw what happened — powerful evidence that God's authority overrides all opposing spiritual power. The first convert of the first missionary journey was a Roman official.