8 And Saul approved of their killing him.
The Church Persecuted and Scattered
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. 2 Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. 3 But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.
Philip in Samaria
4 Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. 5 Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. 6 When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. 7 For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was great joy in that city.
Simon the Sorcerer
9 Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, 10 and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.” 11 They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. 12 But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles he saw.
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money 19 and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! 21 You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. 23 For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”
24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”
25 After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.
Philip and the Ethiopian
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” 27 So he started out, and on his way, he met an Ethiopian [That is, from the southern Nile region ] eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. 29 The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
33 In his humiliation, he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”[Isaiah 53:7,8 (see Septuagint)]
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” 35 Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?” [37] [Some manuscripts include here Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] 38 And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. 40 Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.
NOTES:
8:1–40 Some idea of the severity of the persecution that now
breaks out against the Jerusalem community can be gathered from Acts 22:4 and
Acts 26:9–11. Luke, however, concentrates on the fortunes of the word of God
among people, indicating how the dispersal of the Jewish community resulted in
the conversion of the Samaritans (Acts 8:4–17, 25). His narrative is further
expanded to include the account of Philip’s acceptance of an Ethiopian (Acts
8:26–39).
8:1 All were scattered…except the apostles: this observation
leads some modern scholars to conclude that the persecution was limited to the
Hellenist Christians and that the Hebrew Christians were not molested, perhaps
because their attitude toward the law and temple was still more in line with
that of their fellow Jews (see the charge leveled against the Hellenist Stephen
in Acts 6:13–14). Whatever the facts, it appears that the Twelve took no public
stand regarding Stephen’s position, choosing, instead, to await the development
of events.
8:3 Saul…was trying to destroy the church: like Stephen,
Saul was able to perceive that the Christian movement contained the seeds of
doctrinal divergence from Judaism. A pupil of Gamaliel, according to Acts 22:3,
and totally dedicated to the law as the way of salvation (Gal 1:13–14), Saul
accepted the task of crushing the Christian movement, at least insofar as it
detracted from the importance of the temple and the law. His vehement
opposition to Christianity reveals how difficult it was for a Jew of his time
to accept a messianism that differed so greatly from the general expectation.
8:9–13, 18–24 Sorcerers were well known in the ancient
world. Probably the incident involving Simon and his altercation with Peter is
introduced to show that the miraculous charisms possessed by members of the
Christian community (Acts 8:6–7) were not to be confused with the magic of
sorcerers.
8:16 Here and in Acts 10:44–48 and Acts 19:1–6, Luke
distinguishes between baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus and the reception
of the Spirit. In each case, the Spirit is conferred through members of the
Twelve (Peter and John) or their representative (Paul). This may be Luke’s way
of describing the role of the church in the bestowal of the Spirit. Elsewhere
in Acts, baptism and the Spirit are more closely related (Acts 1:5; 11:16).
8:18–20 Simon attempts to buy the gift of God (Acts 8:20)
with money. Peter’s cursing of Simon’s attempt so to use his money expresses a
typically Lucan attitude toward material wealth (cf. Lk 6:24; 12:16–21; 16:13).
8:26–40 In the account of the conversion of the Ethiopian
eunuch, Luke adduces additional evidence to show that the spread of
Christianity outside the confines of Judaism itself was in accord with the plan
of God. He does not make clear whether the Ethiopian was originally a convert
to Judaism or, as is more probable, a “God-fearer” (Acts 10:1), i.e., one who
accepted Jewish monotheism and ethic and attended the synagogue but did not
consider himself bound by other regulations such as circumcision and observance
of the dietary laws. The story of his conversion to Christianity is given a
strong supernatural cast by the introduction of an angel (Acts 8:26),
instruction from the holy Spirit (Acts 8:29), and the strange removal of Philip
from the scene (8:39).
8:27 The Candace: Candace is not a proper name here but the
title of a Nubian queen.
8:30–34 Philip is brought alongside the carriage at the very
moment when the Ethiopian is pondering the meaning of Is 53:7–8, a passage that
Christianity, from its earliest origins, has applied to Jesus; cf. note on Acts
3:13.
8:37 The oldest and best manuscripts of Acts omit this
verse, which is a Western text reading: “And Philip said, ‘If you believe with
all your heart, you may.’ And he said in reply, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God.’”
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