Bible Commentaries
Acts 8

Verses 1-40

VIII 1-3 The Persecution after the Martyrdom —1. A general persecution was now begun by the Sanhedrin, with Saul as their chief instrument, 22:5. The new governor, Marcellus, only arrived after some months, and was himself superseded a year later. Persecution developed the Church, (1) because it separated Christians off, (2) because the Gospel began to be preached as far as Syria. The Apostles, as ’Hebrews’, and strict observers of the Law, were not threatened like the Hellenist Christians with their wider horizon; 8:14 shows there was no question of divergence. 2. The devout men were perhaps Jews, as in 2:5, since most Christians had fled. 3. cf. 22:4; 26:10.

4-40 Acts of Philip the Deacon —4-9a He preaches In Samaria —4. The Apostles remaining in Jerusalem, the deacons evangelize. St Luke collected his information from Philip personally at Caesarea.

5. ’A city of Samaria’. If Sebaste, its capital, is meant, half the inhabitants were pagans. In any event, preaching to Samaritans was a further step towards universality.

6. cf. our Lord’s reception, John 4:39-42.

9b-13 Simon Magus —Gnostic legend gave him great importance, but this ch is all that the NT tells about him.

10. Simon gave himself out as the representative of God, and his very title is probably a magical formula. This was the first encounter of the Church with the magic that flourished in the pagan world; cf. 13:8; 16:16; 19:19.

12. Philip preached about ’the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ’.

13. Our Lord did not rate highly faith based on miracles, John 4:48; John 14:12, and for this magician they were a temptation, 18.

14-17 SS Peter and John sent from Jerusalem —14. On St Peter’s position, see § 819d. 15-17. The deacon could not confirm, see § 820b. The giving of the Holy Spirit was accompanied by manifestations like those at Pentecost.

18-25 The Sin of Simon —18-19. He regarded the external charismata as the magical effects of the laying on of hands.

20. St Peter is not cursing Simon, whose conversion he desired, but expressing horror at the traffic proposed, hence ’Simony’.

22. ’Repent of this wickedness of thine, and pray to the Lord that if possible the thought of thy heart be forgiven thee’. The doubt is due to Simon’s wrong disposition, 23.

24. He does not yet repent, but fears a magical efficacy in St Peter’s words. 25. The Apostles extend the Church, and preach ’to many villages of the Samaritans’.

26-40 Philip baptizes the Ethiopian —Deuteronomy 23:1 forbidding admission to Judaism of eunuchs, was not strictly applied, and the word may be used here merely in the sense of ’minister’. Hence many think the pious minister who had come ’to adore’ was a Jew, or at least a proselyte who accepted the whole Law, including circumcision, cf. Boudou, op. cit. 174. Others consider he was simply one who ’feared God’, see 10:2. In that case Philip, inhibited by none of St Peter’s scruples, anticipated the decisive action of the latter, ch 10, but only with an isolated individual, and it was evidently not his usual practise; cf. v 40, and 10:1. However St Luke seems to wish us to understand that the Ethiopian was a real eunuch, for his ministerial office is described separately, ’of great authority’, and that after baptizing Samaritans, Philip took a further step in the direction of universality by baptizing one for whom circumcision was a physical impossibility.

26. ’This is desert’ is not part of the angel’s speech, but is a Lucan parenthesis to explain that ’old’ Gaza, a deserted ruin, some little distance from the inhabited city, is meant.

27. Candace was the generic name of the queens of Ethiopia, the modern Sudan.

29. For the interior work of conversion, the guidance of the Spirit is necessary.

32-33. Isaiah 53:7-8, in LXX. ’In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe the wickedness of his generation, which has taken his life’, gives perhaps the meaning.

35. Philip uses the same argument as his Master, Luke 24:26.37, though known to St Irenaeus, is not in the best MSS, and perhaps began as an early gloss to fulfil the need of some confession of faith.

38. cf. DAC, Art. Immersion, VII, 305.

39. Philip was miraculously removed. Tradition, as far back as St Irenaeus makes the eunuch the apostle of his. country.

40. Azotus was predominantly Jewish, but Caesarea, 50 m. N., was a pagan city, though it contained many Jews. It was the political capital, and the Procurator’s residence. Herod the Great had rebuilt it on a lavish scale, and made the harbour safe in all weathers. It was, or now became, Philip’s. home, 2:18.