Acts 8:1

Σαῦλος δὲ κ. τ. λ., R.V. joins these words to the conclusion of the previous chapter, and thus brings them into a close and fitting connection with Acts 7:58. So too Wendt, Blass, Nösgen, Zöckler. ἦν συνευδοκῶν : for this characteristic Lucan use of the imperfect of the substantive verb with a participle, see chap. Acts 1:10. The formula here indicates the lasting and enduring nature of Saul's “consent”. The verb συνευδοκέω is peculiar to St. Luke and St. Paul, and is used by the former in his Gospel as well as in Acts, cf. Luke 11:48; Acts 22:20 (by St. Paul himself with reference to his share in the murder of St. Stephen), Romans 1:32; 1 Corinthians 7:12-13. The word is also found in 1Ma 1:57 (Acts 4:28), 2Ma 11:24; 2Ma 11:35, signifying entire approval; it is also twice used by St. Clement, Cor [213], xxxv. 6; xliv. 3: “consent” does not express the force of the word “was approving of his death” (Rendall). ἀναιρέσει : used only here in N.T. (on St. Luke's favourite word ἀναιρέω, see Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, p. 22); both verb and noun were frequent in medical language (Hobart, Zahn), see below on Acts 9:29, but the noun in LXX, Numbers 11:15, Jdt 15:4, 2Ma 5:13, and in classical Greek, e.g., Xen., Hell., vi., 3, 5. ἐγένετο δὲ : another characteristic formula in St. Luke, Friedrich, u. s., p. 13; here introduces a new section of the history. ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ : (R.V. “on that day” (A.V. “at that time”), cf. Acts 2:41; the persecution broke out at once, “on that very day” (so Wendt, Rendall, Hort, Hackett, Felten, Zöckler, Holtzmann), the signal for it being given by the tumultuous stoning of the first martyr (but see on the other hand Alford, in loco). Weiss draws attention to the emphatic position of ἐκείνῃ before τῇ ἡμέρᾳ. ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὴν ἐν Ἱ.: hitherto as, e.g., Acts 5:11, the Church has been thought of as one, because limited in fact to the one city Jerusalem, but here we have a hint that soon there would be new Ecclesiæ in the one Ecclesia, as it spread throughout the Holy Land (Hort, Ecclesia, pp. 53 56, 227, and Ramsay, St. Paul, etc., pp. 41, 127, 377). πάντες τε : “ridiculum est hoc mathematica ratione accipere” (Blass) it is evident from Acts 8:3 that there were some left for Saul to persecute. In Acts 9:26 we have mention of a company of disciples in Jerusalem, but there is no reason to suppose (Schnecken-burger, Zeller, Overbeck) that Luke has made a mistake in the passage before us, for there is nothing in the text against the supposition that some at least of those who had fled returned again later. διεσπάρησαν : only in St. Luke in N.T., here and in Acts 8:4, and in Acts 11:19. This use of the word is quite classical, and frequent in LXX, e.g., Genesis 9:19; Leviticus 26:33 1Ma 11:47. Feine remarks that even Holtzmann allows that the spread of Christianity throughout Judæa and Samaria may be regarded as historical. χώρας : here rendered “regions”: Blass takes the word as almost = κώμας, and see also Plummer on Luke 21:21, ἐν ταῖς χώραις “in the country,” R.V. The word is characteristic of St. Luke, being used in his Gospel nine times, and in Acts eight; it is used thrice by St. Matthew and by St. John, four times by St. Mark, but elsewhere in N.T. only once, James 5:4. It is found frequently in LXX and in 1, 2, 3 Macc. τῆς Ἰουδαίας καὶ Σαμαρείας : thus the historian makes another step in the fulfilment of the Lord's command, Acts 1:8, and see also Ramsay, St. Paul, etc., p. 41. St. Chrysostom remarks ὅτι οἰκουομίας ὁ διωγμὸς ἦν, since the persecution became the means of spreading the Gospel, and thus early the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church. πλὴν τῶν ἀποστόλων πλήν : characteristic of St. Luke, sometimes as an adverb, sometimes as a preposition with genitive as here and in Acts 15:28; Acts 27:22; elsewhere it is only found once as a preposition with genitive, in Mark 12:32, although very frequent in LXX. The word occurs at least thirteen times in the Gospel, four times in Acts, in St. Matthew five times, in St. Mark once, and in John 8:10; see Friedrich, Das Lucasevangelium, pp. 16, 91. This mention of the Apostles seems unlikely to Schneckenburger. Schleiermacher, and others, but, as Wendt points out, it is quite consistent with the greater steadfastness of men who felt themselves to be πρωταγωνισταί, as Œcumenius calls them, in that which concerned their Lord. Their position too may well have been more secure than that of the Hellenists, who were identified with Stephen, as they were held in favour by the people, Acts 5:13, and as regular attendants at the temple services would not have been exposed to the same charges as those directed against the proto-martyr. There was, too, a tradition (very old and well attested according to Harnack, Chronologie, i., 243) to the effect that the Apostles were commanded by Christ not to depart from Jerusalem for twelve years, so that none should say that he had not heard the message, Euseb., H. E., v., 18, 14; nor is there anything inconsistent with this tradition in the visit of St. Peter and St. John to Samaria, since this and other journeys are simply missionary excursions, from which the Apostles always returned to Jerusalem (Harnack). The passage in Clem. Alex., Strom., vi., 5, 43, limited the Apostles' preaching for the time specified not to Jerusalem, but to Israel. Σαμαρείας : our Lord had recognised the barrier between the Samaritan and the Jew, Matthew 10:5; but now in obedience to His command (Acts 1:8) both Samaritan and Jew were admitted to the Church, for although the Apostles had not originated this preaching they very plainly endorsed it, Acts 8:14 ff. (cf. Hort, Judaistic Christianity, p. 54). Possibly the very fact that Philip and others were flying from the persecution of the Jewish hierarchy would have secured their welcome in the Samaritan towns.

[213] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.