VIII. (1) AND SAUL WAS CONSENTING UNTO HIS DEATH. — The word seems carefully chosen to convey the fact that he did not himself take part in stoning, but contented himself with guiding and directing the murder. He “kept the garments” of the witnesses who flung the stones (Acts 22:20). The statement... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DEVOUT MEN CARRIED STEPHEN TO HIS BURIAL. — It has sometimes been asserted, as _e.g._ by Renan (_Les Apôtres,_ p. 145), that these were proselytes. St. Luke, however, always uses a different word to describe that class (comp. Acts 13:43; Acts 13:50; Acts 16:14; Acts 17:4; Acts 17:17), and the wo... [ Continue Reading ]
AS FOR SAUL, HE MADE HAVOCK OF THE CHURCH. — The tense in the Greek implies continuous action, and so indicates the severity of the persecution. Further details are given by St. Paul himself. He “persecuted this way unto the death” (Acts 22:4). It does not follow, however, that this points to more t... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY THAT WERE SCATTERED ABROAD. — These. As has been said above, would in all probability be Stephen’s Hellenistic fellow-workers and followers. As in later ages, the axiom that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church,” held true from the beginning. The attempt to stamp out the new faith di... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN PHILIP WENT DOWN TO THE CITY OF SAMARIA. — More accurately, “_a_ city.” The sequence of events implies that it was not the Apostle, but his namesake who had been chosen as one of the Seven. As having been conspicuous in the work of “preaching the glad tidings of Christ,” he was afterwards known... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR UNCLEAN SPIRITS, CRYING WITH LOUD VOICE. — The MSS. present several variations in the structure of the sentence, but they do not affect its meaning. The character of the “signs” agrees with those that are recorded in the Gospels. The “great cry,” partly, it may be, of agony, partly of exultation... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS GREAT JOY IN THAT CITY. — This and the whole narrative may well have been learnt by St. Luke from the lips of Philip himself, when St. Paul and his companions visited the Evangelist at Cæsarea on his way to Jerusalem (Acts 21:8), or during the Apostle’s two years’ imprisonment in that city... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THERE WAS A CERTAIN MAN, CALLED SIMON. — The man who is thus brought before us in a brief episode, occupies a prominent place in the history and the legends of the Apostolic Church. For the present it will be convenient to deal only with the materials which St. Luke gives us, reserving a fuller... [ Continue Reading ]
TO WHOM THEY ALL GAVE HEED, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST. — The ready acceptance of the claims of the pretender, may, in part, be traced to the impression made by the presence of “the Christ, the Saviour of the world” (John 4:42). If One had come among them in whom they felt that there was a more... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TO HIM THEY HAD REGARD. — The Greek word is the same as in the “gave heed” of the previous verse. The “long time” during which the evil fascination had been exercised, reckoning backwards from the date which we have now reached (A.D. 34), might carry us to a period prior to our Lord’s visit to S... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WHEN THEY BELIEVED PHILIP.... — The word for preaching is, as in Acts 8:4, _“preaching the glad tidings_ of the kingdom of God.” The sequel shows that this included baptism as the outward condition of admission to the kingdom. We may infer from the other narrative of Philip’s mission-work (Acts... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SIMON HIMSELF BELIEVED ALSO. — Endless questions have been raised as to the nature of such a faith, and the effect of such a baptism. It is probable enough that he was impressed by the signs that Philip wrought; that he felt himself in the presence of a Power above his own; that he accepted Phi... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE APOSTLES WHICH WERE AT JERUSALEM.... — The tidings came to the Twelve as a proof that the limitation which had at first excluded Samaria from the range of their work as preachers of the kingdom had now passed away (Matthew 10:5), and that the time had now come when they were to be “witnesse... [ Continue Reading ]
PRAYED FOR THEM, THAT THEY MIGHT RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST. — The prayer clearly pointed to such a gift of the power of the Spirit as had been bestowed on the Day of Pentecost. It assumed that such gifts had been received by the disciples generally at Jerusalem, and that they were distinct from the new... [ Continue Reading ]
AS YET HE WAS FALLEN UPON NONE OF THEM. — The same verb is used of the gift of the Spirit in Acts 10:44; Acts 11:15, and of Peter’s trance in Acts 10:10. It is manifestly used to express an unlooked-for change in a man’s normal state of consciousness, the sudden advent of new powers and feelings.... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN LAID THEY THEIR HANDS ON THEM. — The act had already appeared as at once the symbol and the channel of the communication of spiritual gifts and offices in the appointment of the Seven. (See Note on Acts 6:6.) Historically, the act here recorded has the interest of being the starting-point of wh... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN SIMON SAW THAT THROUGH LAYING ON OF THE APOSTLES’ HANDS.... — The words imply that the result was something visible and conspicuous. A change was wrought; and men spoke with tongues and prophesied. To the sorcerer, accustomed to charms and incantations, the men who were in possession of this po... [ Continue Reading ]
THY MONEY PERISH WITH THEE. — Literally, _Thy money be together with thee, for perdition._ The same word is used as in the “son of perdition” in John 17:12 and in Hebrews 10:39. The prominence of the word in 2 Peter 2:1; 2 Peter 3:7; 2 Peter 3:16, is interesting in connection with the question as to... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER PART NOR LOT. — A like, though not an identical, combination of the two words meets us in Colossians 1:12. On the latter, see Notes on Acts 1:17; Acts 1:25. It is, perhaps, used here in its secondary sense. Simon had no inheritance in the spiritual gifts nor in the spiritual offices of the C... [ Continue Reading ]
REPENT THEREFORE OF THIS THY WICKEDNESS. — The stern words of condemnation are, we see, meant to heal, not to slay. Rightly understood, the call to repent in such a case as this, opens the door of hope as wide as the history of the penitent thief. Repentance, and with repentance, forgiveness, were p... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE GALL OF BITTERNESS, AND IN THE BOND OF INIQUITY. — On “gall,” in its literal sense, see Note on Matthew 27:34. This is the only passage in the New Testament in which it is used figuratively. “Bitterness” meets us, as expressing extreme moral depravity, in Romans 3:14; Ephesians 4:31; Hebrews... [ Continue Reading ]
PRAY YE TO THE LORD FOR ME. — There is something eminently characteristic in the sorcerer’s words. (1) His conscience reads “between the lines” of St. Peter’s address what was not actually found there. That “if perhaps” is to him as the knell of doom. (2) He prays not for deliverance from “the bond... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY, WHEN THEY HAD TESTIFIED... — The statement involves a stay of some duration, long enough to found and organise a community of disciples. And this was followed, not by an immediate return to Jerusalem, but, as the Greek tense shows, by one with many halts, at each of which the glad tidings... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD... — Better, _an angel._ The tense of the verbs in the preceding verse, in the better MSS., implies that the events that follow synchronised with the journey of Peter and John through Samaria. The journey which Philip was commanded to take led him by a quicker route across... [ Continue Reading ]
A MAN OF ETHIOPIA, AN EUNUCH OF GREAT AUTHORITY. — Literally, _a eunuch, a potentate._ The Ethiopia from which the traveller came was the region so named by the geographers of St. Luke’s time in the upper valley of the Nile. Its connection with the Jewish people presents many points of interest. The... [ Continue Reading ]
SITTING IN HIS CHARIOT READ ESAIAS THE PROPHET. — After the manner of most Eastern nations, to whom silent reading is almost unknown, the eunuch was reading aloud. Philip heard him, and so gained an opening for conversation. Was the roll of Isaiah a new-found treasure? Had he bought the MS. in Jerus... [ Continue Reading ]
JOIN THYSELF TO THIS CHARIOT. — The act implied is that of laying hold and, as it were, attaching himself to the chariot in which the eunuch rode.... [ Continue Reading ]
UNDERSTANDEST THOU WHAT THOU READEST? — The Greek play upon the word for understand (_Ginôskein_) and read (_Anaginôskein_) cannot well be produced in English, but is worth noting as parallel to a like play in the well-known saying of the Emperor Julian (_Anegnôn; egnôn; kategnôn_) — “I read; I unde... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW CAN I, EXCEPT SOME MAN SHOULD GUIDE ME? — The words of the inquirer imply, as has been said above, that the prophecy was new to him. It is as though, in turning over, or perhaps unrolling, the MS., this was the passage which, in its strange, touching portraiture of the Man of Sorrows, had rivete... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PLACE OF THE SCRIPTURE WHICH HE READ. — The word for “place” is apparently used as an equivalent for the Hebrew _Parashah,_ or _Haphtarah,_ which were technically used for the sections of the Law and Prophets respectively appointed for use as lessons in the synagogue services. It was in common u... [ Continue Reading ]
IN HIS HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY. — The Hebrew runs, as in the English version of Isaiah 53:8, which fairly represents its natural construction, “He was taken from prison (or _oppression_) and from judgment,” _i.e.,_ was delivered from His sufferings just when they seemed to culminate.... [ Continue Reading ]
OF HIMSELF, OR OF SOME OTHER MAN? — Later interpreters, some of them ascribing the whole of the second half of Isaiah’s prophecies (Acts 40-66) to a great unknown writer living towards the close of the Babylonian Exile, have given very different answers to the question which the eunuch asked. They h... [ Continue Reading ]
PHILIP OPENED HIS MOUTH. — The phrase, wherever it occurs in the New Testament, implies something like a set discourse. (Comp. Acts 10:34; Acts 18:14; Matthew 5:2; Matthew 13:35; 2 Corinthians 6:11). It always means something more than the mere act of speaking. AND PREACHED UNTO HIM JESUS. — The seq... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY CAME UNTO A CERTAIN WATER. — Men have naturally endeavoured to identify the locality. In the time of Jerome, probably in that of Eusebius (_de loc._)_,_ it was fixed at Bethsura, the Bethzur of 2 Chronicles 11:7), about twenty miles from Jerusalem, and two from Hebron. A fountain, now known as... [ Continue Reading ]
AND PHILIP SAID.... — The verse is a striking illustration of the tendency which showed itself at a very early period to improve the text of Scripture with a view to greater edification. It existed in the time of Irenæus, who quotes it (3:12), but is wanting in all the best MSS., including the Sinai... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WENT DOWN BOTH INTO THE WATER. — The Greek preposition might mean simply “_unto_ the water,” but the universality of immersion in the practice of the early Church supports the English version. The eunuch would lay aside his garments, descend chest-deep into the water, and be plunged under it “i... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD CAUGHT AWAY PHILIP. — Human feeling would have naturally led the teacher to continue his work, and to accompany the convert with a view to further instruction; but an impulse so strong and irresistible that it was felt to be from the Spirit of the Lord led Philip to an abrupt... [ Continue Reading ]
PHILIP WAS FOUND AT AZOTUS. — The city so named, the Ashdod of the Old Testament, was, like Gaza, one of the cities of the Philistines, about three miles from the sea, and half-way between Gaza and Joppa. Like Gaza its history was chiefly marked by successive sieges: by Tartan, the Assyrian General... [ Continue Reading ]