Acts 8

Acts 8 is the eighth of the twenty-eight chapters of the Book of Acts. It follows directly from the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts 7 and marks the point at which the gospel begins to spread beyond Jerusalem to Samaria and to the Gentiles.

Outline

• Verses 1–3 Devout men bury Stephen. A great persecution breaks out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles are scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Saul enters house after house and commits men and women to prison.
• Verses 4–8 Those who were scattered go about preaching the gospel. Philip proclaims Christ in a city of Samaria; unclean spirits are cast out, and the paralyzed and the lame are healed.
• Verses 9–13 Simon, who had amazed the people with his sorcery, also believes and is baptized.
• Verses 14–17 The apostles in Jerusalem send Peter and John. When the two apostles lay hands on those who had only been baptized, they receive the Holy Spirit.
• Verses 18–25 Simon tries to buy this power with money, and Peter rebukes him and calls him to repent. The two apostles preach the gospel in many Samaritan villages as they return to Jerusalem.
• Verses 26–35 The angel of the Lord sends Philip to the desert road that goes down to Gaza. Philip meets an Ethiopian eunuch who is reading from the prophet Isaiah and, beginning at that passage, preaches Jesus to him.
• Verses 36–40 At a place where there is water, Philip baptizes the eunuch. The Spirit of the Lord carries Philip away; Philip appears at Azotus and preaches in many towns until he reaches Caesarea.

Key Verses

• Acts 8:4 "Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word": Shows that persecution became the very occasion for the spread of the gospel.
• Acts 8:20 "Thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money": A declaration that the gift of the Holy Spirit cannot be bought or sold.
• Acts 8:35 "began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus": A representative example of Isaiah 53 being read as a prophecy concerning Jesus (Acts 8:32–35).

People and Places

• Stephen: One of the seven men chosen to serve, martyred in chapter 7.
• Saul: A persecutor of the church who is converted in chapter 9 and becomes Paul.
• Philip: One of the seven appointed in Acts 6, called "Philip the evangelist" in Acts 21:8. He is generally regarded as a different person from Philip, one of the twelve disciples.
• Simon the sorcerer: A sorcerer in Samaria who was called "the great power of God."
• Peter and John: The two apostles sent to Samaria by the Jerusalem church.
• The Ethiopian eunuch: An official in charge of the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. "Candace" is understood to be not a personal name but the title of the queen of the Kushite (Meroitic) kingdom on the upper Nile.
• Places: Jerusalem, Samaria, Gaza and Azotus (ancient Philistine towns near the Mediterranean coast), and the coastal city of Caesarea.

Points for Reflection

• The Holy Spirit received after baptism (verses 16–17): Interpretations differ among denominations.
• Pentecostal traditions read this as support for a baptism in the Holy Spirit received separately after conversion.
• Presbyterians and others in the Reformed tradition regard it as a one-time event that confirmed continuity with the Jerusalem church in the unique situation of the gospel's first arrival in Samaria.
• The Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion cite this scene as one of the biblical grounds for the rite of confirmation, in which the Holy Spirit is sought through the laying on of hands.
• Going down into the water for baptism (verse 38): Baptists cite this verse as support for baptism by immersion, while other denominations hold that it can also be read as going down to the water's edge (Baptism and Immersion).
• Why verse 37 is missing: Verse 37, which contains the eunuch's confession of faith, appears only in later manuscripts. It is included in the King James Version and other translations, but the New Korean Revised Version and the Korean Revised Version omit it from the main text.
• Traditions outside the text: Accounts portraying Simon as the originator of heresy come from the writings of early church authors such as Irenaeus in the second century and do not appear in Acts. The term "simony," meaning the buying or selling of church offices, derives from this Simon's name.
• Ethiopian church tradition: The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is known to hold a tradition linking this eunuch to the beginnings of Christianity in Ethiopia.
• The structure of Acts: This chapter can be seen as the stage corresponding to "in all Judaea, and in Samaria" in Acts 1:8. It is also connected to the Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 53, quoted in verses 32–33.

In the Korean Church

Acts 8:4 and the scenes of Philip preaching in Samaria and on the desert road are frequently cited in sermons on evangelism and missions.