Chapter 8
The Great Persecution
1 And Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2 Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.
3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.
4 Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 1–4:
Σαῦλος δὲ ἦν συνευδοκῶν τῇ ἀναιρέσει αὐτοῦ (Saulos de ēn syneudokōn tē anairesei autou) — v.1: “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death” — the verb συνευδοκέω (syneudokeō) means to consent fully, to approve with satisfaction. This is stronger than passive acceptance; Saul actively endorsed the killing. Luke links Stephen’s death directly to the outbreak of persecution that follows: “And on that day.” Stephen’s martyrdom is the trigger. The simmering tension between the Sanhedrin and the church explodes into systematic violence.
v.1: “They were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.” This single sentence fulfills Acts 1:8. Jesus said the disciples would be his witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria.” The Jerusalem phase (chapters 1–7) has ended; the Judea and Samaria phase begins — and it begins through persecution, not planning. The church does not choose to expand; it is forced outward. The irony is profound: the very persecution intended to destroy the movement becomes the mechanism of its spread. Scattered seeds grow.
v.1: “Except the apostles” — this is puzzling. If the persecution is severe enough to scatter the entire community, why do the apostles remain? Several explanations have been proposed: the apostles felt a divine obligation to stay, their public profile paradoxically protected them (arresting the leaders might provoke riots), or the persecution may have targeted the Hellenistic believers specifically (since Stephen’s preaching provoked the crisis) while the Hebrew-speaking believers, including the apostles, were initially left alone. The last explanation fits the evidence: the scattered believers are Hellenists, and it is the Hellenists who first take the gospel beyond Jerusalem.
ἐλυμαίνετο τὴν ἐκκλησίαν (elymaineto tēn ekklēsian) — v.3: “Ravaging the church” — the verb λυμαίνομαι (lymainomai) means to destroy, to devastate, to treat with brutal violence. In other Greek literature it describes wild animals tearing prey apart. Saul is going house to house (κατὰ τοὺς οἴκους, kata tous oikous), which tells us the church met in homes and that Saul knew where they met. He drags off both men and women (ἄνδρας καὶ γυναῖκας) — the inclusion of women emphasizes the indiscriminate nature of the violence. Paul will later recall this period with anguished shame (22:4, 26:10–11, Galatians 1:13, 1 Corinthians 15:9).
v.4: The verse that transforms the tragedy: “Those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.” The Greek verb is εὐαγγελιζόμενοι (euangelizomenoi, “evangelizing,” “proclaiming good news”). These are not the apostles but ordinary believers — the scattered lay community. They are not ordained, not commissioned, not authorized by any human institution. They simply go and tell. The entire subsequent expansion of the church in chapters 8–11 is carried by unnamed, scattered, ordinary believers. The church’s greatest growth strategy is its refugees.
Philip Proclaims Christ in Samaria
5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them.
6 The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing.
7 For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them shouting with a loud voice; and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed.
8 So there was much rejoicing in that city.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 5–8:
v.5: Philip is the second of the Seven appointed in chapter 6 (not to be confused with Philip the apostle, one of the Twelve). Like Stephen, he was appointed for food distribution and has become a preacher and miracle worker. He goes to Samaria — and this is a momentous boundary crossing. The Samaritans were despised by most Jews as half-breeds and heretics. They shared the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses) with the Jews but worshipped at Mount Gerizim rather than Jerusalem. The hostility between Jews and Samaritans was centuries deep (cf. John 4:9: “Jews do not associate with Samaritans”). For a Jewish believer to proclaim the Messiah to Samaritans was to cross one of the most entrenched social boundaries in the ancient Near East.
v.5: The identity of “the city of Samaria” is debated. It may refer to the city of Samaria itself (the ancient capital, rebuilt by Herod the Great as Sebaste), or to Sychar (where Jesus met the Samaritan woman, John 4), or to another unspecified Samaritan city. Some manuscripts read “a city of Samaria” rather than “the city.” The exact location matters less than the fact: the gospel has entered Samaritan territory.
v.8: “Much rejoicing” (πολλὴ χαρά, pollē chara) — joy is the characteristic response to the gospel throughout Acts (2:46, 13:48, 15:3, 16:34). The word χαρά (chara) is related to χάρις (charis, “grace”) — the joy that comes from grace received. A city that had been outside the covenant community for centuries experiences the same joy that Jerusalem experienced at Pentecost.
Simon the Magician
9 Now there was a man named Simon who previously practiced magic in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great;
10 and they all, from smallest to greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, “This man is what is called the Great Power of God.”
11 And they were giving him attention because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts.
12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.
13 Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 9–13:
μαγεύων (mageuōn) — v.9: “Practiced magic” — the verb μαγεύω (mageuō) covers a range of practices: sorcery, divination, astrology, incantations, and manipulation of spiritual forces. In the Greco-Roman world, “magicians” (magoi) occupied a gray area between religion, philosophy, and charlatanism. Simon was evidently a figure of considerable power and reputation — the whole city, from “smallest to greatest,” paid attention to him. He claimed to be “someone great” and the people called him “the Great Power of God” (ἡ δύναμις τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ καλουμένη μεγάλη). This may reflect a Samaritan theological category — some form of divine emanation or power made manifest in a human agent.
v.12: Philip’s preaching overcomes Simon’s influence. The people who had been dazzled by Simon now believe Philip’s message about “the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ.” The real overcomes the counterfeit. The pattern will recur in Acts: the gospel encounters and displaces existing spiritual powers (13:6–12 with Bar-Jesus, 16:16–18 with the slave girl at Philippi, 19:13–20 with the sons of Sceva).
v.13: “Even Simon himself believed.” This statement has provoked extensive debate. Did Simon truly believe, or was his “belief” merely intellectual fascination with a power greater than his own? Luke says he believed and was baptized, but the story that follows (vv.18–24) will raise serious questions about the genuineness of his conversion. What is clear is that Simon recognized Philip’s miracles as authentic and superior to his own abilities — the man who had amazed others (v.9, 11) was now himself amazed (ἐξίστατο, existato). The roles have reversed.
The Apostles Confirm the Samaritan Believers
14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John,
15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
16 For he had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
17 Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 14–17:
v.14: The apostles in Jerusalem send Peter and John to Samaria. This is both pastoral and political: the apostles need to verify and validate what has happened. The gospel has crossed the Jewish-Samaritan boundary for the first time, and the Jerusalem church needs to confirm that this is genuine. The sending of the two leading apostles signals the seriousness of the development.
vv.15–17: This passage has generated enormous theological discussion because it describes a gap between baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit. The Samaritan believers were baptized in Jesus’s name but had “not yet” received the Spirit, which came only when Peter and John laid hands on them. This is unusual in Acts, where the Spirit typically accompanies or immediately follows belief and baptism (2:38, 10:44, 19:5–6). Various explanations have been offered: (1) The Spirit was delayed to demonstrate that the Samaritan church was connected to and validated by the Jerusalem apostles, preventing an immediate schism between Jewish and Samaritan Christianity. (2) The Samaritan believers’ faith may have been incomplete — still mixed with Simon’s influence — and the Spirit came when genuine faith was confirmed. (3) The episode is a unique, unrepeatable event in salvation history: the Spirit’s arrival through apostolic laying on of hands at each major boundary crossing (Jews at Pentecost, Samaritans here, Gentiles in chapter 10) demonstrates that one God is creating one church. The third explanation is the most compelling in context: Luke is showing that the expansion to Samaria has apostolic endorsement and divine ratification. This is not a separate Samaritan church; it is the same church, with the same Spirit.
Simon’s Attempt to Buy Spiritual Power
18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,
19 saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
21 You have no part or share in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.
22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.
23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of wickedness.”
24 But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”
25 So, when they had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, and were preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 18–25:
vv.18–19: Simon’s offer exposes the nature of his “belief.” He sees the Spirit as a commodity to be purchased and an authority to be wielded. His framework is still that of the magician: power is something you acquire, and acquisition is transactional. He wants to buy the ability to dispense the Spirit the way he bought or developed his magical abilities. The sin is treating the Holy Spirit as a product for sale. The later church coined the term “simony” (buying or selling spiritual offices) from this passage, and it has been condemned as an ecclesiastical crime ever since.
τὸ ἀργύριόν σου σὺν σοὶ εἴη εἰς ἀπώλειαν (to argyrion sou syn soi eiē eis apōleian) — v.20: “May your silver perish with you” — literally “May your silver go to destruction together with you.” Peter’s response is explosive. The word ἀπώλεια (apōleia, “destruction,” “perdition”) is one of the strongest words for damnation in the New Testament. Peter is not being polite. The fundamental error is named: “you thought you could obtain the gift (δωρεάν, dōrean) of God with money.” The Spirit is a gift. Gifts cannot be purchased — that is what makes them gifts. Simon’s offer transforms grace into commerce and thereby annihilates it.
εἰς χολὴν πικρίας καὶ σύνδεσμον ἀδικίας (eis cholēn pikrias kai syndesmon adikias) — v.23: “Gall of bitterness and bondage of wickedness” — the language echoes Deuteronomy 29:18 (LXX), where Moses warns against “a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit” among those who turn away from God to serve idols. Peter is diagnosing Simon’s spiritual condition as poisoned and enslaved. The man who claimed to be “the Great Power of God” is actually in bondage. The man who sold spiritual experiences to others cannot buy the one spiritual reality that matters.
v.24: Simon’s response is ambiguous. “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves” — does this show genuine fear and repentance, or is it still the response of a client seeking services from a more powerful practitioner? Luke leaves it unresolved. Simon disappears from Acts at this point. Later church tradition (particularly in the writings of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Hippolytus) portrays him as the fountainhead of Gnostic heresy, a figure who continued to claim divine status and founded rival religious movements. Whether these traditions are historically accurate or legendary elaborations is debated, but the early church remembered Simon as the prototype of the false teacher who infiltrates the church for personal gain.
v.25: The apostles return to Jerusalem, but they preach in Samaritan villages along the way. The barrier is broken. Peter and John, who once asked Jesus to call fire down from heaven on a Samaritan village (Luke 9:54), are now evangelizing Samaritan villages. The transformation is remarkable.
Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
26 But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.)
27 So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship,
28 and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.
29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.”
30 Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
32 Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: ‘He was led as a sheep to slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he does not open his mouth.
33 In humiliation his justice was taken away; who will describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.’
34 The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?”
35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he proclaimed Jesus to him.
36 As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said, “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?”
37 [And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”]
38 And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.
39 When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing.
40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.
Translator’s Notes — vv. 26–40:
v.26: The scene shifts dramatically. Philip is told to leave a successful, thriving ministry in Samaria and go to a desert road. From a crowded city to an empty highway. From a visible revival to a single encounter. The angel does not explain why; Philip simply obeys. The specificity of the instruction — the road, the direction, the notation that it is a desert road — suggests divine precision: one particular person is on that road, and Philip needs to meet him.
Αἰθίοψ εὐνοῦχος (Aithiops eunouchos) — v.27: The Ethiopian eunuch is one of the most remarkable figures in Acts. He is described with three identifying features, each of which carries enormous significance. First, he is Ethiopian (Αἰθίοψ) — from the kingdom of Meroe in modern Sudan, south of Egypt. In the ancient world, Ethiopia represented the extreme south, the very edge of the known world. He comes from as far away as anyone could come. Second, he is a eunuch (εὐνοῦχος) — a castrated male, common in royal courts as trusted officials because they could not establish competing dynasties. Under Deuteronomy 23:1, a eunuch was explicitly excluded from the “assembly of the Lord.” He could worship at the temple as a God-fearer but could never fully belong. Third, he is a high court official (δυνάστης, dynastēs) of the queen (Candace was a dynastic title, not a personal name, used by the queens or queen mothers of Meroe). He is a man of power, wealth, and devotion who has traveled thousands of miles to worship the God of Israel — and the Law of that God says he can never fully enter.
v.28: He is reading Isaiah aloud (reading in the ancient world was typically done vocally, even when alone) from a scroll — an expensive possession, indicating his wealth. That he owns a copy of Isaiah in Greek (the Septuagint) tells us he is literate, devout, and has access to Jewish Scripture. He is a man who has invested enormous effort to pursue the God of Israel despite being permanently excluded from full membership in Israel.
vv.32–33: The passage he is reading is Isaiah 53:7–8 in the Septuagint — the heart of the fourth Servant Song (Isaiah 52:13–53:12), the most important messianic prophecy in the Old Testament for early Christianity. The passage describes one who is led to slaughter without protest, whose justice is denied, whose life is cut off. The eunuch’s question (v.34) — “Of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” — is the question that first-century Judaism debated intensely. Early Christian interpretation answered decisively: this is about Jesus.
v.35: “Beginning from this Scripture he proclaimed Jesus to him.” Philip does what the risen Jesus did on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:27): starting from the passage at hand, he opens the entire scriptural story and shows how it points to Jesus. The Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 becomes the gateway to the full gospel. Luke does not record the content of Philip’s explanation; he trusts his readers to fill it in: the Servant who was led to slaughter is Jesus, who died and rose, and the good news of his resurrection is available to everyone — including Ethiopian eunuchs excluded by the Law.
v.36: The eunuch’s response is immediate and eager: “Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?” The question “What prevents me?” (τί κωλύει με, ti kōlyei me) becomes a formula in Acts for removing barriers to inclusion (cf. 10:47, 11:17). For a eunuch, the question carries a lifetime of exclusion behind it. He has been prevented from full participation in Jewish worship by the Law itself (Deuteronomy 23:1). Now he asks: does this new community have the same restrictions? Is there a barrier here too? Philip’s answer, by baptizing him, is no. The barrier is removed. Isaiah 56:3–5, which promises that eunuchs who keep God’s covenant will receive “a name better than sons and daughters,” is being fulfilled in the water of a desert stream.
v.37: This verse is absent from the earliest and best manuscripts (including P45, P74, Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and Alexandrinus) and is widely regarded as a later scribal addition, probably from the second century, inserted to provide a confessional formula before baptism. It reflects early baptismal liturgy: the candidate confesses faith before immersion. Most modern translations either omit it or include it in brackets. Its absence from the original text is itself significant: in the earliest form of the story, the eunuch believes and is baptized with no formal confession required. The simplicity is the point.
ἥρπασεν (hērpasen) — v.39: “The Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away” — the verb ἁρπάζω (harpazō) means to seize, to snatch away suddenly. It is a strong, physical word — the same word used for the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and for Paul being caught up to the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2, 4. Philip is not simply directed to another location; he is seized by the Spirit and transported. The eunuch “no longer saw him” — Philip vanishes. The encounter was divinely arranged, divinely sustained, and divinely concluded.
v.39: “But went on his way rejoicing” — the eunuch’s response is joy, despite being suddenly alone. He has come from Jerusalem, where the Law told him he could not fully belong. He returns home with the good news that he does belong, sealed by baptism, with the scroll of Isaiah in his chariot and the Holy Spirit as his companion. He needs no further human guide. Tradition holds that he brought Christianity to Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church — one of the oldest Christian communities in the world — traces its origins in part to this encounter on a desert road.
v.40: Philip appears at Azotus (ancient Philistine Ashdod, on the Mediterranean coast) and works his way north along the coastal cities to Caesarea, where he will settle. He reappears in 21:8–9, decades later, still in Caesarea, now called “Philip the evangelist,” with four prophesying daughters. He has made Caesarea his base for a lifetime of ministry along the coast. The man appointed to serve tables has become the pioneer evangelist of the Palestinian coastline.
General Notes on the Chapter
Acts 8 is the chapter where the gospel breaks free of Jerusalem. Every boundary that held it in place — geographic, ethnic, cultic — is crossed. The gospel enters Samaria (vv.5–25), crossing the Jewish-Samaritan divide. It reaches an Ethiopian eunuch (vv.26–40), crossing racial, geographic, and bodily boundaries simultaneously. The chapter enacts what Stephen’s speech argued theologically: God is not confined to one place, one people, or one set of rules. The scattering caused by persecution is the mechanism of expansion. What Saul intended as destruction becomes distribution.
The contrast between Philip’s two ministry scenes is striking and instructive. In Samaria, he ministers to crowds — large-scale public preaching with signs and wonders, mass conversions, rejoicing in the streets. On the Gaza road, he ministers to one person — a private conversation on a desert highway, a single baptism in an unnamed body of water. Both are equally valid, equally Spirit-directed, equally consequential. The God who fills cities also tracks down individuals on empty roads. The angel sent Philip from the crowds to the desert because one seeking soul on a chariot matters as much as an entire city.
The Ethiopian eunuch represents the most boundary-crossing conversion in Acts so far. He is a Gentile (or at best a God-fearer), an African, a eunuch (physically excluded by the Law from Israel’s assembly), and a representative of the extreme south — the “end of the earth” from a Mediterranean perspective. His baptism anticipates everything that will follow in Acts: if a eunuch from the end of the earth can be baptized without barrier, then the Gentile mission is already implicit. The story is a miniature preview of Acts 10–15, where the full implications of Gentile inclusion will be debated and resolved. But here, on a quiet desert road, the principle is already established: nothing prevents this man from belonging to Christ.
Simon Magus and the Ethiopian eunuch form a deliberate contrast. Simon is an insider (a Samaritan, already familiar with religious power) who “believes” but remains in bondage because he understands the Spirit as a commodity. The eunuch is an outsider (a foreigner, a eunuch, excluded by the Law) who believes and departs in joy because he understands the gospel as grace. The one who should have been closer to the kingdom proves further away; the one who should have been further proves to be right at the door. The pattern echoes Jesus’s own ministry, where insiders resist and outsiders receive.
The chapter also continues the Philip-Stephen parallel. Both were appointed in chapter 6 for the same task; both became miracle-working preachers; both took the gospel beyond the boundaries the apostles had established. Stephen’s preaching provoked his death and the scattering of the church. Philip’s preaching fills the space the scattering created. Stephen articulated the theology of a God who cannot be confined; Philip lives it out, taking the gospel to Samaria and to the end of the earth. They are two halves of the same Hellenistic revolution: one provides the theology, the other the mission.