Acts 8
Stephen's death scatters the Jerusalem community; Philip goes to Samaria, where his preaching and an encounter on a desert road bring the gospel across two boundaries at once.
Summary
A great persecution breaks out in Jerusalem after Stephen's death, with Saul leading house-to-house searches and dragging off men and women to prison. The church is scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles who remain in Jerusalem. Philip goes down to the city of Samaria and proclaims the Messiah there. The crowds pay close attention, hearing and seeing the signs — unclean spirits expelled, paralyzed and lame persons healed. There is great joy in that city. A man named Simon has been amazing the Samaritans with his magic arts for years and has a great following; he too believes and is baptized and stays close to Philip, astonished by the signs he sees. When the apostles in Jerusalem hear that Samaria has received the word, they send Peter and John. The two pray for the Samaritans to receive the Holy Spirit, who has not yet fallen on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of Jesus. They lay their hands on them and they receive the Spirit.
Simon sees that the Spirit is given through the laying on of the apostles' hands and offers them money for this power. Peter rebukes him: may your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. Your heart is not right before God; repent and pray that the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. Simon asks them to pray for him. The two return to Jerusalem, preaching in Samaritan villages along the way. An angel speaks to Philip: rise and go toward the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. He goes. An Ethiopian eunuch, a court official in charge of the treasury of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, who had come to Jerusalem to worship and is returning home, is sitting in his chariot reading Isaiah. The Spirit tells Philip to go over and join the chariot. Philip runs and hears the man reading Isaiah 53. Philip asks if he understands what he is reading. The official asks how he could without a guide. Philip explains the passage as referring to Jesus. When they come to water, the official asks to be baptized. Philip baptizes him. The Spirit of the Lord carries Philip away, and the official goes on his way rejoicing.
- Acts 1Chapter 1 is a prologue and a hinge.
- Acts 2Pentecost is the structural and theological engine of the whole book.
- Acts 3Chapter 3 is the first miracle narrative in Acts, and its structure follows a pattern the book will repeat: the sign, the crowd, the sermon, and the opposition (which comes in chapter 4).
- Acts 4Chapter 4 is the first formal opposition scene in Acts, and it establishes a pattern: arrest, interrogation, the apostles' refusal, release, prayer, and the Spirit's confirmation.
- Acts 5Chapter 5 is one of the most dramatically concentrated in the book.
- Acts 6Chapter 6 is transitional but efficient.
- Acts 7Chapter 7 is the theological and dramatic climax of the Jerusalem section.
- Acts 8Chapter 8 is the first chapter of the middle section — Judea and Samaria — and it works by juxtaposition.
- Acts 9Chapter 9 contains the first telling of Paul's conversion (the other two are in chapters 22 and 26), and it is worth reading all three consecutively to see how Luke shapes each one for its audience.
- Acts 10Chapter 10 is the structural pivot of the first half of Acts and one of the most carefully constructed chapters in the New Testament.
- Acts 11Chapter 11 has two movements.
- Acts 12Chapter 12 is the last major Peter chapter in Acts, and it works as a deliberate counterpoint to the Herod material.
- Acts 13Chapter 13 is the beginning of the long Pauline section, and it opens with a scene worth pausing over: the Spirit speaks during a worship service in Antioch — while they are worshipping and fasting — and sets Barnabas and Saul apart for a specific but unnamed work.
- Acts 14Chapter 14 completes the first missionary journey and its most memorable episode is the Lystra scene (verses 8-20).
- Acts 15Chapter 15 is the structural centre of Acts and one of the most important chapters in the New Testament.
- Acts 16Chapter 16 is one of the richest in Acts.
- Acts 17Chapter 17 covers three cities and demonstrates the range of Paul's rhetorical repertoire.
- Acts 18Chapter 18 is relatively measured in tone after the drama of chapter 17.
- Acts 19Chapter 19 is the longest account of Paul's settled ministry in any city and falls into two parts.
- Acts 20Chapter 20 is the most elegiac in Acts.
- Acts 21Chapter 21 is the beginning of the long arrest sequence that occupies the rest of the book.
- Acts 22Chapter 22 is the second telling of Paul's conversion (the first is in chapter 9, the third in chapter 26).
- Acts 23Chapter 23 is structurally a thriller: the Sanhedrin hearing (verses 1-10), the night vision in the barracks (verse 11), the assassination plot (verses 12-22), and the extraordinary military escort to Caesarea (verses 23-35).
- Acts 24Chapter 24 is the first of three formal hearings in Acts — before Felix (24), before Festus (25), and before Agrippa (26) — and it establishes the pattern the others follow: Jewish accusation, Paul's defence, Roman incomprehension of the internal religious question, and a procedurally inconclusive result.
- Acts 25Chapter 25 is a pivot chapter.
- Acts 26Chapter 26 is the third and final telling of Paul's conversion (compare chapters 9 and 22) and the most rhetorically elaborate.
- Acts 27Chapter 27 is one of the most detailed sea narratives in ancient literature and is written in the first person plural (the we-passage resumes at verse 1), which gives it its immediacy.
- Acts 28Chapter 28 is the ending the book has been building toward, and it rewards slow reading.