Acts 8:15

οἵτινες : on this form of the relative see Rendall, in loco; Blass however regards it as simply = οἵ, Grammatik, p. 169, cf. Acts 12:10. καταβάντες, cf. Acts 24:1 (Luke 2:42), Acts 11:2; Acts 21:12; Acts 21:15. Wendt defends the historical character of this journey to Samaria as against Zeller and Overbeck. προσηύξαντο περὶ : here only with περί; the verb is characteristic of St. Luke, and he alone has the construction used in this verse, cf. Luke 6:28, W.H [217] The exact phrase is found in St. Paul's Epistles four or five times (and once in Hebrews), but often in LXX, and cf. Bar 1:11; Bar 1:13; Malachi 1:6; Malachi 1:6; 2Ma 15:14. The laying on of hands, as in Acts 6:7 and Acts 13:3, is here preceded by prayer, see Hooker, Eccles. Pol., v., chap. lxvi., 1 4. ὅπως λάβωσι Πν. Ἅγιον : the words express the chief and highest object of the Apostles' visit: it was not only to ascertain the genuineness of the conversions, or to form a connecting link between the Church of Samaria and that of Jerusalem, although such objects might not have been excluded in dealing with an entirely new and strange state of things the recognition of the Samaritans in a common faith. It has been argued with great force that the expression Holy Spirit is not meant here in its dogmatic Pauline sense; Luke only means to include in it the ecstatic gifts of speaking with tongues and prophecy. This view is held to be supported by ἰδών in Acts 8:18, intimating that outward manifestations which meet the eye must have shown themselves, and by the fact that the same verb, ἐπέπεσε, is used in cases where the results which follow plainly show that the reception of the Holy Ghost meant a manifestation of the outward marvellous signs such as marked the day of Pentecost, Acts 10:44; Acts 10:46; Acts 11:15 (cf. Acts 19:6). In the case of these Samaritans no such signs from heaven had followed their baptism, and the Apostles prayed for a conspicuous divine sanction on the reception of the new converts (Wendt, Zöckler, Holtzmann, and see also Hort, Ecclesia, pp. 54, 55). But even supposing that the reception of the Holy Ghost could be thus limited, the gift of tongues was no mere magical power, but the direct result of a super natural Presence and of a special grace of that Presence speaking with tongues, prophesyings, and various gifts, 1 Corinthians 14:1; 1Co 14:14; 1 Corinthians 14:37, were no doubt the outward manifestations, but they could not have been manifested apart from that Presence, and they were outward visible signs or an inward spiritual grace. In a book so marked by the working of the Holy Spirit that it has received the name of the “Gospel of the Spirit” it is difficult to believe that St. Luke can mean to limit the expression λαμβάνειν here and in the following verse to anything less than a bestowal of that divine indwelling of the spirit which makes the Christian the temple of God, and which St. Paul speaks of in the very same terms as a permanent possession, Galatians 3:2; Romans 8:15 (Gore, Church and the Ministry, p. 258). St. Paul's language, 1 Corinthians 12:30, makes it plain that the advent of the Holy Spirit was not of necessity attested by any peculiar manifestations, nor were these manifestations essential accompaniments of it: “Do all speak with tongues?” he asks, “Are all prophets?” See further on Acts 8:17.

[217] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.