AND SAUL WAS CONSENTING UNTO HIS DEATH,.... This clause, in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic and Ethiopic versions, stands at the close of the preceding chapter, and which seems to be its proper place; and so it does in the Alexandrian copy: that Saul consented to the death of Stephen, and approved... [ Continue Reading ]
AND DEVOUT MEN CARRIED STEPHEN TO HIS BURIAL,.... These men were not Jewish proselytes, but members of the Christian church; who were eminent for their religion and piety, and who had courage enough, amidst this persecution, to show a respect to the dead body of this holy martyr; which they took fro... [ Continue Reading ]
AS FOR SAUL, HE MADE HAVOC OF THE CHURCH,.... Did evil to the saints, destroyed them that called upon the name of Christ, Acts 9:13 and persecuted and wasted the church of God, as he himself says, Galatians 1:13 and now did Benjamin, of which tribe Saul was, ravine as a wolf, Genesis 49:27 ENTERING... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE THEY THAT WERE SCATTERED ABROAD,.... By reason of the persecution in Jerusalem: the seventy disciples, and other ministers of the word; or the hundred and twenty, excepting the apostles, WENT EVERY WHERE; or WENT THROUGH the countries of Judea and Samaria, as far as Phenice, Cyrus, and An... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN PHILIP WENT DOWN TO THE CITY OF SAMARIA,.... The city which was formerly called Samaria, but now Sebaste; it had been destroyed by Hyrcanus, and was rebuilt by Herod; and called by him, in honour of Augustus, by the name of Sebaste d; and so R. Benjamin says e, that "from Luz he came in a day... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE PEOPLE WITH ONE ACCORD,.... The inhabitants of the city of Samaria, as one man, came to hear the word: AND GAVE HEED TO THOSE THINGS WHICH PHILIP SPAKE; they listened to them, took notice of them, gave their ascent to them, believed and embraced them; being induced thereunto, not only upon... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR UNCLEAN SPIRITS,.... Devils, so called because they were unclean themselves, defiled others, add delighted in impure persons and places; Matthew 10:1 CRYING WITH LOUD VOICE; showing their unwillingness to remove, and the irresistibleness of divine power they could not withstand: CAME OUT OF MA... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THERE WAS GREAT JOY IN THAT CITY. Both on a spiritual account, for the good of their souls, through the preaching of Christ and his Gospel to them; and on a temporal account; for the good of their bodies, or their friends, being dispossessed of devils, and healed of their diseases.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THERE WAS A CERTAIN MAN CALLED SIMON,.... Who, as Justin Martyr f says, was a Samaritan, and of a village called Gitton; and so a Jewish writer g calls him Simeon, השמרוני, "the Samaritan", a wizard: here is a BUT upon this new church, the success of the Gospel in this place, and the joy that w... [ Continue Reading ]
TO WHOM THEY ALL GAVE HEED,.... Were not only attentive to the strange things he did, and to the wonderful things he gave out concerning himself; but they believed what he said and did as real things, and were obedient to him: and that FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST; which does not so much respect... [ Continue Reading ]
TO HIM THEY HAD REGARD,.... Which is repeated from the foregoing verse, for the sake of what follows: BECAUSE THAT OF A LONG TIME HE HAD BEWITCHED THEM WITH SORCERIES; or because he had, it may be for many years, astonished them with his magic arts, and the pranks he played in the use of them.... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT WHEN THEY BELIEVED PHILIP,.... Though they had been carried away so long with this deceiver, and had been so much attached unto him, and held in admiration of him; yet when Philip came and preached Christ unto them, such was the power that attended his ministry, and such the efficacy of divine g... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SIMON HIMSELF BELIEVED ALSO,.... With an historical and temporary faith, as that Jesus was the Messiah, c. or at least he pretended, to believe this, and professed that he did believe, what others did, and Philip preached: AND WHEN HE WAS BAPTIZED upon profession of his faith, which he so artf... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW WHEN THE APOSTLES WHICH WERE AT JERUSALEM,.... Not that there were some at Jerusalem, and some elsewhere; for they all tarried at Jerusalem, when the rest of the ministers of the word were scattered abroad; though it is possible, that by this time, some of them might have departed from hence; bu... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO WHEN THEY WERE COME DOWN,.... To the city of Samaria, where Philip was, and these converts dwelt: PRAYED FOR THEM; for some of them, unto God: THAT THEY MIGHT RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST; the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost, as to be able to speak with tongues, to prophesy and work miracles:... [ Continue Reading ]
(FOR AS YET HE WAS FALLEN UPON NONE OF THEM,.... They had received him as a spirit of illumination and sanctification, and as, a spirit of conversion and faith; they had been regenerated, enlightened, and sanctified by him; and were converted by him, and brought to believe in Christ, and live, by fa... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN LAID THEY THEIR HANDS ON THEM,.... The Ethiopic version adds, "who had been baptized"; but not upon all of them, men and women, only on some they were directed unto by the Spirit of God; whom he had designed, and now would qualify for the work of the ministry, that so this new church, might be... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN SIMON SAW,.... Whence it appears, that the Holy Ghost, or his gifts, which were received by imposition of hands, were something visible and discernible; and so something external, and not internal; otherwise they would have been out of Simon's reach, and would not have fallen under his noti... [ Continue Reading ]
SAYING, GIVE ME ALSO THIS POWER,.... He does not ask them to lay their hands on him, that he might receive the Holy Ghost, and have these gifts to exercise himself, but that he might have the power of conferring them on others: THAT ON WHOMSOEVER I LAY HANDS, HE MAY RECEIVE THE HOLY GHOST; in which... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT PETER SAID TO HIM,.... With great abhorrence and indignation, resenting and detesting his proposal: THY MONEY PERISH WITH THEE; or "go into destruction with thee"; signifying, that he would not touch his money, or have anything to do with that or him either, in any such way: the words do not so... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST NEITHER PART NOR LOT IN THIS MATTER,.... Or business of the gift of the Holy Ghost; signifying, that as he had not the grace of the Spirit of God implanted in him, so he should not have any of the gifts of the Spirit bestowed on him; and much less a power of communicating them to others, t... [ Continue Reading ]
REPENT THEREFORE OF THIS THY WICKEDNESS,.... For a great piece of wickedness it was, to offer money for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to imagine, that could be purchased with money; and what made the wickedness still greater was, the evil design he had in this, to advance himself in opposition to... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I PERCEIVE THAT THOU ART IN THE GALL OF BITTERNESS,.... Alluding to Deuteronomy 29:18 with which compare Hebrews 12:15 and signifying, that he was in a state of nature and unregeneracy; under the power and dominion of covetousness, ambition, and hypocrisy; and in a way pernicious to himself, inf... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN ANSWERED SIMON, AND SAID,.... Whose conscience might be touched, and smote with what Peter had said; and he might be terrified with the wrath of God, and filled with fear of his judgment coming upon him for his wickedness, and might now stand trembling before the apostles: and if this was not h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY, WHEN THEY HAD TESTIFIED, c. That is, Simeon (or Peter) and John, as the Syriac version expresses it when they had bore their testimony to, and by it confirmed the Gospel as preached by Philip, and had established the young converts in it, and against the errors of Simon Magus: AND PREACHE... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD SPAKE UNTO PHILIP,.... To inquire who this angel was, whether Michael or Gabriel, or the tutelar angel of Ethiopia, or of the eunuch, or of Philip, is too curious; it was one of the ministering spirits sent forth by Christ, to serve a gracious purpose of his, and for the go... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE AROSE AND WENT,.... As soon as he had his orders, he immediately obeyed them; he made no dispute about the matter, though he was directed only part of his way, and had no account of what he went about, or was to do; AND BEHOLD, A MAN OF ETHIOPIA; or "a man, an Ethiopian"; an Hebraism, such a... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS RETURNING,.... From Jerusalem, having finished the parts of divine worship he came to perform; and it is remarkable, that though he must doubtless have heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and what had passed in Jerusalem lately, and of his apostles, yet heard them not; or however, was not converted by t... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN THE SPIRIT SAID UNTO PHILIP,.... Not the angel, a ministering Spirit, as in Acts 8:26 but the Holy Spirit, as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions read, the same with the Spirit of the Lord, Acts 8:39 who spoke unto him, either by an articulative voice, such as was the Bath Kol among the Jews; or i... [ Continue Reading ]
AND PHILIP RAN THITHER TO HIM,.... Being very ready to obey the divine order, and hoping he might be an instrument of doing some good, which might issue in the glory of God, and the welfare of men: AND HEARD HIM READ THE PROPHET ESAIAS; that is, "the Book of Isaiah the Prophet"; as before; and so t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID, HOW CAN I, EXCEPT SOME MAN SHOULD GUIDE ME?.... Which shows that he was of an excellent spirit and temper; since instead of answering in a haughty and disdainful manner, as great men are too apt to do; and instead of charging Philip with, impertinence and insolence, in interrupting him... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PLACE OF THE SCRIPTURE WHICH HE READ WAS THIS,.... Or the paragraph or section of Scripture; that part of it in which he was reading was Isaiah 53:7 which shows, that by this time the Scriptures were divided into sections, Chapter s, and verses; whereas the Jews say the whole law at first was bu... [ Continue Reading ]
IN HIS HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY,.... The humiliation, or low estate of Christ, lay in his assumption of human nature, with the weaknesses and imperfections of it; in the meanness of his parentage and education; in the sorrows he endured from his cradle to his cross; in his last confli... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE EUNUCH ANSWERED PHILIP, AND SAID,.... After he had read the passage out, and Philip had put the question to him, whether he understood it; and after he had taken him up into his chariot to sit with him, and instruct him: I PRAY THEE, OF WHOM SPEAKEST THE PROPHET THIS? being desirous of know... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN PHILIP OPENED HIS MOUTH,.... With freedom and boldness, and spoke clearly and distinctly, and expounded the passage to him. This is a phrase frequently used in Jewish writings, especially in the book of Zohar e, when they give an account of this or the other Rabbi interpreting any place of Scri... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS THEY WENT ON THEIR WAY,.... In the road from Jerusalem to Gaza; Philip preaching, and the eunuch hearing, and conversing in a religious and spiritual way together; and Beza says in one exemplar it is added, "conferring one with another"; about the person and office of Christ, the doctrines of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND PHILIP SAID, IF THOU BELIEVEST WITH ALL THINE HEART, THOU MAYEST,.... Intimating, that if he did not believe, he had no right to that ordinance; though he was a proselyte to the Jewish religion, a serious and devout man, and was employed in a religious way, when Philip came up to him, and was ve... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE COMMANDED THE CHARIOT TO STAND STILL,.... That is, the eunuch ordered his chariot driver to stop; for to him it better agrees to give this order than to Philip; though otherwise the words are so placed, that it would be difficult to say who gave the command. AND THEY WENT DOWN BOTH INTO THE... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THEY WERE COME UP OUT OF THE WATER,.... Which is another circumstance, showing that baptism was then performed by immersion; with this compare Matthew 3:16 and so it is said of the high priest, when he washed himself on the day of atonement, ירד וטבל עלה, "he went down and dipped, and came... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT PHILIP WAS FOUND AT AZOTUS,.... The same with the Ashdod of the Philistines, famous for the temple of Dagon, 1 Samuel 5:1 where the Septuagint call it Azotus, as here: and so it is called in the Apocrypha: "Howbeit all the hindmost of them were slain with the sword: for they pursued them unto G... [ Continue Reading ]