Chapter 8 divides into three parts – 1-4 Troubles without: the church scattered; 5-25 Reaching out: Philip and Samaria; 26-40 Reaching out: Philip and the eunuch.
Troubles without: the church scattered, 1-4
Verse 1: “And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judæa and Samaria, except the apostles.” Acts 11:19 calls this “the persecution that arose about Stephen.” “Judæa and Samaria,” two regions mentioned in Acts 1:8: “witnesses unto me…in all Judæa, and in Samaria…” “Acts 1:8 didn’t happen till Acts 8:1 happened.”[1]
Verse 2: the burial of Stephen by a kind act of devout persons in the church, even in the midst of persecution. Compare Acts 5:6, 10. The death of Stephen brings much lamentation. Lamentation (κοπετον) is passionate expression of grief or sorrow, sometimes accompanied with physical expressions such as beating of the breast (cf. Genesis 50:10; Jeremiah 6:26; Amos 5:16).
Verse 3: Saul, abruptly introduced in 7:58 and “consenting unto” the death of Stephen, emerges as the principal party in the persecution of the church. He entered houses and took Christians forcibly to prison. “Hale” means “drag or draw forcibly.”[2] Surprisingly, the person who emerges as the leading persecutor of Christians was a disciple of the leader who advised caution in dealing with them. Compare Acts 22:3 with Acts 5:34-39.
Verse 4: in consequence of the persecution, the church was scattered but not stopped. As the persecution intensified, they “went every where preaching the word.” The persecution changed their situation and location but not their message.
Reaching out: Philip and Samaria, 5-25
Direction
through persecution and scattering
Verses 5-25: Luke provides an example of the scattered church preaching the gospel, first Philip and then the apostles in the city of Samaria.
“Although we might be tempted to see in the mission to Samaria the church’s first attempt to evangelize Gentiles, this would be a wrong interpretation. To the Jews the Samaritans were not Gentiles but schismatics, part of the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ For Luke they were people who kept the law and showed a greater piety than many Jews (Luke 10:33-37; 17:11-19)...” Nevertheless, ‘the overcoming of the hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans...may be seen as a step towards the greater problem of bringing Jews and Gentiles together.’”[3]
Verses 5-8: The
success of Philip. Via the scattering, “Philip went down to the city of
Samaria, and preached Christ unto them.” He preached the gospel, and performed
miracles (v. 6). The miracles included casting out unclean spirits, and healing
those “with palsies, and that were lame.”[4] As
in the case of Stephen (Acts 6:8), not only the apostles, but also one of the
seven performs miracles. The people of Samaria “gave heed unto those things
which Philip spake” which brought great joy.
[2] Συρω/συρων (haling) is the word used of the disciples dragging their nets (John 21:8) and the dragon drawing a third of the stars of heaven (Revelation 12:4). See also Acts 14:19 and 17:6.
[3] Acts: an Introduction and Commentary, I. Howard Marshall, p. 162.
[4] Palsy seems to be a general debilitating condition of incapacity or helplessness. Cf. Luke 5:18-24; Acts 9:33; and Hebrews 12:12.
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