Acts 8

      18, 19. When Simon saw . . . he offered them money. Uninstructed in the lofty spirit of the gospel, ambitious to possess this power peculiar to the apostles, he is sordid enough to offer money for it. His sin was not that he aspired to this power, but that he sought to buy it. He had very crude conceptions of the spirit of Christianity. It is not stated, but it is easy to infer, that he was not one of those upon whom the apostles had bestowed the divine gift.

      20-24. Peter said. Peter's outburst of indignation is characteristic. Thy money perish with thee. Not an anathema, but the statement of a fact, unless he repents. Because thou hast thought. Observe that, in Peter's rebukes, the thought is, not that he has never been converted, but that he has now committed an awful sin. It is one sin, not his sins, that stands out in every sentence. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter. In these gifts of the Holy Spirit. He can neither receive them, nor impart them. Perhaps salvation is also included. For thy heart is not right. This offer to purchase the gift of God shows that it was not. Because it is not, he can have no part nor lot, etc. Repent, therefore, of this. Observe that Peter does not bid him to repent of his sins, but of this one great sin. If perhaps the thought of thine heart. This one sin is so great that Peter seems doubtful whether it will be forgiven, even on repentance and prayer. For I perceive that thou art. His great sin had brought him into the state now described. Gall of bitterness. The gall of reptiles was considered by ancients the source of their venom. The expression would denote moral corruption. Bond of iniquity. Bound by iniquity. Pray ye to the Lord for me. Simon's language indicates that he was terror-stricken and perhaps deeply touched. The sacred record is silent concerning his future career. Whether he repented or relapsed into his old life is conjecture. Tradition insists that he pursued the latter course.

      25. When they had testified. Peter and John did not return until they preached in many Samaritan villages.

      26. The angel of the Lord spake unto Philip. In some way he was supernaturally directed to go far south of Samaria to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza for his next work. Gaza. An old Philistine city, on the sea-coast plain in southwest Palestine. It was taken by Alexander the Great, and had endured many sieges, but is still a town of 15,000 or 16,000 inhabitants.

      27. A man of Ethiopia. The term is applied to that portion of Africa which lies south of Egypt. A eunuch of great authority. This mutilated class of men often rose to great power in Oriental countries. This one was the royal treasurer. Under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. Candace had her seat of power on the island of Meroe, a large island of the Nile, about a thousand miles from the mouth of the river. The name Candace seems to have belonged to several queens of this kingdom. It is still seen inscribed on the ruined palace walls of Meroe. Come to Jerusalem for to worship. He was probably a proselyte to the Jewish faith. His long journey, his study of Scripture, and his ready hearing all indicate a believer in Jehovah, a devout man, and one seeking for the Christ.

      28. Was returning and . . . reading. Reading aloud in the Oriental manner. Perhaps he had heard at Jerusalem of Jesus and the Christians. At any rate, he was reading in Isaiah a prophecy of Christ.

      29, 30. The Spirit said. How we are not told. Philip promptly obeyed, ran to the chariot, listened and heard what he read, and then asked his question, the result of which was that he was asked to take his place in the chariot to explain the Scripture.

      32, 33. The place of the scripture . . . was this. See Isaiah 53:7 Isaiah 53:8 . The whole chapter is a wonderful delineation of the sufferings of Christ. Philip found Christ in the text, and from it he preached to him Jesus. Led as a sheep. Unresisting. Opened he not his mouth. Made no defence. His judgment was taken away. Justice was trampled under foot. Who shall declare his generation? Meyer, De Wette, Robinson and Hackett all agree that this refers to portraying the wickedness of the generation which slew him. Others insist that it means Christ's spiritual posterity, his followers.

      34, 35. Of whom speaketh the prophet? This gave Philip the opportunity of preaching Jesus. He showed the prophecies of the Messiah, that it behooved him to suffer, die, and rise again, and that he commanded his gospel to be preached and believers to be baptized in his name. That the eunuch calls for baptism, shows that in preaching Jesus Philip preached the rite.

      36. They came to a certain water. The locality of the baptism is not certain. There are several roads from Jerusalem to Gaza. The one by Hebron is through "desert" more than the others. Eusebius and Jerome state that the baptism occurred at a perennial stream, coming from a fountain at Bethsur, not far from Hebron. Robinson places the baptism not far from Gaza, at the old site of Eglon. See. The Greek is, "Behold! Water!" As if his soul was filled with joy that he could obey. What doth hinder me? Nothing, if he was a believer and the means were at hand.

      37. If thou believest, etc.? This verse is omitted in the Revision. It is not found in the oldest extant manuscripts, but was certainly in manuscripts older than any now extant. It is referred to by Irenæus in the second century, and by Augustine in the fourth. Whether written by Luke or not, it shows that the custom of the early church was to require such a confession of faith. With all thine heart. A living faith must seize upon and control the heart.

      38. They both went down into the water. "The original undoubtedly implies a going, not to, but into, the water."--Abbott. "No sufficient reason can be given why the parties went down into the water, but for the sake of the immersion of the new convert."--Ripley.

      39, 40. When they were come up out of the water. They did not go to and come away from the water, but they went, "both Philip and the eunuch," down into (Greek, eis) and came up out of (Greek, ek) the water. The Spirit . . . caught away Philip. Led him to depart abruptly. He was snatched away. Went on his way rejoicing. In his new-found Savior. But Philip was found at Azotus. The old Philistine city of Ashdod, near the sea-coast, between Gaza and Joppa. It is now a ruin. Here he preached in all the sea-coast cities, probably founding churches (see Acts 9:32 Acts 9:36 ), till he came to Cæsarea, the seaport northwest of Jerusalem, the Roman capital of Judea. We are not told how soon he reached Cæsarea. It may have been months or years. At any rate, it is likely that it did not take place until after Peter's missionary work there. Many years later we find Philip living in this city ( Acts 21:8 ).