Acts Eight
1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him. 3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. 4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city. 9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. 12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. 14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, 19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! 21 You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. 22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. 23 For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” 24 And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.” 25 Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. 26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8, ESV Bible)
And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. (Acts 8:1, ESV Bible)
Sha’ul Habinyamini
The witnesses against Stephen laid their outer coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. He protected his friends' belongings and watched with satisfaction as the stones fell upon Stephen. The Sanhedrin's condemnation of Stephen inspired Saul to stomp out the Yeshua sect. He knew Jerusalem's Greek-speaking community well, and he knew the names of those who belonged to the sect of the Nazarenes. Now that the Sanhedrin had officially acted against one of the sect's leaders, Saul had the strength of a case precedent behind him. He used it to instigate arrests, conduct interrogations, and press charges.
Saul was born in Tarsus, the chief city of Cilicia. Tarsus straddled the Cydnus River six miles from the Mediterranean. The city of Tarsus was a cultural center famous for its schools and university. In that respect, it rivaled even Athens and Alexandria.
According to the church father Jerome, Saul's family originally came from the Galilean village of Gischala, but they relocated to Tarsus under Roman occupation. They may have been relocated as slaves.
Saul's parents were Benjamite Jews. They named their son after King Saul (Sha'ul, Sixw), a man of Benjamin and Israel's first king.
While still living in Tarsus, Saul's family somehow obtained Roman citizenship, probably through manumission. Saul's forefathers may have originally come to Tarsus as slaves during the Hasmonean Period. If Saul's grandfather had been freed by a Roman citizen, his father might have received citizenship as a consequence. That possibility may also explain Saul's association with the Synagogue of the Freedmen in Jerusalem.
Although Tarsus was a center of Greek learning, Saul did not receive a classical education there. His proud Benjamite parents were devoutly Jewish. When the family was still young, Saul's father relocated them to Jerusalem, where he affiliated himself with the Pharisaic party. Saul's sister married in Jerusalem; Saul himself began formal education in Torah. As soon as Saul was of age, his father recommended him to Rabban Gamliel (Acts 22:3, 23:6, 23:16). The wise sage recognized Saul's great potential and accepted him into his large school of disciples. Saul quickly distinguished himself as a protégé. He later recalled, "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions" (Galatians I:I4).
Saul continued to congregate within Jerusalem's Greek-speaking community, but at the same time, his education under Gamliel immersed him in Hebrew and Aramaic. He seems to have been fluent in all three languages. His rabbinic training shines through in his writings. He also learned Greek literature. Gamliel encouraged his disciples to become conversant with Greek literature so that, as members of the Sanhedrin, they would be better equipped to deal with the Roman government.
As a star student of Jerusalem's most prominent sage, Saul had access to the Sanhedrin. At times, he seems to have taken a seat among the seventy who cast a vote (Acts 26:10). If so, he had the first-century equivalent of rabbinic ordination. He was well on his way to becoming a great sage. He must have once been married. The Pharisees encouraged early marriage, and an unmarried man was unlikely to achieve such a prominent position. A man without a son could not vote on the Sanhedrin.
He supported himself as a textile worker-a "tent-maker." The city of Tarsus had a tent-making industry and a large textile guild. The word tarsi came to be synonymous with "weaver." Saul's father may have belonged to the guild in Tarsus and brought the skills with him to set up shop in Jerusalem. He could have apprenticed his son in the tent-making trade.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. (Acts 8:3, ESV Bible)
The First Persecution
The stoning of Stephen gave Annas, Caiaphas, and the Sadducean party a chance to save face by declaring the Yeshua movement heretical. Stephen's alleged admission of heresy granted them grounds for moving against the believers. The Nazarenes denounced the priestly aristocracy for the execution of Yeshua. "You intend to bring this man's blood upon us," Caiaphas said to the apostles (Acts 5:28).
The Nazarenes were a thorn in the side of all the Sadducees. As long as the believers touted their resurrected leader and performed miracles in His name, they lent credence to the doctrines of the Pharisees. The Sanhedrin's condemnation of Stephen gave Caiaphas and his colleagues the permission they needed to condemn the believers and begin a public campaign against them.
Saul the Pharisee volunteered to join the effort. He and his associates were more than willing to carry out the police work on behalf of the Sanhedrin. They spearheaded a fierce persecution against the believers. They went from house to house, making arrests, primarily among the Greek-speaking disciples with whom they were familiar. The "Hebrews" and the Twelve were not specifically targeted, perhaps because Saul and his friends were not personally acquainted with them and that side of the Yeshua community. Luke reports that, although a large number of disciples fled, the apostles remained in Jerusalem through the persecution.
Saul had a personal vendetta against the believers. His spite for the Nazarenes compelled him to cross party lines in defiance of his teacher, Rabban Gamliel. Whereas Gamliel had warned the Sanhedrin to let the believers alone to flourish or fade according to God's will, Saul sought to actively exterminate them. He conspired with Gamliel's chief religious and political opponent, the high priest Caiaphas: He "went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem" (Acts 9:I-2).
The persecution he led in Jerusalem was sudden, intense, and unanticipated. It came with informants, arrests, imprisonments, interrogations, floggings, and all of the typical flavors of systematic persecution. A panic spread through the Yeshua community. The brothers and sisters fled from Jerusalem, scattering throughout Judea and Samaria and into the Galilee.
With the help of officers from the high priest, Saul personally dragged off men and women, putting them in prison. He intended to have them each stand trial as Stephen had done.
In some cases, his victims did receive the death sentence. He later recounted, "I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify" (Acts 22:4-5). According to Hippolytus of Rome, Stephen's friend and colleague, the deacon Nicanor, met the same fate as Stephen: "Nicanor died when Stephen was martyred."
Those who had been scattered preached the message about Yeshua and the kingdom wherever they went. Most stayed within Judea. Some, no doubt, fled to the Galilee, where Yeshua had ministered. The Greek-speaking disciples might have found safe refuge in the Jewish quarters of the Decapolis cities. Some fled to Damascus. A large number fled to the large Jewish population residing in Antioch. In all of these places, the good news took root. The number of disciples increased.
Despite the mass arrests and flight from Jerusalem, the general harassment seems short-lived. That the apostles were not dislodged from Jerusalem indicates that the persecution lost momentum before it had spread beyond the Greek-speaking community. The Sanhedrin could not be expected to stone several thousand people. Some received not more than a flogging, most were simply released with a warning.
Within a short time, the Jerusalem community returned to the status quo. Only Saul continued to press the persecution, as Luke says, "Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Master" (Acts 9:1). He continued his campaign even after the general persecution associated with Stephen had subsided.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
The Three Pillars
In his Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius narrates the appointment of James, the brother of Yeshua, immediately after the death of Stephen: "Then James, whom the ancients surnamed James the Righteous because of his exceeding piety, is recorded to have been the first to be made bishop of the church of Jerusalem" (Ecclesiastical History 2.1.2). Eusebius goes on to quote from a lost work of Clement of Alexandria:
Though honored as first by the Master, Peter and James and John did not contend for glory after the Savior's ascension but made James the Righteous, bishop of Jerusalem. (Ecclesiastical History 2.1.3 quoting Clement, Hypotyposes)
As the younger brother of the Master and the oldest of His remaining siblings, James naturally represented the family of Yeshua and, therefore, the monarchy of the house of David. The family of the Master looked to James as the head of household and the steward holding the throne of David until the Master's return.
The twelve disciples also respected James for his wisdom, piety, and great righteousness. They deferred to him out of respect for the Master. According to one early tradition, Yeshua appointed his younger brother James over the community prior to His ascension:
The disciples said to Jesus, "We know that you will depart from us. Who is to be our leader?" Jesus said to them, "Wherever you are, you are to go to James the Righteous, for whose sake heaven and earth came into being." (Gospel of Thomas 12)
James the Righteous, Simon Peter, and John the son of Zebedee formed a triumvirate-a high court of three-over the entire assembly. Paul referred to them as the reputed pillars of the assembly of Messiah (Galatians 2:9). Each had a specific role. James represented the family of the Master. Simon Peter ranked as first among the Twelve, head over the Master's school of disciples. John, the son of Zebedee, the beloved disciple and an adopted son of the Master's mother, Mary, stood in the unique position of representing the interests of both the family of Yeshua and His school of disciples. James occupied the highest position in the triumvirate.
Clement of Alexandria states that Yeshua designated the three pillars after the resurrection:
After his resurrection, the Master imparted knowledge to James the Righteous and to John and Peter, and they imparted it to the rest of the [twelve] apostles, the rest of the apostles to the seventy. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.1.4 quoting Clement, Hypotyposes)
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. (Acts 8:5, ESV Bible)
Pilippos in Shomron
Philip was a Greek-speaking Jew, one of the seven deacons chosen by the disciples to oversee the community. After the deaths of Stephen and Nicanor, Philip realized that Saul was hunting down the seven Greek-speaking community leaders. He left Jerusalem and traveled to the villages of Samaria. It was a smart move. Neither Saul nor the Sanhedrin had any jurisdiction over Samaria. The Samaritan town provided him a safe refuge only two days' travel from Jerusalem. In Samaria, Philip could stay near the Jerusalem community while living among a Torah-based people, even if they were Samaritans.
Yeshua had demonstrated an openness to the Samaritans that disquieted even his closest disciples. Yeshua once stayed in the Samaritan village of Sychar for two days. He compared the Samaritan people to fields "white for harvest" (John 4:35). Many of the Samaritans in that place came to believe in Him as the "Savior of the world" (John 4:42).
Taking his cue from the Master, Philip began to proclaim the good news of Messiah among the Samaritan people. The Samaritans did believe in a coming messianic figure. They interpreted the prophecy of a coming prophet like Moses (Deuteronomy I8:15, 18) as a promise of a coming one, the Taheb, which means "He Who Restores."
Philip was "full of the Spirit and of wisdom" (Acts 6:3). The LORD honored Philip's efforts by enabling him to perform miraculous signs among the Samaritans. In the name of the Master, Philip cast unclean spirits from many. Surprised by the presence of the apostle in Samaria, the unclean spirits went out shrieking in terror. As Yeshua had done, Philip healed paralytics and cripples. The Samaritans of that city rejoiced at the things Philip did in their midst.
Philip proclaimed "the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Yeshua the Messiah" (Acts 8:12), and he immersed both men and women under the authority of the name of Yeshua. The people of Samaria heard the message, "Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Believe in Yeshua, the crucified and risen one from Nazareth, for the forgiveness of sins."
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. (Acts 8:9, ESV Bible)
Shim’on Magus
In that city, a Samaritan sorcerer named Simon practiced forbidden occult arts. Church writers remembered him as Simon Magus, that is, Simon the Magician.
In those days, sorcerers and magicians abounded, especially among the Gentiles. The ancient world considered magic as one of the sciences. Occult arts went hand in hand with the pagan worldview. For example, Emperor Tiberius kept a host of magicians on retainer.
Sorcerers employed the power of evil spirits to perform signs and wonders and cast spells. For a price, a sorcerer might be hired to formulate a curse on one's enemy or cast a love spell on the object of one's affections.
First-century sorcerers offered fortune-telling, prophecies, and predictions. They summoned spirits and inspired fear in the common people. Irenaeus describes the magic practiced by Simon's followers:
They use exorcisms, incantations, love-potions, charms, as well as employing beings called "Paredri" (familiar spirits) and "Oniropompi" (dream spirits), and they eagerly employ into their service any other peculiar arts that can be practiced. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.23.4)
Luke does not question the authenticity of Simon's magical powers, but he regarded them as Satanic. Aside from all the magic and sorcery, Simon was also a Samaritan, well-versed in the Scriptures. He passed himself off in Samaria as "someone great." He developed his own twisted interpretations of the Scriptures along proto-Gnostic lines. Some say he had studied philosophy in Alexandria. He was able to merge a variety of religious and philosophical ideas, and he astonished people with his theosophy. He also astonished them with his magical powers. From "the smallest to the greatest," all the Samaritans heeded Simon. He enjoyed such notoriety among the Samaritans that they referred to him as "the Great Power of God."
When Simon Magus saw the "signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed." Simon Magus placed his faith in the new magic of signs and wonders, not true repentance or the person of Messiah. He underwent an immersion with all the others, but he sought only to master the new tricks.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, (Acts 8:14, ESV Bible)
Apostolic Inquiry
Word of Philip's ministry among the Samaritans soon came back to the Jerusalem community. James and the Twelve met to consider the issue. Should Samaritans be accepted into the school of discipleship as Samaritans, or should they be required to undergo conversion to become legally Jewish? The Twelve remembered that, before His ascension, the Master had said, "You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts :8). They recalled that the Master had also ministered among the Samaritan people. They decided to send an official inquiry to verify the reports and investigate the question. They sent two of the three pillars: Simon Peter and John.
Traveling north through Samaria, Simon and John must have remembered the occasions they had walked that same road with the Master. They recalled the encounter with the woman at the well, the Master's sojourn at Sychar, the incident with the grateful Samaritan leper, and the occasion when John and his brother James asked permission to call divine fire down upon a Samaritan village to punish them for inhospitality. They might have recalled the parable of the good Samaritan or the time when the Master had referred to the Samaritan people as fields "white for harvest."
Now they came to bring in the harvest and to call fire down on the Samaritan villages, albeit a different kind of fire altogether. They arrived in the Samaritan village where Philip was at work and found all the evidence of genuine repentance and allegiance to the Master. They saw men and women, albeit Samaritan men and women, confessing the name of Yeshua and expressing allegiance to Him.
Luke says that the Holy Spirit "had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been immersed in the name of the Master Yeshua." Simon Peter and John remedied this by praying for the Samaritan people that they, too, might receive the Holy Spirit, just as the Jewish believers had received it at Shavu'ot. Then, they laid hands upon them, using their apostolic authority to accept the Samaritans into the school of the Master's disciples. The LORD took of the Spirit who was upon them and put it upon the Samaritans.
The Samaritans received the Holy Spirit, apparently with the same manifest signs that accompanied the pouring out of the Spirit in Acts 2. When the apostles saw the Spirit on the Samaritans, they knew that God had received them and approved of them.
The conferment of the Holy Spirit to the Samaritan believers is sometimes cited to argue for a two-phase conversion process. A person first confesses allegiance to Yeshua and is immersed in His name for the forgiveness of sins, and then, at a later time perhaps, must undergo a "baptism of the Holy Spirit," that is, a supernatural sacrament separate from confession of faith and immersion into Messiah. That may be the case, but if it is, Luke did not know about it. Instead, Luke reports three distinct outpourings of the Holy Spirit, and these correspond to the three types of people impacted by the gospel.
The pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon I) Jews, 2) Samaritans, and 3) Gentiles represents three concentric spheres of outreach. Yeshua declared these three broadening spheres in the first chapter of Acts:
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all [I] Judea and [2] Samaria, and to [3] the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
With each consecutive movement of the Spirit, Luke depicts a progression from the strict locus of ethnocentric Judaism to the wider sphere of larger Israel (Samaritans were half-blood Israelites) and finally to the whole world. The three outpourings of the Holy Spirit indicated to the apostolic community that God received the Samaritans and the Gentiles into the kingdom. They were not individual encounters with the Spirit (as in Acts 9:17), repeated with the same signs and wonders each time a new believer was added to the fold; rather, they were demonstrations that the Spirit had moved upon an entire people group.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:17, ESV Bible)
Shim’on Verses Shim’on
The pouring out of the Spirit upon the Samaritan believers indicated to the apostles that God would accept the Samaritan believers through Yeshua, and it forced them to begin thinking of the gospel in more universal terms. As is often the case with the superstitious, Simon Magus misunderstood the event and regarded the Spirit as a magical power to be acquired. To him, it appeared as fantastic signs, wonders, and spiritual gifts. He was a purveyor of signs and wonders, and this looked like a new avenue to glorified magical tricks-more tricks for his bag of tricks. He sought power, not holiness. He approached Simon Peter and John and attempted to purchase from them the secret to conveying the Spirit through laying on of hands. The apostles were not amused.
Based upon this story, later writers employed Simon's name to indicate the crime of buying or selling a spiritual office for a price in money-the sin of "simony." Simon Peter rebuked the superstitious miracle worker with a withering curse, "May your money perish with you." He told the magician that the gift of God cannot be purchased. He warned him to repent: "For your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you" (Acts 8:20-22).
Simon Peter's curse terrified the magician, and he begged the apostle to revoke it. He said, "Pray to the LORD for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me" (Acts 8:24). Nevertheless, he did not repent, and so far as we know, the apostles did not revoke the curse.
According to early churchmen, Simon Magus did not repent but went on to apply himself to the study of magic and sorcery all the more fervently:
He did not put faith in God a bit more. He set himself all the more eagerly to compete against the apostles, in order that he himself might appear as a divine being [to others]. He applied himself with still greater zeal to the study of the art of all magic so that he might better confound and overpower the multitudes of men. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.23.1)
Simon Peter had not seen the last of Simon Magus. Beyond the narratives of the book of Acts, Simon Magus went on to create mischief and havoc. He masqueraded as the son of God and raised a sect of followers who called themselves Simonians. The early church fathers considered Simon Magus as the father of all heresies. Irenaeus blamed his followers for the birth of Gnostic Christianity: "From them knowledge (gnosticism), falsely so called, received its beginning, as one may learn even from their own claims" (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 1.23).
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
25 Now when they had testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel to many villages of the Samaritans. (Acts 8:25, ESV Bible)
Yochanan and Petros Return
While in Philip's hideout in Samaria, Simon Peter and John "solemnly testified" and proclaimed "the word of the Lord." The expression, "solemnly testified," means that they gave testimony regarding the resurrection of Yeshua. They were eyewitnesses to the risen Yeshua, and He charged them as His sent ones and witnesses. Proclaiming the "word of the Lord" means proclaiming the Master's core teaching, the proclamation of His good news: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Having accomplished both their missions and having seen God's seal of approval on the Samaritan believers through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the two apostles turned south to return to Jerusalem. As they went, they stopped at each village along the way and proclaimed the good news of the gospel. They had not done so on their way into Samaria. They did not begin to propagate the message among the Samaritans until they had seen proof that the LORD accepted the Samaritan believers.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8:27, ESV Bible)
The Kushi
Sometime after Simon Peter and John left Philip, an "angel of the LORD" appeared to him in Samaria and instructed him to depart as well. The angel said, "Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." While descending from Jerusalem through the Rephaim Valley or perhaps before he reached the Elah Valley, where David defeated Goliath, Philip was overtaken and passed by an Ethiopian chariot. Again, the LORD spoke to Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
An important official from the court of Candace, the queen of Ethiopia, rode in the chariot.
Ethiopia is biblical Cush, the land south of Egypt inhabited by the sons of Ham. Rabbinic literature often speaks of the dark-skinned Cushites. In Luke's day, Ethiopia referred to the Nubian kingdom, whose capital is Meroe, south of Egypt, which is today part of Sudan.
Luke tells the story of the encounter with the Ethiopian to illustrate how the gospel message began to penetrate "even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts I:8). The psalmist says, "Envoys will come out of Egypt; Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God" (Psalm 68:32[31]).
The Ethiopian eunuch is sometimes considered the first Gentile convert. That seems unlikely. Luke says nothing to indicate the man is not Jewish as he does regarding Cornelius in Acts 10. Ethiopia was home to a continuous Jewish presence from the days of Solomon up until the modern era. Beta Israel Jews, also known as Ethiopian Jews, claim Jewish ancestry reaching back to the Solomonic Era. One may safely assume that an Ethiopian who went to the trouble of making a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship the LORD in His Temple was Jewish. Luke says, "He had come to Jerusalem to worship" (Acts 8:27). The eunuch had traveled a great distance to reach Jerusalem, more than a month's travel time. He had probably come to attend one of the pilgrimage festivals. While in Jerusalem, he purchased several Greek versions of the scrolls of the prophets-reading material for the trip home.
As a eunuch, his participation in the festival was limited. Deuteronomy 23:1 excludes eunuchs from the assembly in the Temple. The term "eunuch" can mean simply a court official, but it normally refers to a castrated man. It was common practice in the ancient Near East to castrate slaves and officials who had duties in close contact with the women of a royal house.
This man served the royal queen-mother Candace as her chief financial officer. Candace is not a personal name. The queen-mothers of Ethiopia took the name "Candace" as an enthronement name. The Ethiopians venerated their king as a child of the sun. They regarded him as too holy for politics. The king's mother, The Candace, attended to the administration of the government.
The story of Philip's encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch conforms to a well-known pattern in rabbinic writings. Jewish sources sometimes frame a mystical discourse within a short travel narrative on the principle that when righteous men journey together, they busy themselves with expositions of Torah. This is to fulfill the commandment, "You shall talk of them ... when you walk by the way" (Deuteronomy 6:7). Typically, two or more rabbis are traveling to a certain place when one begins to expound upon a deep, esoteric subject. In other cases, two or three sages are walking to a certain village or city when they encounter a stranger who begins to discuss mystical interpretations of the Torah with them. The short narrative introduction that frames the discourse often names the destination and the travelers before launching into the subject matter. The mysterious stranger opens new, esoteric explanations of the passage under discussion. The travelers express their astonishment and gratitude for the new insights. In several of the stories, the mysterious stranger inexplicably vanishes at that point.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. (Acts 8:30-31, ESV Bible)
The Scroll of Yeshayah
As Philip ran up alongside the chariot, he heard the man reading aloud from the Greek text of the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. In those days, most people did not read silently. When reading a text, a person read out loud. As a member of the royal court, the eunuch knew Greek, the lingua franca of the Roman world and beyond. Philip heard him reading and recognized the passage. The eunuch was reading the Suffering Servant passage of Isaiah 53.
The Greek-speaking Philip inquired, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The eunuch replied, "Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?" The prophecies of Isaiah are not light reading material. He accepted Philip's offer to serve as interpreter, and he invited him to share the chariot ride.
Luke quotes only a few verses from Isaiah 53, but he implies that they studied the broader passage of Isaiah 52:13-53:12. Luke's brief quotation of the passage (53:7-8) follows the Septuagint version closely.
The famous Suffering Servant passage describes how the anointed Servant of the LORD must undergo painful suffering and chastisement on behalf of the nation of Israel. The apostles interpreted the passage in light of Yeshua's suffering.
As Philip and the Ethiopian learned the words of Isaiah together, the Ethiopian asked Philip, "Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?" Christianity and Judaism have contended over the identity of Isaiah's "Servant of the LORD" since the first recorded debate between a Christian and a Jew: Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho. Christians identify the Suffering Servant as the Messiah, whereas many Jewish commentaries identify the Suffering Servant as a personification for the entire nation of Israel. A few interpretations, as the eunuch suggests, even identify the Suffering Servant as Isaiah himself. The oldest Jewish interpretations, however, see the passage as messianic. In the days of the apostles (and even in the rabbinic era), conventional Jewish interpretation understood the Suffering Servant as the Messiah:
Behold, my servant, the Messiah shall prosper, he shall be exalted, and increase, and be very strong. (Isaiah 52:13, Targum Yonatan)
Beginning with that very passage of Scripture, Philip told the eunuch the good news about Yeshua. He described to him how Yeshua had suffered and been crucified, fulfilling the prophecy. He explained how the suffering of the righteous Messiah provided atonement for the nations and how those who repented from sin and confessed faith and allegiance in the risen Messiah could experience the forgiveness of sins and enter into the kingdom of heaven. He described the immersion of repentance in the name of Yeshua, and he explained how the disciples of Yeshua received the promised Holy Spirit as a pledge of the coming Messianic Era.
As Philip explained the words of Isaiah and the good news about Yeshua, the Ethiopian felt his heart burning hot within him. Convinced by Philip's message, he declared his desire to immerse in the name of Yeshua. Just then, the chariot pulled alongside a pool fed by a natural spring of water. Longstanding church tradition identifies a spring along the route just north of Hebron where the Ethiopian said, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being immersed?"
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
"And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he replied, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’" (Acts 8:37, ESV Bible)
Immersion of Kushi Man
According to some manuscripts (Western Text), Philip did not acquiesce to the man's request until he made a confession of faith. Acts 8:37 is not found in the earliest and most reliable Greek manuscripts, such as Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus. The verse is present in later manuscripts, such as those from the Western text tradition (e.g., Codex Bezae), but these are generally considered less reliable by textual critics.
The confession in Acts 8:37 echoes the words of Simon Peter, who, in answer to the Master's query, "Who do you say that I am," replied, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16).
The Ethiopian ordered his driver to stop the chariot. As a Jew, the Ethiopian was already familiar with ritual immersion. He and Philip stepped down into the water. In the Jewish mode of immersion, a person immersed himself. Philip functioned as the witness to the immersion. The Ethiopian man waded into the water, and then, in the name of Yeshua of Nazareth, he plunged himself below the water with three consecutive dunks.
Dripping wet and gasping, the Ethiopian turned to thank his traveling companion, but Philip had mysteriously vanished. Irenaeus explains that Philip vanished because his mission was accomplished:
Immediately when Philip had immersed him he departed from him. The man needed nothing other than immersion since he had already been instructed in the Prophets. He was not ignorant of God the Father, nor of the commandments [of Torah] dictating a proper life. He was merely ignorant of the advent of the Son of God, which he learned in a short space of time, and then went on his way rejoicing to be the herald of Christ's advent in Ethiopia. Philip had no great difficulty to undergo in educating the man because he was already prepared in the fear of God through the Prophets. (Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.12.8)
Rejoicing, the eunuch returned to his chariot and drove on alone. He carried with him the gospel of the kingdom of heaven and proclaimed Messiah in his own country. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church traces its origin back to the Ethiopian eunuch.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.
40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. (Acts 8:40, ESV Bible)
Translation of Pilippos
The LORD translated Philip to Ashdod. Translation is the phenomenon of being caught up by the Spirit of the LORD and more or less teleported from one location to another. The experience befell Elijah from time to time (I Kings 18:12; 2 Kings 2:16; cf. Ezekiel 3:14, 8:3). Apocalyptic literature is based on the premise. Chasidic literature attests to it as well. An apocryphal version of the Daniel story has it that the Prophet Habakkuk once carried some food to some reapers in Judea when an angel snatched him up by his side locks, carried him to Babylon, and deposited him in the lion's den with Daniel. He gave the food to Daniel, and then the angel caught up Habakkuk by his hair again and flew him back to Judea. Likewise, the apocryphal Gospel of the Hebrews contained a passage in which Yeshua said, "Just now my mother the Holy Spirit took me by one of my hairs and carried me away to the great mount of Tabor."
Whether or not the Spirit carried Philip away by his hair, Luke tells us only that he reappeared in the city of Azotus, that is, the ancient city of Ashdod, twenty miles up the coast from Gaza. From there he traveled along the coast, preaching the good news in all the cities as he went. The next city he passed through after Azotus was the city of Yavneh, the future home of the Sanhedrin. He may have visited Lydda and Joppa. Finally, Philip reached the Hellenist city of Caesarea-the Roman capital of Judea. He settled into the Jewish community of that city. His family joined him there, and he raised four daughters.
References
This lesson is adapted from Daniel Lancaster's teachings in The Sent Ones, as presented by First Fruits of Zion for the Torah Club.