The solution may be very simple. We view people in terms of how they affect us, not in terms of how we might help them. "8 As a citizen of Rome himself for many years before his martyrdom,9 Justin should be a reliable source, but the position of many scholars today is that either Justin or his informants misread the inscription on a statue to a deity worshiped by an ancient Italic tribe.10 In any case, other ancient writers agree that Simon went to Rome and won many followers to his cult. 8). The word "found" is a strange choice if he had not previously been lost: that is, absent from anyone’s sight. Such information would be insulting to the reader if Philip merely walked into the distance. cap. That he would come up, and sit with him - So earnestly desirous was he to receive instruction relative to those things which concerned the welfare of his soul. If he was truly a eunuch, why did he so trouble himself as to devote many weeks to a long journey that would end in certain frustration of his purpose? Finding the new version too difficult to understand? Afterward, believers were scattered throughout Palestine. It is found in E, several others of minor importance, and in the Vulgate and Arabic. Augusta, in compliment to the Emperor Augustus, as Josephus tells us, Ant. But what a sorcerer can do is pretty unimpressive compared with what any humble believer can do through the power of prayer. According to early Christian writers, he continued to practice magic after his supposed conversion and founded a sect combining Christian and pagan elements. It is God who employs him, and requires of him implicit obedience. In about 720 BC, the mighty Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom and carried many of its people into captivity. What was Simon's reaction to the giving of the Holy Spirit? God had prepared both Philip ( Acts 8:29) and the eunuch ( Acts 8:30) for their especially important conversation. Therefore, it is highly inferior to TR. As soon as Philip was done teaching him, he announced that he wanted to be baptized. To impress on him the great wickedness of his proposal, Peter reproved him for thinking that "the gift of God may be purchased with money." On the word lot see the note, Leviticus 16:8, Leviticus 16:9; and Joshua 14:2. But it was only the beginning of trouble. In our Saviour's time the boundaries of the known land, southward, were Raptam or Prassum; which were the uttermost parts of the known earth, and were with great propriety so styled by our Lord. Acts 8:14-17 poses a real problem if you think the church, the Body of Christ, began with the appearance of the Holy Ghost outpouring at Pentecost. As we go through our day, we stick to our own agenda, forgetting God's agenda. It seems outside the realm of possibility that a man of his background could read a manuscript written in Hebrew. With no less than three conversion stories in this unit, one has to wonder in what way four little verses in the midst of such a monumental shift in the mission of the Gospel might have some … Continue reading "Commentary on Acts 8:14-17" "13 Jerusalem is probably where Philip received this command. As we seek to fit Acts 8 into a reasonable scheme of chronology for the whole book, an important consideration is that the stream where Philip baptized the eunuch must have been carrying sufficient water. This is also strictly true of the doctrines contained in his word: no soul ever missed salvation that simply followed the directions given in the word of God. Acts 8:37 is missing from many of the Byzantine manuscripts as well as from all of the Alexandrian.38 Thus, should we retain it in modern versions of the Book of Acts? They certainly did not believe him to be God; but they thought him to be endued with a great supernatural power. Strabo mentions a queen in this very district named Candace: his words are remarkable. Rather than praying on his own behalf, he asked the apostles to pray for him. What circumstances favored continuing suppression of verse 37? The people with one accord gave heed - He had fixed their attention, not only with the gravity and importance of the matter of his preaching, but also by the miracles which he did. Whatever powers Simon had, they paled next to Philip's. Like the Peter we see in the four Gospels, he was still quick and blunt in speaking his mind. A likelier candidate for site of the baptism is Nahal Besor (called "the brook Besor" in 1 Samuel 30:10), a small river that arises at Mount Boker (Boqér) in the Negev Desert to the south-southeast and runs about five miles south of Gaza before emptying into the Mediterranean.49 It is a substantial enough watercourse to permit immersion, and if in fact Philip waited for the eunuch at the intersection of the coastal road and the road from the desert, Besor’s more southerly location better fits the story. In the Great Commission, Jesus instructed His disciples, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 10:13). 4:1–9). Did the eunuch have a retinue with him? Truly, he was still a lost man. He must have wanted this man to share with his countrymen the good news of salvation. But God immediately raised up a successor. It was the miraculous gifts of the Spirit which were thus communicated: the speaking with different tongues, and those extraordinary qualifications which were necessary for the successful preaching of the Gospel; and doubtless many, if not all, of those on whom the apostles laid their hands, were employed more or less in the public work of the Church. Philip asked the eunuch whether he understood it. Therefore, in a story of victory after victory, Luke says nothing about them. Does not every sorcerer want money? It is necessary to make this remark, lest any person should be led away with the notion that Jerusalem was situated on the highest ground in Palestine. Perhaps churches wanted to discourage curiosity-seekers from attending. "And here and there above the waves are seen, Arms, pictures, precious goods, and floating men.". In fact, nothing hindered the eunuch from being baptized if he simply believed in Christ with his whole heart. As Sychem was the very heart and seat of the Samaritan religion, and Mount Gerizim the cathedral church of that sect, it is more likely that it should be intended than any other. A man of Ethiopia - Ανηρ Αιθιοψ should be translated an Ethiopian, for the reasons given on Acts 7:2. The answer is so important that the Holy Spirit who inspired Luke surely wanted us to have it. Among the Jews, and indeed among most nations of the earth, it was esteemed a work of piety, charity, and mercy, to bury the dead. It has already been remarked that this clause belongs to the conclusion of the preceding chapter; so it stands in the Vulgate, and so it should stand in every version. The position favored by many modern Jewish scholars is that eunuchs were merely prohibited from marrying a daughter of Israel.29 Yet a text preserved in the Dead Sea Scrolls shows that the Essenes in Qumran and probably many other religious Jews believed that all men seriously maimed or disabled should be barred from entering "the assembly of God," in context a term clearly referring not to marriage, but to solemn gatherings of adult men.30 It is possible, though, that the author is describing an unrealized ideal rather than a current practice. That dispensation had not yet been proclaimed to him; he knew nothing about Jesus. For example, when Peter went to the household of Cornelius the centurion and the first gentiles believed in Christ, they received the Holy Spirit immediately. We may suppose that after his triumphant soul-winning campaign in Samaria, Philip sought God’s direction as to where he should go next. Upon completion of their ministry to new converts in Samaria, Peter and John did not rush back to Jerusalem, but made a tour of many Samaritan villages still unreached by the gospel. To me, it and the rest of the things spoken of Simon the sorcerer appear utterly unworthy of credit. This circumstance I have noticed before, and it has been particularly remarked in the case of Stephen: see at Acts 7:60. If he had merely walked north along the coast, he would have been visible to a multitude of fellow travelers. That the word κληρος, which we translate lot, is to be understood as implying a spiritual portion, office, etc., see proved in the note on Numbers 26:55; (note). The Greek word, μαγευων, signifies practising the rites or science of the Magi, or Mughan, the worshippers of fire among the Persians; the same as Majoos, and Majooseean, from which we have our word magician. Nat. Despite living so far from Judea, he had somehow become a follower of the Jewish religion. "12 The story may be apocryphal, but if true, it shows that a demonically controlled man who starts out as a plausible deceiver may end up as a raving lunatic. He was the first to preach to the Samaritans. Within a short time, Philip brought the light of the gospel to three new regions.

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