8
1 As for Saul, he was in full agreement with Stephen’s murder.
“There Broke Out That Day a Wave of Severe Persecution”
There broke out that day a wave of severe persecution against the assembly in Jerusalem, and all the believers were forced to scatter throughout the provinces of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.2 (It was some devout men who recovered Stephen’s body and entombed it, wailing loudly and beating their chests in mourning for him.)
3 As for Saul, he kept trying to destroy the assembly. Going into house after house after house, dragging off both men and women, he would hand them over to be put in prison.
“There Was Great Joy in That City”
4 While those who had been forced to scatter, therefore, went from place to place proclaiming the message,
5 Philip, for his part, having gone down to the main city in Samaria, told the people there about the Messiah.
6 It was as with one ear that the crowds were carefully following the things being said by Philip, as they listened to him and saw the miraculous signs he was performing.
7 In the case of many of those who had unclean spirits, you see, it was with loud shrieks that the spirits were coming out. Many who were paralyzed and lame, moreover, were healed.
8 So there was great joy in that city.
“Repent of This Wickedness of Yours”
9 Now there had lived in that city for some time a certain man named Simon, who had been practicing sorcery and astounding the people of Samaria, claiming himself to be someone of great power and importance,
10 who had the eyes and ears of everyone, from the lowest to the highest. “This man is the divine power known as ‘The Great Power,’ ” people would say.
11 They paid careful attention to him because for a long time he had astounded them with acts of sorcery.
12 When they believed Philip as he proclaimed the gospel about the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus the Messiah, however, both men and women began to be baptized.
13 And as for Simon, even he himself believed, and after being baptized, stuck close to Philip. When he saw the signs and great miracles that were taking place, he was in awe.
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that the people of Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,
15 who, upon arrival, prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit.
16 (The Spirit had not fallen up to this time, you see, on any of them; they had with respect to the name of Jesus only been baptized.)
17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on the Samaritans, and they received the Holy Spirit.
18 Now when Simon saw how it was through the apostles laying their hands on people that the Spirit had been given, he offered them some money.
19 “Give this power to me, too,” he said, “so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
20 Peter, however, said to him, “May ˢyour silver go into utter ruin and disaster right along with ˢyou, because the gift of God ˢyou thought you could acquire with money!
21 ˢYou have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right in the eyes of God.
22 Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for such motives and intentions.
23 For I see that you are consumed with bitter envy and held captive by unrighteousness.”
24 “Please pray to the Lord for me yourselves,” replied Simon, “so that nothing at all may happen to me of what ᵖyou have said.”
“Who Is the Prophet Saying This About?”
25 Therefore, while Peter and John, on the one hand, after they had borne witness and proclaimed the message about the Lord, started back to Jerusalem and proclaimed the gospel in indeed many Samaritan villages,
26 there came with a message to Philip, on the other, an angel of the Lord. “Get ready and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza,” the angel said. (This is a wilderness road.)
27 So Philip got ready and went. Then something very significant happened: There traveling down the road was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man was in charge of all the wealth of Candace’s kingdom, and he had come in order to worship in Jerusalem.
28 He was now on his way back home, sitting in his carriage and reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
29 “Go up to that carriage and walk along beside it,” the Spirit said to Philip.
30 When Philip ran over to it, he heard the man reading from Isaiah the prophet. “So then,” Philip said, “do ˢyou understand the things you are reading?”
31 “How in the world can I,” the man replied, “unless someone guides me?” Then he urged Philip to come up and ride along with him.
32 Now the passage of Scripture he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep it was to the slaughter that he was led away;
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not say a word.
33 In the course of suffering humiliation,
just judgment was to him denied.
The evils of his generation who can put into words?
For it is his very life that will be taken from the earth.”+
34 In response the eunuch said to Philip, “Please tell me: Who is the prophet saying this about—himself or someone else?”
35 Philip, then, beginning with this passage of Scripture, solemnly proclaimed the gospel about Jesus to him.
36 As they continued down the road, they came to some water. “Look! There’s some water!” the eunuch said. “What is there to keep me from being baptized?”+
38 And so he gave orders for the carriage to be stopped, and the two of them went down into the water—both Philip and the eunuch—and Philip baptized him.
39 Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch did not see Philip again, continuing as he did on his journey, rejoicing.
40 Philip, meanwhile, found himself in a town farther to the north called Azotus. As he passed through the region, he proclaimed the gospel in each and every one of the towns on the way from Azotus to the city of Caesarea.