Acts 8 - Acts 8

Acts 8 is the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the burial of Stephen, the beginnings of Christian persecution, and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Samaria and Ethiopia. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.

Text

• The original text is written in Koine Greek.
• Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter are:
  • Papyrus 50 (3rd century; extant: verses 26-32)
  • Codex Vaticanus (AD 325-350)
  • Codex Sinaiticus (AD 330-360)
  • Codex Bezae (c. AD 400)
  • Codex Alexandrinus (c. AD 400-440)
  • Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (c. AD 450)
  • Codex Laudianus (c. AD 550)
• This chapter is divided into 40 verses.

Structure

The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:

• Acts 8:1-3 = Saul Persecutes the Church in Jerusalem
• Acts 8:4-8 = Christ Is Preached in Samaria, Philip the Evangelist
• Acts 8:9-13 = The Sorcerer’s (Simon Magus) Profession of Faith
• Acts 8:14-25 = The Sorcerer’s Sin
• Acts 8:26-40 = Christ Is Preached to an Ethiopian eunuch

Cross references

• Acts 8:1-2: Acts 7:60 (Stephen's Death)
• Acts 8:33: Isaiah 53:7,8

Saul's Approval of Stephen's Death

The writer of Acts introduced Saul, later the Apostle Paul, as an active witness of Stephen's death in Acts 7:58, and confirmed his approval in Acts 8:1. Reuben Torrey, in his Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, wrote "This clause [i.e. verse 8:1] evidently belongs to the conclusion of the previous chapter; there is scarcely a worse division of chapters than this".

Verse 16

For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Verse 37

Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”

And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

This verse is absent from the majority of the Greek manuscripts, but it is present in some, including E (6th or 7th century). It is cited by Irenaeus (c. 180) and by Cyprian (c. 250), and is found in the Old Latin (2nd/3rd century) and the Vulgate (380â€"400) translations. In his notes Erasmus says that he took this reading from the margin of 4ap and incorporated it into the Textus Receptus. J. A. Alexander (1857) suggested that this verse, though genuine, was omitted by many scribes, "as unfriendly to the practice of delaying baptism, which had become common, if not prevalent, before the end of the 3rd century."

Verse 40

But Philip was found at Azotus.

And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

• "Philip was found" â€" that is, "found himself," "made his appearance": an expression confirming the miraculous manner of his transportation.
• "Azotus": the ancient Ashdod.
• "till he came to Cæsarea" â€" fifty-five miles northwest of Jerusalem, on the Mediterranean, just south of Mount Carmel; and so named by Herod, who rebuilt it, in honor of Cæsar Augustus.