Acts 8:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

How, someone will say, did they not receive the Spirit? They received the Spirit of forgiveness of sins, but had not yet received the Spirit of signs. That this is so, and that they had not received the Spirit of signs, is clear from the fact that Simon, when he saw this, came to ask for Him.

And why did they not receive the Holy Spirit after baptism? Either because Philip did not impart Him, perhaps giving this honor to the apostles, or because he himself did not possess this gift, since he was one of the seven deacons. The latter may be said with greater probability.

For then the Holy Spirit was given in such a way that, once given, He was even visibly manifested. Those who received Him began to speak in the languages of different nations, signifying that the Church would speak among the generations in all tongues. Thus they received the Holy Spirit, and He was visibly manifested in them.

Philip baptized those whom he had taught in Samaria. The Apostles Peter and John came to them from Jerusalem and imparted to them the grace of the Holy Spirit. If the one who baptized had been one of the Apostles, he would himself have had the authority to impart the Spirit to them. But Philip only baptized, as a disciple. The grace is communicated by the Apostles, to whom the authority for such giving had been granted.

How great the event of the Samaritans' conversion to Christ was is shown by the fact that it immediately became the subject of a special report to the apostles. As the writer of Acts noted earlier (v. 1), they had remained in Jerusalem even after persecution began in that city.

At the same time the apostles were informed that the Samaritans who had believed in Christ had only been baptized by Philip in the name of the Lord Jesus. They had not yet received the Holy Spirit. Therefore they arranged for the chief apostles, Peter and John, to go to the believing Samaritans. By their apostolic authority and power they completed in Samaria the work of Saint Philip.

Here the baptism of the Samaritans by the deacon Philip is narrated (6:5). Yet he did not impart the Holy Spirit to them. Therefore the apostles Peter and John were sent to Samaria to impart the Spirit to them. And when they had come, they prayed for them, that is, for the Samaritans, laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

In the same chapter, verses 36-39 tell of the baptism of the Ethiopian man. The baptism was performed by the same Philip. It followed the preaching of Christ (v. 35), which produced in the hearer a sincere faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God (v. 37). After this Philip and the Ethiopian both went down into the water, and Philip baptized the Ethiopian.

The purpose of these apostles' mission to Samaria was prayer for the sending down of the Holy Spirit upon the baptized Samaritans (v. 15), and the bringing down of the Spirit upon them (v. 17). It was not further catechesis or confirmation in faith of those baptized. There is no hint of this in the narrative.

"For He," the Holy Spirit, "had not yet fallen upon any of them," and so forth. What does this event mean? Philip himself had the Holy Spirit, Who worked in him with great powers and miracles (vv. 6 and 7). Yet it was as though he could not, through the laying on of hands, bring down the Holy Spirit upon those baptized, and the apostles had to be sent for this.

The visit of the apostles Peter and John to the Samaritans shows that Philip could not accomplish the full spiritual action that the other apostles, who were among the Twelve, could perform. At the same time it is clearly shown here that from the very beginning deacons were granted the right to baptize, but not to perform the other mysteries. This began with the imparting of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which strengthen one in the Christian life. At that time this was expressed in signs, which visibly showed the descent of the Holy Spirit.