Acts 8:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The persecution then especially intensified, but God again delivered them, protecting them with signs.

Since Stephen’s death did not tame the fury of the Jews, but strengthened it still more, the teachers were scattered, so that the teaching might spread more widely.

But marvel, I ask you, at how even in distress they do not abandon the preaching, but continue it.

Just as under Moses the true miracles were recognized by comparison with the false, so it was here also.

There was sorcery, but these signs were plainly different. Where Simon had been working sorceries among them for no short time, there should not have been a single demoniac.

Yet there were many demoniacs and many paralytics. Therefore his wonders were not true.

Both the present chapter and the account of the Samaritan woman (Jn 4:4-42) show that this people was made up of souls ready to believe.

Here the baptism of the Samaritans by the deacon Philip is narrated (Acts 6:5). He, however, did not impart the Holy Spirit to them.

Therefore the apostles Peter and John were sent to Samaria to impart the Spirit to them. They “came and prayed for them,” the Samaritans, “laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.”

In the same chapter, verses 36-39, the baptism of the Ethiopian man is recounted. The baptism was performed by the same Philip.

It followed the preaching of Christ (Acts 8:35), which produced in the hearer a sincere faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God (Acts 8:37).

After this, Philip and the Ethiopian both went down into the water, and Philip baptized the Ethiopian.

The writer of Acts describes the success of Philip’s preaching here by saying that the people heeded it with one accord. This shows the people’s faith in that preaching. He indicates the general moral disposition of the people with the phrase “great joy.” It was, as it were, a public feast, so warmly and sympathetically did the people receive this preaching, accompanied by miracles. “Unclean spirits,” and so forth: see the note on Mt 4:24 and Mk 9:26.

The preaching of the Apostle Philip in Samaria is mentioned first among the evangelizing of those scattered. This was probably because he was one of the seven deacons (cf. Acts 6:7).

For that reason, perhaps, the persecutors gave him special attention. It seems he had his own house and family in Caesarea (cf. Acts 21:8), where he went to escape persecution.

Passing through Samaria, he preached there in the chief city of Samaria, Sebaste. Since he accompanied his preaching with the working of miracles, he had many zealous hearers and not a few converts to Christ.

Thus, in Tertullian’s expression, “the martyr’s blood,” Stephen’s blood, “became the seed of new Christians.”

The Samaritans were descendants of Hebrews who had mixed with foreigners sent there from beyond the Euphrates.