Acts 8:17–40

¹⁷Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Holy ^eSpirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹saying, “Give me this power too, so that anyone I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰But Peter told him, “May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought the gift of God could be obtained with money! ^f21You have no part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God. ^g22Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³For I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity.” ^h

²⁴“Please pray ⁱto the Lord for me,” Simon replied, “so that nothing you have said may happen to me.” ^j

²⁵Then, after they had testified and spoken the message of the Lord, they traveled back to Jerusalem, evangelizing many villages of the Samaritans.

The Conversion of the Ethiopian Official

²⁶An angel of the Lord spoke to Philip: “Get up and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the desert road.) ^kl27So he got up and went. There was an Ethiopian man, a eunuch ^mand high official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, ⁿwho was in charge of her entire treasury. He had come to worship in Jerusalem ^o28and was sitting in his chariot on his way home, reading the prophet Isaiah aloud.

²⁹The Spirit told Philip, “Go and join that chariot.” ^p

³⁰When Philip ran up to it, he heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, “Do you understand what you’re reading?”

³¹“How can I,” he said, “unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³²Now the Scripture passage he was reading was this:

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

and as a lamb is silent before its shearer,

so He does not open His mouth.

³³In His humiliation justice was denied Him.

Who will describe His generation?

For His life is taken from the earth. ^qr

³⁴The eunuch replied to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet saying this about—himself or another person?” ³⁵So Philip proceeded ^sto tell him the good news about Jesus, beginning from that Scripture. ^t

³⁶As they were traveling down the road, they came to some water. The eunuch said, “Look, there’s water! What would keep me from being baptized?” [³⁷And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.” And he replied, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] ^u38Then he ordered the chariot to stop, and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. ³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord ^vcarried Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him any longer. But he went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰Philip appeared in ^wAzotus, ^xand he was traveling and evangelizing all the towns until he came to Caesarea. ^y