Acts 8

8And Saul^m approved of their killing him.

The Church Persecuted and Scattered

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scatteredⁿ throughout Judea and Samaria.^{o 2}Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. ³But Saul^p began to destroy the church.^q Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

Philip in Samaria

⁴Those who had been scattered^r preached the word wherever they went.^{s 5}Philip^t went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. ⁶When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. ⁷For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many,^u and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.^{v 8}So there was great joy in that city.

Simon the Sorcerer

⁹Now for some time a man named Simon had practiced sorcery^w in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great,^{x 10}and all the people, both high and low, gave him their attention and exclaimed, “This man is rightly called the Great Power of God.”^{y 11}They followed him because he had amazed them for a long time with his sorcery. ¹²But when they believed Philip as he proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of God^z and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized,^a both men and women. ¹³Simon himself believed and was baptized. And he followed Philip everywhere, astonished by the great signs and miracles^b he saw.

¹⁴When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria^c had accepted the word of God,^d they sent Peter and John^e to Samaria. ¹⁵When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit,^{f 16}because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them;^g they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.^{h 17}Then Peter and John placed their hands on them,ⁱ and they received the Holy Spirit.^j

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money ¹⁹and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

²⁰Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!^{k 21}You have no part or share^l in this ministry, because your heart is not right^m before God. ²²Repentⁿ of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ²³For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.”

²⁴Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me^o so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

²⁵After they had further proclaimed the word of the Lord^p and testified about Jesus, Peter and John returned to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel in many Samaritan villages.^q

Philip and the Ethiopian

²⁶Now an angel^r of the Lord said to Philip,^s “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” ²⁷So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian^at eunuch,^u an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship,^{v 28}and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. ²⁹The Spirit told^w Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”

³⁰Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.

³¹“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

³²This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:

“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,

and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

³³In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.

Who can speak of his descendants?

For his life was taken from the earth.”^bx

³⁴The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” ³⁵Then Philip began^y with that very passage of Scripture^z and told him the good news^a about Jesus.

³⁶As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way of my being baptized?”^{b [37]c 38}And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him. ³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away,^c and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰Philip, however, appeared at Azotus and traveled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns^d until he reached Caesarea.^e