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The Acts of the Apostles 8

82 1-2Then some men who honored God buried Stephen’s body in a tomb, and they mourned loudly for him.

But Saul thought the Sanhedrin had done the right thing by stoning Stephen. On that same day, people Saul was leading started severely persecuting the believers who were living in Jerusalem. So most of the believers fled to other places throughout the provinces of Judea and Samaria. But the apostles remained in Jerusalem. 3 Saul began trying to destroy the group of believers. He entered their houses one by one. He dragged away men and women who believed in Jesus, and he put them in prison.

4 The believers who had left Jerusalem went to different places, where they continued preaching the message about Jesus. 5 One of those believers, whose name was Philip, went from Jerusalem to a city in the district of Samaria. There he was telling the people that Jesus is the Messiah. 6 Many people there heard Philip speak and saw the miraculous things that he was doing. So they all paid close attention to what he was saying. 7 For example, Philip commanded evil spirits to come out of many people, and they came out screaming. Also, many people who could not move their muscles and many others who were lame were healed. 8 So many people in that city were very happy.

9 There was a man in that city whose name was Simon. He had been practicing sorcery for a long time, and he amazed the people in the district of Samaria with his magic. He claimed he was “Simon the Great One!” 10 The people there, both ordinary and important people, listened to him. They were saying, “Simon is the Great Power of God.” 11 They continued to listen to him carefully because for a long time he had astonished them by practicing sorcery. 12 But then they believed Philip’s message of the good news about how God would rule the lives of people everywhere and about Jesus the Messiah. Philip baptized the men and the women who believed in Jesus. 13 Though the people had been worshiping him, Simon too believed Philip’s message and received baptism. He began to accompany Philip constantly. He was continually amazed by the great miracles he saw Philip doing. These things showed that Philip was speaking the truth.

14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that many people throughout Samaria district had believed God’s message, they sent Peter and John there. 15 When Peter and John arrived in Samaria, they prayed for those new believers to receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For the Holy Spirit had not yet openly empowered any of them. They had only received baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

18 Simon saw that people received the Holy Spirit as a result of the apostles placing their hands on them. So he offered to give money to the apostles. 19 He said, “Enable me also to do what you are doing, so that if I place my hands on someone, he will receive the Holy Spirit.” 20 But Peter said to him, “May you and your money be destroyed, because you tried to get God’s gift with money! 21 You cannot work with us in what we are doing, because you do not have the right attitude toward God! 22 So stop thinking wickedly like that! Plead with the Lord to forgive you for what you wanted to do, since he will forgive you if you ask sincerely. 23 You are in spiritual danger! I perceive that you are extremely jealous of us and that a continual desire to do evil is controlling you.” 24 Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord that he will not do to me what you just said!”

25 Peter and John then told the people there what they knew personally about the Lord Jesus. They shared the message of the Lord with them. Then they both returned to Jerusalem. Along the way, they declared the good news about Jesus to people living in many towns in the district of Samaria.

26 While Peter and John were returning to Jerusalem, the Lord sent an angel to Philip. Even though so many Samaritans were becoming believers in Jesus, that angel told him, “Get ready and go south along the road that goes from Jerusalem to the city of Gaza.” That road is in a desert area. 27 So Philip got ready and went along that road. On the road he met a man from the land of Ethiopia. The man was an important official of the queen of Ethiopia. In his language people called their queen the Kandake. He took care of all of her funds. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship God, 28 and he was returning home and was seated, riding in his carriage. As he was riding, he was reading aloud from what the prophet Isaiah had written.

29 God’s Spirit told Philip, “Go near to that carriage and keep walking close to it!” 30 So Philip ran over to the carriage. He heard the official reading what the prophet Isaiah had written. He asked the man, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 He answered Philip, “No, I cannot possibly understand it if there is no one to explain it to me.” Then the man said to Philip, “Please come up and sit beside me.” So Philip got into the carriage. 32 The part of the Scriptures that the official was reading was this: “People will lead him away to kill him as they lead a sheep to the place where they are going to kill it. He will be silent, as a lamb stands silently while someone cuts off its wool.

33 People will humiliate him and condemn him unjustly. He will have no descendants because people will kill him before he can have children.”

34 The official asked Philip about what he was reading, “Tell me, who was the prophet writing about? Was he writing about himself, or about someone else?” 35 So Philip replied to him. He began with that Scripture passage, and he told him the good news about Jesus.

36 While they were traveling along the road, they came to a place where there was some water. Then the official said to Philip, “Look, there is some water! I would like you to baptize me.” 37 [fn] [Philip said, “If you believe in Jesus with complete sincerity, God will save you, and you may be baptized.” The Ethiopian answered, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] 38 So the official told the driver to stop the carriage. Then both Philip and the official went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. 39 When they came up out of the water, suddenly the Spirit of the Lord took Philip away. The official never saw Philip again. Even so, the official continued going very happily along the road.

40 Philip then realized that the Spirit had miraculously taken him to the town of Azotus. While he traveled around in that region, he continued proclaiming the good news about Jesus in all the towns between the cities of Azotus and Caesarea. He was still proclaiming it when he finally arrived in Caesarea.

Some ancient manuscripts include verse 37.

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