First, there is the giving of the Holy Spirit to the Samaritan believers in the presence of the apostles, Peter and John. This is an indication that Simon knew his own signs were not authentic.Īcts 8:14–25 contains two important events. When Simon saw the authentic miraculous signs done by Philip, he “himself also believed” (Acts 8:13). Note that the sorcery Simon performed was likely a variety of magic, illusions, astrology, and the occult. The text reports that Simon had “practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, ‘This man is the great power of God.’ And they heeded him because he had astonished them with his sorceries for a long time” (Acts 8:9–11). In Acts 8:9–13 we are introduced to a sorcerer named Simon who was apparently a resident of Samaria. Acts 8:7–8 reports that Philip’s preaching of the gospel in Samaria resulted in: (1) the casting out of unclean spirits from the possessed, (2) the healing of the sick, and (3) the feeling of great joy in the city. Samaria was actually geographically north of Jerusalem, but topologically lower than Jerusalem, which sits on a ridge. Samaria was the region of Canaan where people with a mixed Jewish and Gentile heritage resided, which was the result of Assyrian reallocation of peoples. Because of the persecution in Jerusalem, we are told that Philip went “down to the city of Samaria” (Acts 8:5). Philip is the first missionary-in the modern sense of the term-mentioned in the book of Acts, and the first person to be given the title of “evangelist” (Acts 21:8) in the Bible. In Acts 8:4–8 we are reintroduced to Philip, one of the seven deacons from Acts 6:5.
#Bible commentary on simon the sorcerer trial#
Interestingly, while the suffering and dispersion of the early church was surely viewed as a trial by early Christians, in retrospect, it was clearly a blessing for the world, as the gospel was carried to the nations by these fleeing pilgrims. This persecution led to the scattering of the church from Jerusalem to the world. In Acts 8:1–3, Luke reports that Saul, possibly a member of the “Synagogue of the Freedmen” (Acts 6:9), was consenting to Stephen’s death and, furthermore, that he began to persecute the church. This is the first mentioning of Saul, who would become Paul, in the Bible yet, he dominates the remainder of the New Testament. At the end of the account of the death of Stephen in Acts 7 it was reported that “the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58).
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