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Ac 8:1-4.

PERSECUTION CONTINUED, IN WHICH SAUL TAKES A PROMINENT PART--HOW OVERRULED FOR GOOD.

1. Saul was consenting unto his death--The word expresses hearty approval.

they were all scattered abroad--all the leading Christians, particularly the preachers, agreeably to their Lord's injunctions

(Mt 10:23),

though many doubtless remained, and others (as appears by

Ac 9:26-30)

soon returned.

except the apostles--who remained, not certainly as being less exposed to danger, but, at whatever risk, to watch over the infant cause where it was most needful to cherish it.

2. and devout men--pious Jews, probably, impressed with admiration for Stephen and secretly inclined to Christianity, but not yet openly declared.

3. Saul . . . entering into every house--like as inquisitor [BENGEL].

haling men and women, &c.--See his own affecting confessions afterwards

(Ac 22:4; 26:9, 10; 1Co 15:9; Ga 1:13; Php 3:6; 1Ti 1:13).

4. they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching--Though solemnly enjoined to do this

(Lu 24:47; Ac 1:8),

they would probably have lingered at Jerusalem, but for this besom of persecution which swept them out. How often has the rage of Christ's enemies thus "turned out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospel" (see

Php 1:12, 13).

Ac 8:5-25.

SUCCESS OF PHILIP'S PREACHING IN SAMARIA--CASE OF SIMON MAGUS.

5. Then Philip--not the apostle of that name, as was by some of the Fathers supposed; for besides that the apostles remained at Jerusalem, they would in that case have had no occasion to send a deputation of their own number to lay their hands on the baptized disciples [GROTIUS]. It was the deacon of that name, who comes next after Stephen in the catalogue of the seven, probably as being the next most prominent. The persecution may have been directed especially against Stephen's colleagues [MEYER].

the city of Samaria--or "a city of Samaria"; but the former seems more likely. "It furnished the bridge between Jerusalem and the world" [BAUMGARTEN].

6-8. the people with one accord gave heed to . . . Philip--the way being prepared perhaps by the fruits of our Lord's sojourn, as He Himself seems to intimate (see on

Joh 4:31-38).

But "we may mark the providence of God in sending a Grecian, or a Hellenistic Jew, to a people who from national antipathy would have been unlikely to attend to a native of Judea" [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].

8. great joy in that city--over the change wrought on it by the Gospel, as well as the cures which attested its divine character.

9-13. used sorcery--magical arts.

some great one . . . the great power of God--a sort of incarnation of divinity.