{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"ACT","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Acts","commonName":"Acts","introduction":"THIS book is to the Gospels what the fruit is to the tree that bears it. In the Gospels we see the corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying: in the Acts we see it bringing forth much fruit (Joh 12:24). There we see Christ purchasing the Church with His own blood: here we see the Church, so purchased, rising into actual existence; first among the Jews of Palestine, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, until it gains a footing in the great capital of the ancient world--sweeping majestically from Jerusalem to Rome. Nor is this book of less value as an Introduction to the Epistles which follow it, than as a Sequel to the Gospels which precede it. For without this history the Epistles of the New Testament--presupposing, as they do, the historical circumstances of the parties addressed, and deriving from these so much of their freshness, point, and force--would in no respect be what they now are, and would in a number of places be scarcely intelligible.\n\nThe genuineness, authenticity, and canonical authority of this book were never called in question within the ancient Church. It stands immediately after the Gospels, in the catalogues of the Homologoumena, or universally acknowledged books of the New Testament (see Introduction to our larger Commentary, Vol. V, pp. iv, v). It was rejected, indeed, by certain heretical sects in the second and third centuries--by the Ebionites, the Severians (see EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 4.29), the Marcionites, and the Manicheans: but the totally uncritical character of their objections (see Introduction above referred to, pp. xiii, xiv) not only deprives them of all weight, but indirectly shows on what solid grounds the Christian Church had all along proceeded in recognizing this book.\n\nIn our day, however, its authenticity has, like that of all the leading books of the New Testament, been made the subject of keen and protracted controversy. DE WETTE, while admitting Luke to be the author of the entire work, pronounces the earlier portion of it to have been drawn up from unreliable sources (New-Testament Introduction, 2a, 2C). But the Tubingen school, with BAUR at their head, have gone much farther. As their fantastic theory of the post-Joannean date of the Gospels could not pretend even to a hearing so long as the authenticity of the Acts of the Apostles remained unshaken, they contend that the earlier portion of this work can be shown to be unworthy of credit, while the latter portion is in flat contradiction to the Epistle to the Galatians--which this school regard as unassailable--and bears internal evidence of being a designed distortion of facts for the purpose of setting up the catholic form which Paul gave to Christianity in opposition to the narrow Judaic but original form of it which Peter preached, and which after the death of the apostles was held exclusively by the sect of the Ebionites. It is painful to think that anyone should have spent so many years, and, aided by learned and acute disciples in different parts of the argument, should have expended so much learning, research, and ingenuity in attempting to build up a hypothesis regarding the origination of the leading books of the New Testament which outrages all the principles of sober criticism and legitimate evidence. As a school, this party at length broke up: its head, after living to find himself the sole defender of the theory as a whole, left this earthly scene complaining of desertion. While some of his associates have abandoned such heartless studies altogether for the more congenial pursuits of philosophy, others have modified their attacks on the historical truth of the New Testament records, retreating into positions into which it is not worth while to follow them, while others still have been gradually approximating to sound principles. The one compensation for all this mischief is the rich additions to the apologetical and critical literature of the books of the New Testament, and the earliest history of the Christian Church, which it has drawn from the pens of THIERSCH, EBRARD, and many others. Any allusions which it may be necessary for us to make to the assertions of this school will be made in connection with the passages to which they relate--in Acts, First Corinthians, and Galatians.\n\nThe manifest connection between this book and the third Gospel--of which it professes to be simply the continuation by the same author--and the striking similarity which marks the style of both productions, leave no room to doubt that the early Church was right in ascribing it with one consent to Luke. The difficulty which some fastidious critics have made about the sources of the earlier portion of the history has no solid ground. That the historian himself was an eye-witness of the earliest scenes--as HUG concludes from the circumstantiality of the narrative--is altogether improbable: but there were hundreds of eye-witnesses of some of the scenes, and enough of all the rest, to give to the historian, partly by oral, partly by written testimony, all the details which he has embodied so graphically in his history; and it will appear, we trust, from the commentary, that De Wette's complaints of confusion, contradiction, and error in this portion are without foundation. The same critic, and one or two others, would ascribe to Timothy those later portions of the book in which the historian speaks in the first person plural--\"we\"; supposing him to have taken notes of all that passed under his own eye, which Luke embodied in his history just as they stood. It is impossible here to refute this gratuitous hypothesis in detail; but the reader will find it done by EBRARD (The Gospel History, sect. 110, Clark's translation; sect. 127 of the original work, Wissenschaftliche Kritik der Evangelische Geschichte, 1850), and by DAVIDSON (Introduction to New Testament, Vol. II, pp. 9-21).\n\nThe undesigned coincidences between this History and the Apostolic Epistles have been brought out and handled, as an argument for the truth of the facts thus attested, with unrivalled felicity by PALEY in his HorÃ&brvbr PaulinÃ&brvbr, to which Mr. BIRKS has made a number of ingenious additions in his HorÃ&brvbr ApostolicÃ&brvbr. Exception has been taken to some of these by JOWETT (St. Paul's Epistles, Vol. I, pp. 108 ff.), not without a measure of reason in certain cases--for our day, at least--though even he admits that in this line of evidence the work of PALEY, taken as a whole, is unassailable.\n\nMuch has been written about the object of this history. Certainly \"the Acts of the Apostles\" are but very partially recorded. But for this title the historian is not responsible. Between the two extremes--of supposing that the work has no plan at all, and that it is constructed on an elaborate and complex plan, we shall probably be as near the truth as is necessary if we take the design to be to record the diffusion of Christianity and the rise of the Christian Church, first among the Jews of Palestine, the seat of the ancient Faith, and next among the surrounding Gentiles, with Antioch for its headquarters, until, finally, it is seen waving over imperial Rome, foretokening its universal triumph. In this view of it, there is no difficulty in accounting for the almost exclusive place which it gives to the labors of Peter in the first instance, and the all but entire disappearance from the history both of him and of the rest of the Twelve after the great apostle of the Gentiles came upon the stage--like the lesser lights on the rise of the great luminary. \n\n\n\nNext: Acts Chapter 1\n\n","order":44,"numberOfChapters":28,"sha256":"c94aad3dd7e20061c0935f668f020beecd42d660333a1ba60e42c592e5a6a94e","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":28,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/28.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":28},"totalNumberOfVerses":775},"chapter":{"number":8,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["and devout men--pious Jews, probably, impressed with admiration for Stephen and secretly inclined to Christianity, but not yet openly declared.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Saul . . . entering into every house--like as inquisitor [BENGEL]. \n\nhaling men and women, &c.--See his own affecting confessions afterwards (Act 22:4; Act 26:9-10; Co1 15:9; Gal 1:13; Phi 3:6; Ti1 1:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching--Though solemnly enjoined to do this (Luk 24:47; Act 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 Phi 1:12-13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["SUCCESS OF PHILIP'S PREACHING IN SAMARIA--CASE OF SIMON MAGUS. (Acts 8:5-25)\n\nThen 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]. \n\nthe city of Samaria--or \"a city of Samaria\"; but the former seems more likely. \"It furnished the bridge between Jerusalem and the world\" [BAUMGARTEN].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["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].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["great joy in that city--over the change wrought on it by the Gospel, as well as the cures which attested its divine character.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["used sorcery--magical arts. \n\nsome great one . . . the great power of God--a sort of incarnation of divinity.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["To whom all gave heed . . . because of long time he had bewitched them--This, coupled with the rapidity with which they deserted him and attached themselves to Philip, shows the ripeness of Samaria for some religious change.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["were baptized, both men and women--the detection of Simon's frauds helping to extend and deepen the effects of Philip's preaching.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Then Simon himself believed also--Left without followers, he thinks it best to join the man who had fairly outstripped him, not without a touch of real conviction. \n\nand . . . was baptized--What a light does this throw on what is called Baptismal Regeneration! \n\nhe continued with Philip--\"was in constant attendance upon\" him.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["the apostles . . . sent Peter and John--showing that they regarded Peter as no more than their own equal.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["prayed . . . they might receive the Holy Ghost. (For only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus)--As the baptism of adults presupposed \"the renewing of the Holy Ghost\" (Tit 3:5-7; Co1 12:13), of which the profession of faith had to be taken for evidence, this communication of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the apostles' hands was clearly a superadded thing; and as it was only occasional, so it was invariably attended with miraculous manifestations (see Act 10:44, where it followed Peter's preaching; and Act 19:1-7, where, as here, it followed the laying on of hands). In the present case an important object was served by it--\"the sudden appearance of a body of baptized disciples in Samaria, by the agency of one who was not an apostle, requiring the presence and power of apostles to perform their special part as the divinely appointed founders of the Church\" [ALFORD]. Beautiful, too, was the spectacle exhibited of Jew and Samaritan, one in Christ.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["offered them money--Hence the term simony, to denote trafficking in sacred things, but chiefly the purchase of ecclesiastical offices.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost--Spiritual ambition here shows itself the key to this wretched man's character.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Thy money perish with thee--that is, \"Accursed be thou and thy money with thee.\" It is the language of mingled horror and indignation, not unlike our Lord's rebuke of Peter himself (Mat 16:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["Thou hast neither part nor lot . . . thy heart is not fight, &c.--This is the fidelity of a minister of Christ to one deceiving himself in a very awful manner.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["Repent . . . pray . . . if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven--this expression of doubt being designed to impress upon him the greatness of his sin, and the need of alarm on his part.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["in the gall of bitterness and . . . bond of iniquity--expressing both the awfulness of his condition and the captivity to it in which he was held.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Pray ye to the Lord for me--Peter had urged him to pray for himself: he asks those wonder-working men to do it for him; having no confidence in the prayer of faith, but thinking that those men possessed some peculiar interest with heaven. \n\nthat none of these things dome upon me--not that the thought of his wicked heart might be forgiven him, but only that the evils threatened might be averted from him. While this throws great light on Peter's view of his melancholy case, it shows that Christianity, as something divine, still retained its hold of him. (Tradition represents him as turning out a great heresiarch, mingling Oriental or Grecian philosophy with some elements of Christianity.)\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["and they--Peter and John. \n\nwhen they had . . . preached--in the city where Philip's labors had been so richly blessed. \n\nreturned . . . and preached . . . in many villages of the Samaritans--embracing the opportunity of their journey back to Jerusalem to fulfil their Lord's commission to the whole region of Samaria (Act 1:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH. (Act 8:26-40)\n\nthe angel of the Lord--rather, \"an angel.\" \n\ngo . . . south, the way that goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza--There was such a road, across Mount Hebron, which Philip might take without going to Jerusalem (as VON RAUMER'S'S PalÃ&brvbrstina shows). \n\nwhich is desert--that is, the way; not Gaza itself, which was the southernmost city of Palestine, in the territory of the ancient Philistines. To go from a city, where his hands had been full of work, so far away on a desert road, could not but be staggering to the faith of Philip, especially as he was kept in ignorance of the object of the journey. But like Paul, he \"was not disobedient to the heavenly vision\"; and like Abram, \"he went out not knowing whither he went\" (Act 26:19; Heb 11:8).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["a man of Ethiopia--Upper Egypt, Meroe. \n\nan eunuch of great authority--Eunuchs were generally employed for confidential offices in the East, and to some extent are still. \n\nCandace--the family name of the queens of Upper Egypt, like Pharaoh, CÃ&brvbrsar, &c. (as appears from classic authors). \n\nhad come to Jerusalem to worship--that is, to keep the recent feast of Pentecost, as a Gentile proselyte to the Jewish faith. (See Isa 56:3-8, and Joh 12:20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["Was returning--Having come so far, he not only stayed out the days of the festival, but prolonged his stay till now. It says much for his fidelity and value to his royal mistress that he had such liberty. But the faith in Jehovah and love of His worship and word, with which he was imbued, sufficiently explain this. \n\nand sitting in his chariot, read Esaias--Not contented with the statutory services in which he had joined, he beguiles the tedium of the journey homeward by reading the Scriptures. But this is not all; for as Philip \"heard him read the prophet Esaias,\" he must have been reading aloud and not (as is customary still in the East) so as merely to be audible, but in a louder voice than he would naturally have used if intent on his own benefit only: evidently therefore he was reading to his charioteer.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["the Spirit said--by an unmistakable voice within, as in Act 10:19; Act 16:6-7. \n\ngo near and join this chariot--This would reveal to Philip the hitherto unknown object of his journey, and encourage him to expect something.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["Understandest thou what thou readest?--To one so engaged this would be deemed no rude question, while the eager appearance of the speaker, and the question itself, would indicate a readiness to supply any want of insight that might be felt.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["How can I, except some man guide me?--Beautiful expression at once of humility and docility; the invitation to Philip which immediately followed, to \"come up and sit with him,\" being but the natural expression of this.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["The place . . . was this, He was led as a sheep, &c.--One cannot but wonder that this, of all predictions of Messiah's sufferings in the Old Testament the most striking, should have been that which the eunuch was reading before Philip joined him. He could hardly miss to have heard at Jerusalem of the sufferings and death of Jesus, and of the existence of a continually increasing party who acknowledged Him to be the Messiah. But his question to Philip, whether the prophet in this passage meant himself or some other man, clearly shows that he had not the least idea of any connection between this prediction and those facts.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["And the eunuch answered, I pray thee, &c.--The respect with which he here addresses Philip was prompted by his reverence for one whom he perceived to be his superior in divine things; his own worldly position sinking before this.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["Then Philip opened his mouth--(See on Mat 5:2). \n\nbegan at the same scripture--founding on it as his text. \n\npreached unto him Jesus--showing Him to be the glorious Burden of this wonderful prediction, and interpreting it in the light of the facts of His history.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["See, here is water--more simply, \"Behold water!\" as if already his mind filled with light and his soul set free, he was eagerly looking out for the first water in which he might seal his reception of the truth and be enrolled among the visible disciples of the Lord Jesus. \n\nwhat doth hinder me to be baptized?--Philip had probably told him that this was the ordained sign and seal of discipleship, but the eunuch's question was likely the first proposal of its application in this case. (Act 8:37 is wanting in the principal manuscripts and most venerable versions of the New Testament. It seems to have been added from the formularies for baptism which came into current use).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["they went down both into the water, and he baptized him, &c.--probably laving the water upon him, though the precise mode is neither certain nor of any consequence.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip--To deny [as MEYER, OLSHAUSEN, BLOOMFIELD] the miraculous nature of Philip's disappearance, is vain. It stands out on the face of the words, as just a repetition of what we read of the ancient prophets, in Kg1 18:12; Kg2 2:16. And the same word (as BENGEL remarks) is employed to express a similar idea in Co2 12:2, Co2 12:4; Th1 4:17. \n\nthe eunuch saw him no more--nor, perhaps, for very joy, cared to see him [BENGEL]. \n\nand he went on his way rejoicing--He had found Christ, and the key to the Scriptures; his soul was set free, and his discipleship sealed; he had lost his teacher, but gained what was infinitely better: He felt himself a new man, and \"his joy was full.\" Tradition says he was the first preacher of the Gospel in Ethiopia; and how, indeed, could he choose but \"tell what the Lord had done for his soul?\" Yet there is no certainty as to any historical connection between his labors and the introduction of Christianity into that country.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":40,"content":["Philip was found--that is, \"found himself,\" \"made his appearance\": an expression confirming the miraculous manner of his transportation. \n\nat Azotus--the ancient Ashdod. \n\npreached in all the cities--along the coast, proceeding northward. \n\ntill he came to CÃ&brvbrsarea--fifty-five miles northwest of Jerusalem, on the Mediterranean, just south of Mount Carmel; and so named by Herod, who rebuilt it, in honor of CÃ&brvbrsar Augustus. Henceforth we lose sight of zealous and honored Philip, as by and by we shall lose sight even of Peter. As the chariot of the Gospel rolls on, other agents are raised up, each suited to his work. But \"he that soweth and he that reapeth shall rejoice together.\" (See on Joh 4:31-38).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Acts Chapter 9\n\n"]}],"introduction":"PERSECUTION CONTINUED, IN WHICH SAUL TAKES A PROMINENT PART--HOW OVERRULED FOR GOOD. (Act 8:1-4)\n\nSaul was consenting unto his death--The word expresses hearty approval. \n\nthey were all scattered abroad--all the leading Christians, particularly the preachers, agreeably to their Lord's injunctions (Mat 10:23), though many doubtless remained, and others (as appears by Act 9:26-30) soon returned. \n\nexcept 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.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/8.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":8},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/9.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":9},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/ACT/7.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"ACT","chapter":7},"numberOfVerses":33}