Acts 8

¹Saul, for his part, was there heartedly endorsing the execution of Stephen. On that very day, a severe persecution broke out against the assembly in Jerusalem. Everyone was scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles. ²Devout men buried Stephen and made a passionate, loud mourning for him. ³Saul, however, began brutally ravaging the assembly; he would enter house after house, dragging off both men and women to hand them over to prison.

⁴Now those who had been scattered went from place to place announcing the good news of the Message. ⁵Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming the Messiah to them. ⁶The crowds, with one mind, paid close attention to what Philip was saying as they heard him and saw the signs he was performing. ⁷For many who had unclean spirits saw them come out, shrieking with a loud voice, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. ⁸So there was great joy in that city.

⁹Now a man named Simon had been in the city for some time practicing magic and astounding the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great. ¹⁰Everyone, from the least to the greatest, paid attention to him, saying, “This man is the Power of God that is called ‘Great.’” ¹¹They paid attention to him because he had astounded them with his magic for a long time. ¹²But when they believed Philip as he announced the good news about the Kingdom of God and the authority of the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. ¹³Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized, he stayed close to Philip. Watching the great signs and powers that were happening, he was astounded.

¹⁴When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the Message of God, they sent Peter and John to them. ¹⁵When they arrived, they prayed for them so that they might receive the Holy Pneuma, ¹⁶for it had not yet fallen on any of them; they had only been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. ¹⁷Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Pneuma.

¹⁸When Simon saw that the Pneuma was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, ¹⁹saying, “Give me this authority too, so that anyone I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Pneuma.”

²⁰But Peter said to him, “May your silver go to destruction along with you, because you thought you could acquire the gift of God with money! ²¹You have no part or share in this Message, for your heart is not straight before God. ²²Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and plead with the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. ²³For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and the bond of injustice.”

²⁴Simon answered and said, “You must plead with the Lord on my behalf, so that nothing you have said will happen to me.”

²⁵So, after they had fully testified and spoken the Message of the Lord, they started back toward Jerusalem, announcing the good news to many Samaritan villages along the way.

²⁶Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Get up and go toward the south, to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is a desert road.) ²⁷So he got up and went. And look! An Ethiopian man—a eunuch, a high official of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of her entire treasury—had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸and was now returning. Sitting in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹The Pneuma said to Philip, “Go over and stay close to that chariot.” ³⁰Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and said, “Do you actually understand what you are reading?”

³¹He said, “How could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³²Now the passage of Scripture he was reading was this: “As a sheep he was led to the slaughter; and as a lamb is silent before its shearer, so he does not open his mouth. ³³In his humiliation, his justice was taken away. Who will describe his generation? For his life is taken up from the earth.”

³⁴The eunuch said to Philip, “I ask you, who is the prophet talking about? Himself, or someone else?” ³⁵Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture, he announced the good news of Jesus to him.

³⁶As they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look, water! What prevents me from being baptized?” ³⁸He ordered the chariot to stop, and both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Pneuma of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him anymore, but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰Philip, however, found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through, he announced the good news to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.